YSR hardsells Hyderabad in Bangalore

Chandrababu Naidu had done that and been there. And now Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has done it. Storming the garden city on Monday, YSR launched an uncharacteristically audacious mission to woo investors from—and perhaps away from—Bangalore.

And the pitch seems to have worked. Among those who words of praise for Hyderabad's rise to prominence included Infosys Technologies chief financial officer T V Mohandas Pai who remarked that Hyderabad has possibly the best infrastructure for IT in India today.

For Infosys and many other IT companies smarting under the land grab accusation by H D Deve Gowda, it was time to vent their feelings. “We had a torrid time in Bangalore when people told us that we are not wanted here. It is good that we are wanted (in Hyderabad). I guess people will go where they are wanted.’’ The morale of the IT industry in Bangalore, Pai said, is low. “You can’t bash up people in public. I guess it will take some time for people to feel wanted here,” he said. He noted that about five years ago, Bangalore accounted for 65% of the IT capacity of the country, but this has now come down to 25%. “This trend will continue and places like Hyderabad will gain.

In contrast with these provocative words, Rajasekhara Reddy was earnestness personified at his meeting with industry leaders. Leaving the Power Point presentation to his advisers, the chief minister concentrated on assuaging some apprehensions in the minds of the captains. The chances of a separate Telangana state coming into being, he said, were “not bright’’ and in any case his government had put the development of that region on a fast-forward mode.

Then, turning to another long-standing problem, he said, “We have realised that our graduates’ English accent is a problem and we are taking care of this aspect. We have initiated several programmes to make them more industry-ready. In engineering colleges, we provide some last-leg training to make them employable.’’ He signed off with a help-me-help-you remark that was received with thunderous applause:

“Contact us, or please give us an opportunity to contact you.’’ The CM’s aides completed his job with detailed presentations. Dr C S Rao, CEO of AP Invest, said, “We are aiming at total software exports of $15 billion by 2009 (it was $1.9 billion in 2004-05). We are now set to grow at a fast pace. Join us in this victory lap,’’ Rao said. Rao also stressed on the fact that most of tech-savvy, Indian IT work force in the US is from AP.