Will Dayanidhi Maran double as the de facto IT Minister of Tamil Nadu following the victory of DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance in the state? Of late there were accusations about Maran hijacking most of the projects to his home state keeping in mind the recently concluded assembly polls, or so it seems.

More, it seems, is yet to come. Or so it seems after his granduncle M Karunanidhi taking over as the Chief Minister of the state for the fifth time. Additionally, Karunanidhi holds the IT portfolio in the state.

Last year alone, there were 19 major companies evincing interests for about 26 projects in the IT and telecom space worth about $8.637 billion (about Rs 40,000 crore). Besides that number of projects India gained in the last one year alone. And Tamil Nadu had bagged 10 projects, almost 50 percent of the projects, especially in and around Chennai, worth about $ 1.810 million.

Dayanidhi Maran and M Karunanidhi: Last year, Tamil Nadu bagged 10 projects, almost 50 percent of all IT and telecom projects, especially in and around Chennai, worth about $ 1.810 million

Industrial analysts, however, feel that the IT companies have started investing in Tamil Nadu for various factors. Dayanidhi Maran being the IT minister at the center is one among them. They say that the state has a good number of engineering colleges, which churn out a considerable number of technical graduates who are easier to be hired and trained.

Moreover, analysts add that foreign investors feel that attrition rate, which is a major concern, is much lower as compared to other states. Given that Tamil Nadu is seen as more 'conservative' and people stick on for a longer period which gives the company's setting shops here an edge over their counterparts.

Further, the cost factor also favors Tamil Nadu. According to a top executive of a IT firm in Bangalore, some of the Indian IT companies are unable to compete with large MNCs, who offer huge pay packages to engineers compared to the local Indian IT companies. For such small companies, the talent pool in Chennai is more affordable than that in Bangalore.

Interestingly, no other state in the country has got this enviable position though Maran had a reason to crib pre-Tamil Nadu assembly elections for having to lose SemIndia's $3 billion Fabcity to Andhra Pradesh. While announcing the project in February, Maran had termed Tamil Nadu's efforts in winning the first Fabcity in the country as 'lukewarm'.

It has always been a trend with senior union ministers with a cabinet portfolios to take major junk of the projects in their allocated ministry to their respective states – take the case of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, or his predecessor Nitish Kumar, or even the senior Murasoli Maran, Industries and Commerce Minister, with the NDA government, who ensured that big names in the auto industry – be it the Ford or the Hyundai to set-up shops in Tamil Nadu. DMK the party to which he belonged was then ruling the state.

However, in South India, Tamil Nadu can hope for more IT investments in the future, as the neighboring state, Karnataka's Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy expressing helplessness over allocating large tracts of land in and around Bangalore for the expansion of the IT industry. He went on to say that IT and ITES companies are "free to expand their activities within Karnataka and other states." There are, however, a few big names in this sector preferring Karnataka to other states.

Kerala, which boasts of many firsts in the country, presents another set of problem. The CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Alliance, which got the people's mandate to rule for the next five years, seems to be divided over setting-up IT destinations in the state. Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan was the main critique of the proposed Smart City in Kochi when he was the opposition leader. But of late, he seems to have diluted his stand.

However, in the South Indian scenario, this pits Tamil Nadu directly against Andhra Pradesh, which has been in the IT map of the world since the regime of N Chandrababu Naidu. The present YS Rajasekhara Reddy government is all out wooing IT investors to that state.

But with Karunanidhi handling the IT portfolio in Tamil Nadu, and with his party follower and grand-nephew heading the IT ministry in New Delhi, the scales are likely to tilt in favor of Tamil Nadu.

It is now a wait and watch scenario, on how many projects Tamil Nadu will gain as against the others in the country. Will Maran be able to ignore the diktats of his party chief who had made him the IT minister?

Politically, it won't augur well for him, as feuds are not new in the DMK first family. Especially as MK Stalin, Karunanidhi's son, is waiting in the wings to steal the political limelight. But then, Maran is under oath to function his duties as the Union Minister for IT and Communications "without fear or favor."

R JAI KRISHNA
(CyberMedia News)

Page(s)   1