S.M. Krishna: Still there

Krishna's KRAs The CM does have some key results to boast.

» 1,000 MW of power generating capacity added » A growth of 7 per cent for the state's economy » Exports of Rs 20,415 crore in 2001-02, a 26 per cent growth » A share of 7.8 per cent of the country's exports, up from 7.2 per cent » Thought-leadership in infotech, biotech, and now apparel exports

Somanhalli Malliah Krishna, the dapper 70-year-old Chief Minister of Karnataka-garment designing is a hobby-can't be faulted for wishing 2002 never happened. Twice voted the country's best cm by news-magazine India Today, the year saw his ranking fall to 10; his handling of the dispute with Tamil Nadu over sharing water from the river Cauvery forced the Supreme Court to upbraid him; the state police's inability to capture poacher Veerappan-his last hostage, a former Karnataka minister was found dead in the Satyamangalam forest-led to some calls for the chief minister's removal; and internal dissidence, absent in the first two years of his reign raised its ugly head.

Fears that the Congress Party may decide to replace Krishna have shaken up the business community in the state-the cm is considered investor- and industry-friendly. "Krishna has played a key role in selling both Bangalore and Karnataka," says V. Ravichandar, the CEO of research firm Feedback Consulting and a member of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force, a joint effort of the state government and the private sector to address civic issues in the city. "No one, among the people whose names are doing the rounds as possible successors to Krishna possesses either his understanding of market dynamics or his ability to hard-sell the state subtly,'' adds the CEO of a city-based it major. That's a claim pooh-poohed by Jagadish Shettar of the BJP, the leader of the opposition in the Karnataka assembly. "Only certain industries have benefited from this government('s decisions)." Shettar is only partly right: Karnataka may be the country's infotech and biotech capital, but it has also attracted investments in the auto- and apparel sector (it was the fourth most preferred FDI destination after Maharashtra, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu in 2002). Now, fears Bangalore Inc, all that could change. And for the worse.

-Venkatesha Babu

Tube-II
Two-Day Match
Budget: February 28; India vs Pakistan in SA: March 1. Eyeballs aplenty.

If two days could alter consumer sentiment, then it would have to be February 28 and March 1. On the first day Finance Minister Jaswant Singh will present his budget. On the second, India will meet Pakistan in the ICC World Cup. The budget doesn't really matter and India would have already played five out of its six league matches in the tournament, but purely in terms of sentiment, both are critical.

-Shailesh Dobhal

Q&A
"We Want To Do Advanced Design Work Out Of India"

Emerson's David Farr: Joining the India party

Founded way back in 1890 in St. Louis, Missouri, as a manufacturer of electric motors and fans, Emerson Electric is today a global technology solutions powerhouse with revenues of $15 billion. The company made a quiet entry into India in the early 1980s. Now, says CEO David Farr to BT's Abir Pal during a recent visit, this long association is set to grow stronger as India emerges a critical research and development centre for the company.

Your company's business portfolio straddles everything from network power to process management to professional tools. To a layman who's not so aware of Emerson, how would you describe the company?

A true global manufacturer of technology-focussed products that provides best componentry and solutions for our customer-base whatever it is interested in. That's what we are.

You're in the process of consolidating various divisions into eight primary units. What was the rationale behind this exercise?

As the company became larger, the key issue was that Emerson felt it was harder for our customers to deal with us. In the process business, we had 14 individual units serving an end-customer. Our objective was to put everything together and go to the customer and solve his problem. But the individual brands and the technology that we've developed (in each of the 14) is still there. We sell under the Emerson Process Management name but underneath that you'll still see the individual brands, Rosemount or Micromotion or Fischer. They're very powerful brands.

But by putting together and focussing the(ir) technology investments, the 14 companies in the process business create a stronger solution for the customer. They leverage all the resources. We have an engineering centre in Pune and it works on a multi-divisional technology effort. That was the big drive (for the consolidation): to serve the customer better, to leverage technology, and to leverage resources across businesses.

How important are the Indian operations to Emerson's global plans?

I'm going to Pune to look at our engineering centre. It's a major player in our engineering design capability, in our systems work, in our technology work and in serving the customer. What we're trying to do is move a third of all our engineering work in our process and customer service areas to India over the next five-to-six years. The other strategy is to focus on manufacturing here and export (out of India). One of our joint ventures, with Sanmar, already does this. Today, our sales in India are $200 million.

Apart from software, which is an obvious choice, what else will you source out of India?

We're expanding the Emerson Design Center in Pune. We want to do some advanced design work and product development; we not only want to do some software work but also want to have design capabilities here for new products or extensions of product lines. It'll allow us to get into the market much faster across the company.