He is obsessed with the idea of transforming Hyderabad into a global infotech cluster. A city that will breed, employ and enrich talent. But will chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's strategic vision outlive his adminstration?  A prognosis.

By Sanajay Baru

Four hundred-odd years ago, when Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah expanded his capital out of the fortress at Golconda in 1591, building the city of Hyderabad along the banks of the Musi, he constructed an impressive monument in the city-centre, the Charminar, and laid 4 roads which took off from each side of the plaza around the monument.

The road to the West led to the Golconda Fort.

The road to the North went past the biggest mosque in the Deccan, the Mecca Masjid.

The road to the South touched the banks of the Musi, and went across to the gardens that later housed the British Resident's palace.

But the longest road from the Charminar ran Eastwards to the sea and Machilipatnam Port which, at that time, was the jewel of the Coromandel Coast.

Since its birth, land-locked Hyderabad has yearned to reach out to the world. In the years that followed, this city of gardens and rocks became the richest trading-centre in the Deccan, and a global mart for gems and jewellery. Yet, Hyderabad's more recent history has been one of splendid isolation from the waves of industrialisation and modernisation.

Four centuries after the Qutb Shahis, Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister, 48-year-old Nara Chandrababu Naidu, is, once again, linking Hyderabad to the world. This time, through fibre-optics, satellites, and an international airport, hoping to make the city a rendezvous for the world's West and East--and not just India's North and South.

Machilipatnam Port is being privatised and modernised as are a dozen others along the Coromandel Coast. From Visakhapatnam to Vijayawada to Nellore runs a long coastal corridor of agrarian prosperity and industrial growth. In the heart of it all, however, lies Hyderabad, which Naidu's Vision 2020 projects as India's infotech capital. He drew his picture of the future last month when he inaugurated CyberTowers, the centre-piece of the proposed Hi-Tech City, near Madhapur, close to the Hyderabad-Mumbai highway: "Until now, the world has heard of the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad. From today, the world will know of the triplet cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad-Cyberabad."

Fifty years ago, when the erstwhile State of Hyderabad became a part of the Republic of India, Hyderabad was dubbed the nation's second capital. Until the early 1980s, the President of India would regularly move his office from Delhi's Rashtrapati Bhavan to Secunderabad's Rashtrapathi Nilayam every June to escape Delhi's heat and enjoy the Deccan monsoon. However, the late 1980s saw Bangalore overtaking Hyderabad as not only South India's most dynamic, cosmopolitan, and corporate-friendly city, but also as a global destination for business.

If Hyderabad has since rapidly moved up the ladder of corporate opinion as one of the more business-friendly cities in the country, it is as much a tribute to Naidu's work as it is to the city's undying spirit of cosmopolitanism. Hyderabadi culture is a blend of North and South Indian traditions; its language, a mixture of Urdu, Telugu, Hindustani, and Marathi; and its cuisine, a combination of Mughlai and Andhra spices. Its mood today: a cocktail of nawabi take-it-easiness and aggressive Andhra-ite entrepreneurship.

While Hyderabad was never an industrial city, it has always had a fair share of industrial activity. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, took a keen interest in setting up textile mills and engineering companies in the state. And many public sector enterprises--like Bharat Heavy Electricals, HMT, and Electronics Corp. of India--set up shop in the city in the 1970s. Points out K. Anji Reddy, 57, the CEO of the Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's Laboratories: "Real industrial development started in Hyderabad only during the chief ministership of J. Vengal Rao. It is only when local, first-generation businessmen like K.V.K Raju, G.V. Krishna Reddy, Ramoji Rao, and myself started investing here that the city really developed."

While the first phase of the planned development and industrial growth of Hyderabad is widely associated with Vengal Rao's tenure (1973-78) as chief minister, the 1980s were a decade wasted. And Hyderabad's development resumed with the Naidu Administration. Says Eric McGaw, an American who has made Hyderabad his home, and runs a consultancy for Indians aspiring to make a living in the US and American companies setting up base in Hyderabad: "Hyderabad is still an overgrown town--not a city. But the future is everywhere around us: the new flyovers, the new buildings, the new companies."

That is what sets Hyderabad apart. Argues J.A. Chowdhury, Director, Software Technology Parks of India, and a key player in Naidu's Project Cyberabad: "Hyderabad is preparing for the future. Other cities will be left behind when traffic-congestion and urban chaos overtakes them." That's a view which finds increasing resonance from many quarters. When he came a-visiting to participate in the Confederation of Indian Industry's National Executive Council Meeting recently, Rahul Bajaj, 60, the CEO of Bajaj Auto, spoke glowingly about Naidu's ability to think ahead: "Most of our politicians are thinking about today; Naidu is thinking about tomorrow."

Nothing symbolises Hyderabad's newly-acquired image as India's Most Happening City better than the decision of the board of directors of the Indian School of Business (ISB)--which includes some of the biggest and the brightest leaders of Indian and American companies--to pick Hyderabad from a list of 5 potential locations to house the ISB campus. Announcing the decision, Mukesh Ambani, 41, the Joint Managing Director of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), claimed that the vote over Navi Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Chennai was not just "unanimous, but overwhelming." The only complaint against Hyderabad, claimed the Housing Development Finance Corporation CEO, Deepak Parekh, 52, was "its weather."

