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Bharat Kumar

TN Govt has been open to receiving inputs, say event organisers

Mr Lakshmi Narayanan

Mr Gopal Srinivasan

Chennai , Sept. 3

Connect 2006, the sixth edition of the information, communication and technology (ICT) summit that the Government of Tamil Nadu hosts yearly in Chennai, promises to bring in some big names from the IT and telecom industries: such as Mr Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Communications, Mr S. Ramadorai, CEO & MD, TCS, Mr Shiv Nadar, Chairman & CEO, HCL Technologies as speakers. In one session at the meet, they are to deliberate on the vision for 2011 for Tamil Nadu. The Chairman for the show, Mr Gopal Srinivasan, also director for TVS Electronics and co-Chairman, Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, who is also CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions, spoke to Business Line. Here they dwell on what to expect from the show.

The profile of participants is of high quality this year...

We have an overall theme in mind. Tamil Nadu is in a unique position. First is its education infrastructure. Traditionally, the State has had a fantastic education infrastructure that is the backbone for any knowledge-based industry. Unlike other States, we have not focused on IT or BPO alone but on hardware and other industries too. We have focused on comprehensive development for the State, including tier II cities. TN is one of the few States to start talking about tier II cities fairly early. Three, it is in a unique position to learn from other States, like Karnataka, which has done some great things.

Because of their rapid growth, they have run into some issues. So it's a great learning opportunity. Given this kind of an alignment of all the moons - industries such as IT, BPO, Automotive leading to automotive electronics, hardware industry (which is growing substantially), plus the unique advantage of having sufficient number of people coming from educational institutions - we can create an ecosystem that does not have the problems that other States have.

We want to take this opportunity and present it during Connect 2006 as well as get thoughts from industry leaders towards sustained development for TN. That's the broad purpose.

Any agenda that you already have in mind for the panel discussion on Vision 2011?

We are open. It's almost like starting from a clean slate. We do have the advantage of having established significant industries and companies here.

Apart from that, it's a completely new idea... to get people from completely different industries to come in and advise the Government of Tamil Nadu as to what its vision should be for the next five years for the knowledge-based industryAnd we must highlight the openness of the TN Government to receive these inputs and use them in formulating the imminent ICT policy. They have been very open to receiving inputs. Normally, you'd find the Government publishing its own policy and then have the industry debate it. This time, it's being debated by the industry first and then presented as inputs to the government, which hopefully will use those inputs.

Given the level of public-private partnership that this platform is being run on, it's certainly different now compared to earlier. The seriousness with which these inputs are being taken by the Government is amazing. The collaboration and co-operation levels are high. Mr M. Rajamani (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development and poverty alleviation) who is participating in the panel discussion on satellite cities is said to be the last word on satellite cities. There's absolute collaboration (between industry and the Government). I would argue that even within companies it is sometimes difficult to collaborate.

The other point is that TN is obviously the happening place right now. So, it's a good opportunity for all of us here to actually be asked to organise it this time, when TN is on the ascendant in terms of software, hardware and service.

We are delivering something very concrete. We are not only getting some outstanding speakers - 46 at last count and 40 plus hours of deliberation which will be pretty focused. We would also want to convert those inputs with KPMG's help into an ICT policy.

Every session will have a knowledge partner. If you take hardware and telecom services, IDC is the knowledge partner, for satellite cities, PWC, Tier-II/III has Frost & Sullivan.

If you take research, Prof M.S. Ananth, Director, IIT-Chennai himself is the knowledge partner. For Talent for IT, Mr M.D. Pai of Infosys brings that expertise. For Talent for BPO, Nasscom's Mr Kiran Karnik is the partner. Overall, KPMG is the knowledge partner.

This is a unique element of this conference. A knowledge partner is one who has done substantial work in these areas. They also have international exposure. That's another advantage. They have seen these kinds of things being done outside of India. They bring that perspective.

Each speaker has been carefully chosen. In addition to Mr Rajamani, you also have Dr Ko Chen-en, Chairman of Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research and Ms Chong Siak Ching, President & CEO, Ascendas, which is a subsidiary of Singapore's Jurong township - she would talk of reshaping the satellite city model of the township.

Any specific goals you have for this conference, in addition to deliberation that would throw up unstructured thoughts... ?

The ICT policy for the State of Tamil Nadu. That is the focus as far as outputs go.

Why is this critical? We already have something and the revision is going to be based on the existing policy...

