The Hindu Business Line : Time to think smart

What is good for West Bengal may not necessarily be good for Kerala, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to examine. If West Bengal sees some merit in the Smart City promoters, surely pride should not be allowed to let potential investment skip Kerala.

Last week the State Finance Minister, Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac, in his first budget for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government, announced plans to give a fillip to the information technology (IT) sector through two moves, both centred around the State capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

First, he set aside Rs.20 crores to buy land and start preliminary work on a new `Techno City' project. Then he also announced that steps would be taken to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the city.

All this might be in keeping with the LDF Government's avowed intention of attracting investments to the IT sector. Or is it? For, almost in the same breath, the government is sending out contradictory signals on the Smart City project, proposed to be built off Kochi in collaboration with the Dubai Internet City (DIC) and the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone Authority (TECOM).

That project, which envisaged an investment of Rs 1,500 crore in the first phase, was supposed to generate 33,300 direct jobs over a period of 10 years, according to the promoters and the previous United Democratic Front Government. That was a claim the LDF contested, as was the wisdom of handing over the existing land and assets of the State-owned Infopark at Kakkanad in Kochi for a consideration regarded as a pittance.

Thus, recently, in response to a petition filed in the Kerala High Court by a Kochi-based group seeking to know the status of the Smart City project, the Attorney-General on behalf of the Government said categorically that it would not part with Infopark - in any circumstances.

Even as the Chief Minister himself has been repeating on several occasions while addressing IT-related meetings that the LDF Government would do all it could to encourage the IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) sector, the outright rejection of the Smart City project appears a mite biased. Rather than try and wrest the best possible deal for the State, the LDF Government appears to be bent on shelving the project.

While it is true that a rethink on the deal was a major plank of the LDF's election manifesto, the fact is that the new government and some of its Ministers have had no qualms in being pragmatic or even skilfully separating political rhetoric from developmental imperatives in their policy announcements.

The Left Front government of West Bengal is reportedly keen to have talks with DIC and TECOM to see if a project similar to the proposed Smart City can come up in their State. What is good for West Bengal may not necessarily be good for Kerala, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to examine. After all, several of the industrial initiatives of the Left Front Government of West Bengal have long been touted by Kerala's LDF as solutions for industrial stagnation. If West Bengal sees some merit in the Smart City promoters, surely pride should not be allowed to let potential investment skip Kerala.

Otherwise, the Chief Minister's claim of providing around two lakh jobs in the IT sector in Kerala in the next five years will remain on paper. As of now, 15,600 employees work at Thiruvananthapuram's Technopark and Kochi's Infopark. The LDF claims that since it came into power, ten new companies have set up shop in Technopark, investing around Rs 2 crore and generating 60 jobs.

That is, clearly, not good enough if Kerala hopes to catch up with the three other southern States, all of which have reaped fairly substantial returns from the IT and ITES sector. Kerala needs to don its thinking cap, set aside old prejudices and make some aggressive and daring moves to invigorate the IT sector.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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