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Vinson Kurian

Without a clear policy of affirmative action to spread resulting wealth, the profitability of a rapidly expanding software industry will do little to alleviate the poverty of the surrounding areas.

Thiruvananthapuram , Aug. 25

GOVERNMENT policies, actions and plans, along with the dedication of individuals and enterprises that benefit from the IT boom, are required to make sure that wealth created through software exports aids those who lead ordinary lives.

It is naive to leave the task to the market forces alone, says Prof Kenneth Keniston, Director, India Programme, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Without a clear policy of affirmative action to spread resulting wealth, the profitability of a rapidly expanding software industry will do little to alleviate the poverty of the surrounding areas. This lesson is implicit in the comments of Mr N. R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys, who once said that the most distressing fact to him was the contrast between the comfort and affluence of those who work for the software industry and the surrounding poverty in the rest of the country.

"I am not an economist, and cannot say what is required to change this situation. I do believe, however, that Government action, and equally important, action on the part of the successful profit-making IT firms, is of great importance. Perhaps one example lies in the work of the Infosys Foundation, which does not emphasise information technology but rather literacy, health, books, and libraries for the less privileged parts of the State. Another answer may lie in the admirable efforts like those of Tata Consultancy, its founder, Mr F.C. Kohli, and its group leader, Dr Nori, to use the resources of that powerful firm to develop innovative programmes of adult literacy that employ the potentials of information technologies, along with more traditional resources to achieve remarkable results. But whatever the answer, the transfer of wealth from the information technology industry to ordinary people is not automatic," Prof Keniston said.

Turning to the IT industry in America, the boom in Silicon Valley, in the Route 128 area outside Boston or in the Austin-Texas area in the US, has not brought any obvious direct benefits to the migrant workers who pick lettuce in Silicon Valley, to the Mexican-American braceros who act as servants to the prosperous in Austin, or to the Americans of Caribbean origin who live in the poorest areas of Boston.

"Similarly, I believe it would be very hard to demonstrate that the 100,000 information technology engineers and workers in Bangalore, along with the travel agents, boutique owners, drivers, and others who meet their needs, have had an appreciable effect upon the more than 40 million Kannadigas who live outside the metropolitan area.

"With Bangalore subtracted, Karnataka is one of the poorer States in India. Similarly, critics of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, argue that his successful development of Hyderabad and Secunderabad as IT centres has had little effect on poverty - and social unrest - in other parts of Andhra Pradesh."

None of this, however, is to deny that the wealth created by a successful software industry could be shared by other sectors of the population. But so-called `market forces' are not adequate to ensure this outcome, Prof Keniston emphasised.

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