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The Rediff Interview/ Nandan Nilekani

'If we can improve life in Bangalore, then the same lessons can be implemented in Mysore or Hubli-Dharwad'

It is almost like a situation straight out of the movies. The managing director of the city's leading infotech company is asked by the state's chief minister to make his city more liveable. The first thing he does is put his money where his mouth is, and chips in with a cool Rs 2 crore to set the process in motion.

One year down the line, will Bangalore become the showpiece that Nandan Nilekani, managing director, Infosys Technologies, and Chief Minister S M Krishna have envisaged? Will they be successful in implementing their model of first making Bangalore habitable and then extending the same approach to the rest of Karnataka? In an exclusive interview with M D Riti , Nilekani answered these questions and more. Excerpts:

Do you think you are living out the educated urban man's dream of having access to the money and power to develop a major metropolis?

I don't think what I am doing is quite as grandiose as you make it out to be. But yes, the fact is that there is an opportunity here to make a difference, and one has the wherewithal in terms of time and money. Actually, money is not such a major factor, it is more a question of time. If one is able to achieve something with all this, it would be really wonderful.

How did you get appointed head of the urban task force for Bangalore?

After the new government was formed, the chief minister appointed several task forces. I got a request from his office asking whether I could head the Bangalore task force. They said they would like to see how information technology and modern management techniques could be incorporated into the system to make a difference. I felt that the government was very sincere and hardworking, and that it had a strong desire to improve the living conditions in Bangalore. So I agreed to take on the responsibility.

Do you feel adequately equipped to handle this task, or do you think it should have been left to a town-planning expert?

The way I see it, there is no shortage of reports on what should be done. There are a lot of reports on how to plan Bangalore, how to build a ring road and how to tackle garbage. What is really required is an action-oriented focus, where people define their objectives, their short and long-term goals...and there is full accountability of their goals, full visibility of their commitment. Then, there should be a monitoring process in place that checks whether things have happened or not. This job is not so much to do with whether you know urban planning or not. There are a lot of urban planning efforts on already. The challenge is to synthesise all these views and come up with an actionable plan which actually happens on the ground. I don't see any major problem with my background.

Krishna has told rediff.com quite clearly that he wants Bangalore to become the showcase for Karnataka, and that the concept of focusing on backward areas belongs to the 1970s. Do you agree with this approach? What about the rest of Karnataka then. Can ignoring it like this be justified?

You have to start somewhere. If we can show how life in Bangalore can be improved, then the same lessons can be implemented in Mysore or Hubli-Dharwad or Mangalore. You have to create a model which can then be replicated. I don't think the approach is only Bangalore-centric. You have to create examples of how development can be achieved, using Bangalore as a test case. Once this is done, the same lessons can be exported to other cities.

Where will you find the money for all this? Any development of this kind will require huge amounts of money.

Money is not really an issue because we can always borrow from agencies like HUDCO and IDFC. It is really a question of synthesising everything together - project management, planning, execution and accountability. Money will come. If a project is good, bankable and is executed properly, money will come.

So money is not an issue for your task force.

Obviously, you do need money. But the key factor is commitment and accountability to get everything going. The money will automatically flow.

Is it true that you have contributed Rs 2 crore yourself to the task force's kitty?

I have been asking everyone not to broadcast this information from the rooftops. But yes, I have pooled in the money.

What motivated you to do this? We know, of course, that you have made major contributions to causes that you feel very strongly about, like the Rs 7 crore you gave to your alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Mainly, I thought I should put my money where my mouth is. If I want to request the corporate sector to chip in, I need to set the standard. Secondly, I felt we needed to get a lot of things going in a hurry. We needed to implement the GIS, revenue accounting models and do something about the garbage. We need to quickly put people on the job, get some data and get some work going. If one were to wait for things to happen through government agencies, it will take months. Time compression, in my opinion, is the need of the hour. We need to move fast and deliver results. I thought that if we had some money to quickly get some projects off the ground, the whole process would be accelerated.

But do you think one-off contributions like these will really help hasten Bangalore's development?

This money will not go into the Bangalore City Corporation's bank accounts. It will go into a trust. The trust will then look at various projects, make sure they are funded and completed within a time-frame. The money was not just given like one blank cheque, it is going to be monitored. It going to be used for strategic purposes, like for developing the GIS or developing software for improving the accounting practices of various organisations. It is very specific programme-oriented.

Has this trust already been set up?

It is in the process of being formed.

Will this trust be linked to any government? If Krishna's government falls will it affect the trust?

The whole idea is to create an institutional framework which on a sustainable and enduring basis ensures the progress of the city.

Are you going to involve more of corporate Bangalore in this effort?

Yes, certainly. We want to involve a lot of citizens in this effort. It is just a question of defining roles for each of them now.

Are you going to tackle other issues like corruption and tax evasion that bother the educated urban Bangalorean?

It is all very well to be very idealistic and declare, like in the movies, that we will solve all the problems overnight. But that will not work. It is more practical to try and address them one by one, and show results over a period of time.

Bangalore today is full of contrasts. There is one segment that is growing very rapidly, pushed by the IT industry. Then there is another side, which has over one hundred rural poor migrating into the city every day. Which of these will be your priority. As you represent a major IT company, will you only focus on beautifying parks and making Bangalore nicer for yuppies?

All of them. We are very clear that we are certainly not going to adopt an elitist approach. We are not going to develop only Brigade Road (a hip and happening area in city centre). We have done market research on all these segments and we know what are all their problems are. We have researched roads, garbage, greenery, everything: we intend to address all of these problems.

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