Monday, January 26, 2004		Feature

Chandigarh waITs to be explored
Roopinder Singh

Chandigarh is a city that has young and educated population, beautiful houses and Internet connectivity that is getting better by the day... yet it is a mere dot in the IT map of the nation.

The UT Administration is just coming up with the Chandigarh Technology Park, and one of the star attractions in it will be Infosys. Wonderful, except for that, sources point out the Chandigarh’s gain will be SAS Nagar’s loss, since Infosys office will certainly be shifted from there.

Let us take a brief look at Chandigarh. The official Website for the Department of Information Technology, quoting a survey report on BPO in India by Gartner says: "Chandigarh’s contribution to India’s overall software exports is negligible."

The main players in Chandigarh are IDS InfoTech, E3R Limited and Excel Call Net. Chandigarh is, as of now, a small player, till the new park comes into being. Though there is some software development taking place here, the main concentration is on business process outsourcing, like medical transcription and call centres. The operations are small and the overall figure for export for last year is measly Rs 21.6 crores

According to the report on the key BPO criteria, Chandigarh has the following rating: HR (5), telecommunications (9), power (7), air connectivity (1), government support (5), related industry development (6). The overall rating is 5.5, based on a scale of 1 to 10 as the highest.

This is not much, but the good thing is there have been steps to improve the situation. There is hope, and as the article on Page 5 of this issue by a young Chandigarh trained, US-based IT professional shows, there are steps that can improve the situation, and indeed make Chandigarh an attractive IT destination. But this needs strong will, especially on the part of the UT Administration to act as facilitators, and then have the guts to withdraw and let professionalism rule. Can the Administration rise up to the challenge, ask many IT experts, who spoke off the record to this writer.

On paper, SAS Nagar had a big advantage over Chandigarh, which is that it has two mega software companies, Quark and Infosys. There are 186 IT-enabled industries in the township that borders Chandigarh, yet the facilities leave much to be desired and SAS Nagar has not been able to attract much interest in the recent years.

The publishing software giant Quark accounted for one third of the almost 100 crore exports from the Software Technology Park. The other big player was Infosys, which exported a bit more. But then, its future is uncertain and it might shift to Chandigarh. Together, Quark and Infosys account for 67 per cent of the software exports from Chandigarh.

Take the two big ones out of the picture, and you have precious little left. Scuttlebutt has it that call centres are coming to the region. They should be welcomed, even though they represent the bottom rung of the BPO ladder.

The future is outsourcing, and while politicians make noises, the inexorable logic of business bottom lines will make sure that more and more outsourcing work comes to those who can provide more efficient and inexpensive services.

It has been seen that certain kinds of industries cluster around towns, Detroit will forever be a car city, Bombay a financial capital and so on. For IT too, there has to be vertical integration. Chandigarh should not try to emerge as a clone of Bangalore or Hyderabad. It has to find its own identity. It could, perhaps be publishing related, given Quark’s massive presence in the city, or could build on the medical services that some companies are already providing in the city.

The lifestyle of Chandigarh — the Golf Club, beautiful residential areas, short commuting distances, good educational facilities and a somewhat laid-back attitude towards life — this is what brings people to the City Beautiful. What will make them invest here has to be business-worthiness for which many list availability of hotel rooms and the airport having international flights as pre-requisites. These areas should be addressed by the government along with developing the IT park-related infrastructure.

Chandigarh has fairly good infrastructure, a great university, a good engineering college, some fine schools and other educations institutions. It holds promise. But it needs solid work to translate into reality and make the city a knowledge-based powerhouse. The sun will shine on IT in Chandigarh, provided the clouds of inertia are blown away be meaningful, focused activity. All it needs is some good men to make a difference.