The heat is on: Utpal Sen Gupta (L) and Sangeeta Reddy debate the much-hyped cyber city Hyderabad

The hall had a sense of charged anticipation, and Crossfire debate moderator and BT's Editor Sanjoy Narayan was not about to let it go. This was about questioning Hyderabad's stature as a technology hub, and sparks were sure to fly.

The topic for the evening offered a simple binary choice: 'Hyderabad-Cyberabad or Hyperabad?' Sangeeta Reddy, Executive Director (Operations), Apollo Hospitals Group, was to speak for the reality of Cyberabad. At the other podium, Utpal Sen Gupta, President, Agrotech Foods, was to speak for the city's image being a case of hype.

Reddy kicked off her cyber campaign by expressing admiration for the city's "tremendous sense of creativity and entrepreneurial energy", and the way the city had been positioned as an IT and ITEs hotspot on the world map. This, she argued, had not just changed the mindset, but had also been translated into "real infrastructure". With software exports over a billion dollars, Hyderabad was now the "fourth most-extensive it-enabled city" in India. Microsoft, Oracle, Excel and others are in; the investment stats are real, and so are the 80,000 jobs that have been created by all of it. The tomtomming, she said, had helped. "The truth is that a little bit of hyperbole never hurt anyone."

Moreover, added Reddy, Hyderabad had seen a ripple effect through every business, with the demand for all-round efficiency soaring. "It has led to a powerful realisation of the undeveloped potential of Cyberabad." Telemedicine services, for instance, are booming too. Clinical genomics is another field the city is rushing into, as it spreads its influence. In all, she concluded, all the drama had been worthwhile. Finally, she pleaded, "Don't throw Cyberabad out with the ex-chief minister."

THE SPEAKERS' GALLERY

"IT has grown, Hyderabad's grown, and so has the world. The growth has nothing to do with the hype around Cyberabad'' Utpal Sen Gupta, President, Agrotech Foods

"A little bit of hype made a big difference: it put us on the world map. More importantly, it has been translated into growth" Sangeeta Reddy, ED (Operations), Apollo Hospitals

"Cyberabad as a branding exercise seems to have worked at least partially in drawing the world's attention to Hyderabad" Sanjoy Narayan, Editor, Business Today

At the opposing podium, Sen Gupta opened his case by conceding the veracity of the facts and figures presented by his opponent, but drawing a contrary conclusion. "For Hyderabad to deserve to be called Cyberabad, it must satisfy either one of two criteria or tests: it must either occupy a dominant position in the country's it firmament or it must really dominate the city's economy." Neither condition, he argued, were met by the city. Bangalore, at $3 billion, and Chennai, at around $2 billion, were both far ahead of the city, and so too Noida. "So Hyderabad is not even in the ballpark range." On ites, Hyderabad is sixth, behind even Kolkata. As for whether it was a major part of the city's economy, "the argument doesn't hold", asserted Sen Gupta, adding that "100,000 people out of a workforce of 1.7 million people is still a small minority".

But the IT proportion is fast changing, objected Reddy. "Look at the growth rate," she said. Sen Gupta dismissed the point, saying that the growth rate was on too small a base. "We must remember," interjected Narayan, "that in a new sector the numbers must necessarily be small, but you can't just set the whole trend aside on that basis."

"Sure," admitted Sen Gupta, "but the workforce is around 6 per cent of the whole." Not enough to justify Hyderabad calling itself Cyberabad. Yes, he continued, the city's pharma, biotech, cinema and retail sectors were flourishing... and Narayan promptly pointed this out as being in support of Reddy's ripple argument. Sen Gupta's point though, as he clarified, was that this was the sort of IT-enablement being witnessed across the country, and was not something unique to Hyderabad.

Reddy, meanwhile, chose to emphasise the advantages of the city's positioning as Cyberabad. If marketing is the game, suggested Sen Gupta, a 'knowledge centre' would have been broader and thus better. But, Narayan countered, focus has its value-just as "Detroit positions itself as Motown". Besides, as Reddy added, "You cannot be everything to everybody."

To that, Sen Gupta replied that Motown had gone "against Detroit eventually". Though the industries that sprang up around it are still thriving, added Narayan. At this, Sen Gupta returned to his main point: that Hyderabad wasn't exactly distinguishing itself as an it centre-so the position lacked credibility, like Aeroflot's positioning itself as the airline with the friendliest air-hostesses. "To take a positioning and make it work," said Sen Gupta, "it has to have a grounding in reality."

Was it real? It was the audience's turn to pose questions, as Narayan had the microphone passed around the hall. To a question on why Bill Gates had chosen Hyderabad, Sen Gupta replied that Gates had seen the city as an 'emerging' it hub, not really as an it mover-and-shaker. Another questioner wondered if the catchy rhyming of 'Cyber' with 'Hyder' had led to the positioning; and what could 'Bangalore' be packaged as? Well, quipped Narayan, ''Wired magazine had already done it: "Boom-galore".