Naidu apart, how supportive is the state government? Opinion is mixed. Explains K.S. Raju, 47, the Chairman of the Nagarjuna Group, Andhra Pradesh's largest business group: "I often find it easier to get decisions out of civil servants in Chennai than Hyderabad. Naidu is trying hard, but not all his officers are that co-operative." Still, everyone is convinced that things are changing for the better. "Naidu is not thinking of the next elections; he's planning for the next generation," adds Raju himself.

In fact, Naidu is not the only long-distance runner. His political guru, the media baron, Ramoji Rao, has built a futuristic film city, Ramoji Film City (RFC), which he wants to link up with Hollywood. A weekly air-connection to Los Angeles via Singapore will now make it easier not only for the Andhra-ites from Silicon Valley to come back home, but also for Hollywood's producers to land and shoot. Rao's USP: a producer can walk in with cash, and walk out with film-cans since RFC is a self-contained state-of-the-art production facility.

Most of the recent action in Hyderabad has been in the infotech business. Points out P. Rajendran, 45, coo, NIIT: "The action is here. No one can afford to stay out." When Naidu got Microsoft's CEO, Bill Gates, to locate its R&D centre at CyberTowers, he made sure no other company could ignore the city. So, the big names are all here: Oracle, BaaN, Tata ibm, Metamor Global Solutions, Satyam Computers, Wipro, VisualSoft. According to a recent National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM) survey of Infotech professionals across India, Hyderabad gets a score of 3.40 on a scale of 0 to 4 for the availability of qualified Infotech professionals; 3.80 on local data communication skills; 3.70 on the state government's attitude; and 3.20 on the quality of life. However, Hyderabad only gets average scores on its educational facilities, climate, intra-city commuting, and getting a new business started.

Just what is Hyderabad's usp? Answers Chowdhury: "It is the total concept of a knowledge hub." After all, it is the location for the first Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), several high-class scientific and engineering research institutes, defence laboratories, 6 universities, and several national training institutions. Therefore, the supply of, and demand for, computing and software skills match perfectly. "Infotech professionals would like to live close to work so that they can work early morning or late into the night," says Chowdhury. That is possible because accommodation can always be found within 10 minutes of your workplace in Hyderabad.

Are companies able to attract good managerial talent to Hyderabad? "Increasingly so," opines Ramesh Gelli, 52, CEO, Global Trust Bank (GTB), who does not regret the decision to locate his headquarters in the city. "Initially, we had some difficulty in enticing people away from Mumbai and Delhi. But now, anyone is willing to move to Hyderabad. Their main concern is the quality of life." At the same time, younger corporate leaders are becoming a bit impatient with the city. "Hyderabad has had a history of promising too much and not living up to the promise," complains C. Parthasarathy, the Chairman & Managing Director of Karvy Consultants, who lives in Hyderabad, but spends half his time in Mumbai.

Rapid urbanisation has meant that the civic amenities in the city are getting stretched. For instance, the supply of drinking water is a major problem, which can only be solved if the government moves quickly to tap the waters of the Krishna or the Godavari. While drainage systems are being improved and illegal constructions demolished, large parts of Hyderabad have grown haphazardly. One of Hyderabad's best-regarded urban planners, V.K. Bawa, laments this chaos and ugliness, and the growing clout of the contractor lobby. Although he had drawn up an urban plan for the city in the 1970s, no government has bothered to implement it. "The model of Hyderabad's development is regressive; it does not conform to modern concepts of urban growth," complains Bawa.

This is a real cause for concern since Hyderabad is preparing to become a major industrial city. Naidu's Vision 2020 document sees infotech and pharmaceuticals as Hyderabad's 2 major industries. And an exports zone is coming up in the suburbs, outside Secunderabad, with a focus on garments and leather. "If the coal mines in Khammam District are better-exploited and the Ramagumdam area is developed as the region's Ruhr," argues T.L. Sankar, the Principal of the Hyderabad-based Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), "there is no reason why the city cannot attract more engineering and metal-based industries."

One problem with Vision 2020, however, is its complete identification with Naidu's personality. If Naidu wins the next election to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, in November, 1999, it is clear which direction the city will take. If he loses, the imponderables are many. To be sure, the development of Hyderabad is being shaped by the emergence of a new social class of enterprising businessmen, whose influence on the city's destiny will outlive Naidu's tenure. Given the absence of a forward-looking leadership in the other political parties, however, it has come to depend far too much on the political longevity of Naidu.

Thus, Naidu's exit, like Vengal Rao's in the 1970s, may yet pull the state back from the top league and keep it in the middle--at the bottom of the list of India's developed and at the top of the list of the eternally-developing states. Hyderabad--and Andhra Pradesh--have remained at the threshold for far too long. Their opportunity to forge ahead is now. The question is: will Hyderabad seize 2000?

The author, an economist, is based in Hyderabad

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