We have a new Government. There is new energy. New ideas... the whole architecture of this has been shaped. This time, two other broad themes have been included to the IT policies of the previous years. First is the hardware industry and two, social inclusiveness. Though earlier policies have addressed these, there is much greater weightage to those this time. That is the reason why you have stakeholders from Tier II cities, educational institutions and those who represent underprivileged sections of society.

On the count of Tier II and satellite cities, has the State Government thrown up ideas, indicating what it is willing to do?

A Satellite city is an idea that is propagated at a national level by the Government as a way to deal with urban decongestion but at the same time using urban infrastructure for growth. Mr Rajamani puts that very well - urban centres are good drivers for growth. At the same time you need to decongest them. How do you get the benefits of urban infrastructure... such as ports, airports, but decongest simultaneously, in terms of knowledge infrastructure.

Satellite cities are a national theme now. This year, the budget they have - Rs 700 crore just to do pilots and studies. Second, the model they have evolved is public-private partnership, they are looking at 15,000-35,000 acres of land and then getting an SEZ type developer to develop that township, is my understanding.

They expect each of these townships to run on public-private partnership with the Government owning equity and large private developers who would bid competitively, just like it happened for airports. That is the current thinking.

The Centre gives the thought framework, how it can be done and all that. Otherwise it's an entirely State-related subject. Urban development is a State subject.

Any action taken recently... on this front?

Somewhere on the Bangalore road, (there's some work on at) Arakkonam. `Bigger than Noida' is another theme we hear about. Noida is a benchmark at 25,000 acres.

You talked of the quality of response from the Government. What are its goals?

I see that the State Government has intense focus on three things: they want to bring in e-governance in a huge way so that IT would be cherished by the masses as a tool that has given them material succour. Unless IT touches them through the community services centre (CSC) programme or other strategic programmes, there would not be buy in for IT as the economic liberator for this country. Many companies are choosing to focus on such programmes as a way to link back with society and accomplish social inclusiveness.

Second is the development of tier II cities. The CM said that every major city in TN would have the equivalent of a Tidel Park. (I see that as) one more level of inclusiveness.

View this from a cost arbitrage perspective as Chennai gets congested - after all, if these tier II cities are all `catchment areas', instead of piping the resource in, go to the catchment area itself. For example, Honeywell has a centre in Madurai. Cognizant and TCS have gone to Coimbatore.

Third, urban areas are magnets of growth but yet, are to be decongested. From that perspective, we also have someone from Tirunelveli speaking.

Only a percentage of engineering graduates are readily employable, even nationally. So, how ready are Tier II cities?

Bridging talent gap and tier II city development have several things in common.

When we set up operations in tier II cities, the ecosystem automatically fulfills the requirements that industry has. Sitting here in Chennai, it is easy to say that people in smaller centres should acquire soft skills or must learn to speak good English. But that's preaching from here. Once you go there and set it up, there are companies that are already operating, which train the people, and all of which is seen by the population there, the environment, the schools, colleges... they see this company, the people that it recruits, they realise that these are role models. I don't want to be left out is what they say. What does it take for me to get there, is what they ask themselves. It's not just the students, but also the teachers, the principals of colleges, the parents who see it happening in Tier II cities. So, the concept of Tier II cities with Tidels in each of them develops the mindset of all the people. That makes them think like urban people and that is how the talent gap is bridged.

Why have you included IT in Infotainment for a panel session at Connect? There are several applications for IT, why Infotainment?

I think the whole issue was around how you brand the experience of Chennai. That was the broader thought. `From Kodambakkam to Kelambakkam to what next?' is the theme... That kind of one thought that was there. Second, we are trying to get some thoughts on lifestyle and branding.

Any concrete objectives for Infotainment?

It's a new area, emerging area, Chennai has some strengths and entertainment is becoming technology-intensive. Many successful movies are made in computer labs. And, it's a revenue earning area, not a niche. There's a person talking about transmission of movies (directly to theatres, so as to cut down on piracy). Another talks about animation ... you might even get a surprise - a movie star on the second day of the meet.

On the R&D clusters front, already something is happening between the industry and the academia. But what is it you want to drive?

Research requires PhD. Creating a talent pipeline of PhDs is a challenge many of the recent IIT study commissions have thrown up. India is way behind China in terms of PhD generation. Prof Ananth is going to speak on mass-producing PhDs.

Second, when the cluster of industries such as IT and healthcare are all co-existent, in the same place, it creates a certain synergy between them that generates new ideas. That's why we are getting someone from Apollo Hospitals to say that IT strengths in Hyderabad and Chennai have helped sparked innovation in their own businesses.

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