BT CROSSFIRE/DELHI
Selling Reforms
The topic: 'Indian Reforms: Bad Product or Bad Marketing?' The former, argued Surjit Bhalla. The latter, said Arvind Virmani.

A battle of words: Arvind Virmani (L) of ICRIER and Surjit Bhalla of Oxus cross swords at the Delhi edition of Crossfire

The Taj Palace in Delhi has seen skirmishes of many kinds. The BT Crossfire, though, promised to raise hell of a different sort: two economists aiming their verbal artillery at each other-on a point of marketing. Had India's reforms been a letdown? Or had they just been sold badly? Arvind Virmani, Director & CEO, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), was to speak for 'bad marketing', and at the other podium, Surjit Bhalla, Managing Director, Oxus Research and Investments, for 'bad product'. Moderator Suhel Seth could barely conceal his zest for a satisfying Delhi Crossfire as the series' finale.

Virmani began his case with a big chart on the screen to illustrate how good an "intangible product" Indian reforms had been, highlighting the long-term link between policy actions and outcomes. His basic point: the economy has grown significantly faster in the period of experimenting with market reforms (annual 5.8 per cent, 1980 onwards), than in the socialist era (annual 3.5 per cent, 1950-1980).

The experiments? "Removing policy distortions and introducing competition-decontrol, delicencing, and modern regulation", some of which was "accelerated greatly in 1992". The big turnaround, Virmani added, was that poverty had finally started declining-at roughly 0.5 per cent per annum-after 1980.

The big picture done, Virmani spoke of specific policy reforms. On opening up to the world, FDI has boosted overall productivity. Lowering trade barriers has delivered specialisation and efficiency, propelling exports instead of flooding India with imports. Exchange rate liberalisation, meanwhile, has fixed the trade balance and reduced the vulnerability to global shocks. Even the "confused" telecom reforms have given India "the lowest prices in the world for mobile telephony." The product is good, Virmani said, but "market complexities" have resulted in poor marketing-with media reportage often confusing policy proposals with actual actions. "The public gets a wrong impression," he groaned.

THE BIG REFORM DEBATE

"In 15 years, you didn't do any reforms. 'Market complexities' is all hogwash. We had a bad product'' Surjit Bhalla, Managing Director, Oxus Research and Investments

"The product is good, but market complexities have resulted in poor marketing. The public gets a wrong impression in the process" Arvind Virmani, Director & CEO, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)

"We have a bunch of clowns doing policy year after year and plan after plan. You have a rollback at the drop of a farmer protest" Suhel Seth, CEO, Equus Red Cell

"So, someone's lying," shot Seth, glowering at 'the media'. Besides, added Virmani, "All change is not reform. Often you replace one distortion by another." Also, some tinkering around is not reform-and when sold as such, makes bad marketing. Like tomtomming a growth blip.

Bhalla opened his case by taking those remarks as testimony for a 'bad product'. And bad, he asserted, it is-because nothing good has really happened. In 15 years, he alleged, "You didn't do any reforms. 'Market complexities' is all hogwash. We had a bad product." Outpacing Africa, Bhalla declared, was no thrill. "Kaun se kaddu mein teer maara?" (Which pumpkin has the arrow shot?) Moreover, the 1980s' GDP acceleration came on the back of a huge increase in investment. "What's the big deal?" As for the 1990s' reforms, "How much acceleration did you get? Zilch." From 5.6 per cent (1980-1990) to 5.75 per cent (1991-2004). "I can't see the difference. So, therefore, we did not have reforms."

If there was any sense of complacency left, Bhalla squashed it with a series of country-to-country comparisons. In Asia, India's performance is still "bottom of the league". While Asia has largely zoomed ahead, India has stayed put... feeling good about its reforms. "What was that movie?" asked Bhalla, almost bristling in Jerry Maguiresque exasperation, "'Show me the money.' Yeah, show me the evidence." Reforms, he added, ought to take India ahead at 3 per cent per capita, not 1.5 per cent. Admitting this failure, he rounded off, would allow faster growth.

At the moderator's podium, Seth was ready to get the fireworks going. "He has destroyed every slide that you put up," he told Bhalla's opponent. On his part, Virmani accused Bhalla of bending "the facts to support his case", contending that the post-reforms growth had come from actual productivity as much as add-on investment. But Bhalla wasn't about to let up his rhetoric. "Why sell India's potential short?" he asked, "Our potential is to grow 8-9-10 per cent. I want my due." The man's suggestion: do whatever it takes.

But would Manmohan Singh do the job? It was the Q&A session, and someone in the audience was keen to know. "If Manmohan Singh is marketing UPA and the Common Minimum Programme, then we will go nowhere," replied Bhalla, "I think he recognises that politics is politics, and economics is the real stuff."

On primary reforms, the consensual view was, yes, agriculture needs attention. Education and labour too. But whom are the reforms to be marketed to? "Foreign investors," said Seth. "The people," said Virmani, "to create a constituency for further reform." Both, then.