CA's next choice

Chennai's image as an 'IT destination' has got a boost with the arrival of the $6 billion Computer Associates (CA). The charismatic CA chairman Charles Wang breezed through the city on 7 December to inaugurate the company's 112-seat call center, called Global Technical Support Center GTSC) at Tidel Park.

CA is the world's largest business software maker and the third largest software company after Microsoft and Oracle. True to style, the Tamil Nadu government underplayed even this great achievement. And let the world speak about Tamil Nadu's attraction as a storehouse of software talent and efficient infrastructure. The CA chairman was full of praise for Chennai's enabling environment, which helped the company to set up the operations in 8 to 10 weeks. CA has invested about $3 million in the center and currently employs 100 software professionals. It hopes to run this as a round the clock center with over 600 people in a short time.

Quietly, the State government has facilitated the entry of IT companies in a big way in recent years. Be it improvement in telecom infrastructure, removal of land use restrictions or speedy clearance of project proposals or increasing the human resources pool through hike in engineering college seats, the government has worked with an IT-friendly policy. 

But a lot more needs to be done urgently to improve the quality of life in the southern metropolis. The market has provided many things wanted by the affluent beneficiaries of the IT boom. Variety of amusement parks, beer to coffee pubs, bowling alleys, pool centers cyber cafes and others have added glitz to the once-conservative metropolis. There are more flights out of the city to global destinations, specially targeted at the IT crowd. The list of such services supplied by the market forces is long.

However, there are some public goods, which only the State can provide. For instance, Chennai definitely needs better roads.

Even more urgent is better traffic management. After all, thousands of software engineers have to endure the chaotic traffic conditions to reach their 'islands of excellence.' Is it too much to ask the city's traffic managers to use abundant software talent to computerize and synchronize the traffic lights at least on the arterial roads and make driving a pleasure on city's roads? Two cellular service providers take care of the communication needs. But shouldn't Chenniites have access to much better basic telecom services, still a federal government monopoly? Or a more efficient airport and multi-modal transit systems that enable quick entry and exit to the airport. Chennai has taken the lead among Indian cities with the use of a foreign garbage clearance company in selected localities. Chennai's IT parks are neat and clean, but the same cannot be said about the numerous brick and mortar industrial centers, which provide the market for IT goods and services. Should they remain eyesores to domestic and foreign visitors attracted by the magnet of IT to 'Singara Chennai?'