SMK-Y2K combo ushered in tech growth in Karnataka

Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna (S.M. Krishna), or SMK as friends fondly called him, was the most tech-savvy, flamboyant, well-informed and widely travelled Chief Minister of Karnataka.

His tenure as the Chief Minister, from 1999 to 2004, were the foundational years of Indian IT. Krishna played a huge role in growing the tech industry to a certain size by encouraging Indian and foreign enterprises to invest in Karnataka through his diplomatic interventions and convincing pitches, although in the early 2000s no one could foresee that Bengaluru (Bangalore then) and Karnataka in some years would emerge as the tech flag bearer for the entire country. The State currently accounts for over 40% of the country’s total IT exports worth around $260 billion and houses operations of almost all Fortune 500 firms and a thousand start-ups.

Krishna understood the importance and advantage of having IT companies set up operations in Bengaluru, so he encouraged their presence and actively wooed them during his tenure. He knew Craig Barrett, CEO and later Chairman of Intel Corporation, John Chambers, CEO and Executive Chairman of Cisco Systems, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation and several Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors of Indian origin such as Kanwal Rekhi, Vinod Khosla, Gururaj Deshpande, Kumar Malavalli, Pramod Haque and others. This was when IT companies were also actively courted by Hyderabad, whose Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, had projected himself as a tech-savvy politician.

Period of competition

‘’Whenever large global IT companies wanted to set up their tech development centers in India, both Krishna and Chandrababu Naidu made sure that they or their respective bureaucrats, would proactively reach out to these companies and encourage them to choose their State. It sort of became a race between these two CMs,” recalled a former tech journalist who frequently interacted with Krishna and Naidu.

SMK understood that unless the infrastructure of the fast-growing Bengaluru was attended to, the City would lose its edge as an emerging IT capital of India and also find it difficult to attract new investments. To his credit was also nurturing the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), a public-private partnership (PPP) to bring business and civic leaders to the same table to discuss and suggest ways to develop Bangalore.

Interestingly, SMK and Y2K (the millennium bug) happened to Karnataka concurrently in 1999 and these two played extremely critical roles in unleashing big-bang tech growth in the State, and since then world started taking notice of Bengaluru, which was till then known mostly for its weather and PSU presence. Later, the City quickly emerged as the tech capital of the country, the “Silicon Valley of India.”

Right time, right place

‘’It so happened when I became the Chief Minister in 1999, there was vigorous activity in the IT and BT sector. Fortunately, we were right there to catch the benefit of the beginning of the tech revolution that was taking place. We went all out, to explore the opportunity, you know, and we did not look back at all,’‘ he had told The Hindu in an interview just ahead of 2023 Assembly polls in Karnataka.

Wipro’s Azim Premji and Infosys’ Narayana Murthy and tech and business other leaders came and worked in cohesion with the government and Bengaluru started getting quick recognition, thanks to Y2K, in the early 2000 itself, he had recalled.

He had spoken about the initial years of tech growth involving a lot of challenges as getting everyone concerned to work together was a tough proposition, especially when no one, at that point, could ever foresee that the State would once lead spearhead the country’s tech business.

Post his tenure in 2004, he expected the succeeding government to continue his, but felt that it was not taken forward. ‘‘Unfortunately, the succeeding government was hostile to any development, and as a result of which we suffered a serious setback in 2004 to 2008,’‘ he had said, adding, ‘‘I have no hesitation in saying that nobody was bothered about developing the tech industry during that period.’‘ N. Dharam Singh succeeded him in a Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition which eventually fell with H.D. Kumaraswamy of JD(S) abandoned the partnership to join hands with the BJP.

If Krishna hadn’t happened to Karnataka, the path of the state’s IT growth, the pace of it and the entire trajectory of its tech story would’ve been drastically different, commented B.V Naidu, former Director, STPI-Bangalore.

Love of sampige

Although known for his tech savviness, flamboyancy, style and the Western outlook, the Congressman-turned-BJP senior leader was a hardcore Bengalorean who loved the City’s trees and flowers, especially the Sampige trees and flowers on Sampige Road and the fragrance of Margosa flowers from Margosa Road.