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Power, the lack of it

Ashok Dasgupta

BARRING the spectre of an imminent hike in petro-goods prices, sensing which the bears have already gripped the country's bourses as is evident from the sharp downslide, September has been a fairly good month for a boost to India's image an d morale at home and abroad.

Just prior to the Prime Minister's leaving for a fortnight-long visit to the US, the Government had ensured the announcement of a bold liberalisation package pertaining to sectors such as IT and telecom. While the slew of measures was good enough to conv ey the impression abroad that India was right on track on the second generation reforms front, it also enabled the signing of a few agreements with the US investors such as in the power sector.

Also, for once, perhaps because India is now a force to reckon with in the IT and knowledge-based industry, US dailies did take due note of the Prime Minister's visit to New York and Washington. And why not? Is it after all not a fact that nearly 750 com panies in Silicon Valley are controlled by non-resident Indians (NRIs) or Indian Americans as they are called. Besides, if despatches from Washington are to be believed, the US is unlikely to put India and Pakistan in the same basket while formulating it s policy on South Asia.

Back home, the legendary figure in IT and software, Mr Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman, virtually put the Indian IT industry in a ``cloud nine'' orbit by entering into a worldwide strategic alliance with Infosys for development of software solutions. What Mr Gates had to say about the talent and ability of the country's IT professionals must have been music to the ears of those who cared to listen. And listen, they did. Otherwise, how can one explain as many as 10 Chief Ministers flocking to the software monarch to throw open their States to Microsoft investment.

Hardly had the euphoria died down when in came Mr John Welch, Chairman and CEO of GE, yet another legendary figure in corporate history as ``CEO of the millennium''. He also had rather nice things to say about India. Apart from the excellence in IT and s oftware, Mr Welch was all praise for the country's wealth in intellectual capital.

India, the GE Chairman said, was one country in the world where there was no dearth of talent and intellect and this was one of the reasons why GE, like many others, had shifted its back-room office to Gurgaon, the emerging MNC township in neighbouring H aryana. There's no exaggeration here. For both Microsoft and GE are in the process of investing more and upgrading their research and development facilities at Hyderabad and Bangalore, respectively. And both these facilities are said to be the largest in the world, comparable to their set-ups back home in the US.

But having said all the good things, Mr Welch also made another remark which should make the Centre and the State Governments to sit up. Specifically, he commented on the acute scarcity of power in the country and noted that unless this basic problem in infrastructure was taken care of, the advantages of abundant intellectual capital would go waste.

The problem with the Government's decision-making is that it takes up sectors in phases. The power sector was the ``in thing'' in the initial years of liberalisation when there was a lot of talk of reforms at the level of State electricity boards to enab le the private investors to come in. Prospective investors came, and most of them have gone back as they did not find the sector conducive enough for investment.

So, apart from tackling oil prices, it's time for a hard look at the power sector.