SOMANAHALLI MALLIAH KRISHNA Chief Minister, Karnataka

At 71, the still sprightly and dapper S.M. Krishna seems to be the very embodiment of former US President Theodore Roosevelt's maxim about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. In many ways, the man sticks out like a sore thumb in India's political scenario. For one, he is educated, a Fulbright scholar, no less, who has studied at Southern Methodist University and George Washington University. Then, there's his penchant for lawn tennis and designing men's garments when he has the time-gleeful critics pounced on these and have bestowed him the sobriquet English Gowda (Krishna belongs to the powerful landed Vokkalinga or Gowda community). To be perceived as urbane-and there's no denying the fact that Krishna is-is a liability in the world of Indian politics.

Krishna was first elected to the Karnataka legislature in 1962 but his inability to become Chief Minister-he came close to it twice, in 1989 and again in 1992- soon earned him the tag of eternal best man. And when he did become Chief Minister in November 1999, there weren't too many expectations of him. For much of the 1980s and 1990s, Karnataka had been blessed with CMS who didn't exactly cover themselves in glory. Bangalore had become the technology capital of India and the fastest growing city in Asia but there was a growing feeling that this growth was coming at the cost of quality of life.

Today, Karnataka hasn't just retained its position as the preferred destination for technology companies-in 2003, some 57 tech multinationals set up shop in the state capital Bangalore-but become a centre of apparel manufacture. It accounts for almost a third of India's software exports of $10 billion (Rs 46,000 crore). The Bangalore Development Authority, moribund when Krishna took over is today a profit-making organisation with revenues in excess of Rs 1,000 crore. The Chief Minister's reign hasn't been a fairy tale: despite his recent efforts to take the Bangalore model to five other cities and towns in Karnataka, much of the state remains an area of darkness; power continues to be a problem, in Bangalore and elsewhere in a state dependant on hydroelectric power; and the state government's inability to capture forest-brigand and poacher Veerappan remains an irritant.

Karnataka isn't Bangalore, chorus Krishna's detractors, pointing to rumours that the Chief Minister will contest the next elections not from his constituency Maddur, but Bangalore city-he is also Minister of the City-as evidence enough of the skewed development of the state. In all fairness, it has taken four years for Krishna's Bangalore experiment to be hailed as revolutionary and efforts targeting the rest of the state are much too recent to show results.

Krishna's Big Idea was, and remains, the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (headed by Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani), an effort to get the private sector to work with the city's administrative agencies such as the corporation and the police department. Apart from making the process of administration more transparent, he reasoned, this would help government agencies assimilate some of the best practices of the private sector. Today, other states are striving to replicate the BATF model. Chief ministers don't go around trying to effect private-sector-government-agency partnerships in India: politicians have traditionally been highly suspicious of the private sector; besides, any politico perceived to be chummy with businessmen risks being labelled corrupt.

Krishna hasn't stopped with BATF, he has instituted similar task forces with local businessmen in other cities such as Mysore, Mangalore, and Hubli-Dharwad. Karnataka isn't the best state for business in India yet but it may be getting there; it has moved up the rankings in the BT-Gallup survey of the same, from #6 in 1999 to #3 in 2003. And it was the first state to come out with clear and comprehensive policies regarding new-age sectors such as infotech, biotech, and it-enabled services. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, then, that political analysts expect Krishna (and his party) to sail through the next elections. Still, even if he doesn't, his idea will probably stand the test of time.