In a move that has raised eyebrows in the political as well as IT circles, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has given the prestigious IT/BT Department to newly-inducted minister S R Patil.
Karnataka’s new ITBT Minister, a senior Congress MLC from Bagalkot, is a soft-spoken man, who headed a co-operative bank.
He shares a good equation with Siddaramaiah and that is considered the major reason for his entry into the Cabinet, though he is an “original” Congressman.
Patil has also been given the Departments of the Science and Technology, Planning and Statistics.
He told Express, “There is a lot of scope to work with the Ministry.” Maintaining that IT and BT are the two sectors, which are contributing immensely to both the state and the national economy, the Minister said that it is a challenge to handle the crucial sectors, which are being hit by the economic down-turn.
Corporate honchos, however, were visibly unhappy with the CM’s decision.
“This is a very important sector for Karnataka and I can’t understand the logic behind picking Patil as the minister of IT/BT. I am sure he must be a competent politician but they should have picked someone with an international face, tech savvy and a lot younger for the job. I am disappointed and surprised at the decision,” Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson & Managing Director of bio technology major Biocon told Express.
She said that she hoped he could continue to provide support to the sector as they had received from the previous government.
“Infrastructure, policy decisions such as allowing big start-up opportunities, seeding start-ups, starting incubators and business accelerators are some of the things they should try and help create,” she said.
Shaw also highlighted that the Karnataka vision group had impressed upon the government to bring in increased initiatives to help the sector.
“IT/BT are flagship sectors that need a further boost. We are hoping for support from the new minister,” she added.
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India was also not very optimistic.
“The CM should have appointed persons who have knowledge in particular departments, instead of giving posts for the heck of it. The Minister has to deal with a lot of people in the department, and hence should have some knowledge of the department,” J Crasta,
Co-chairman (Southern Region) of the trade body said. Crasta said the Chief Minister should have waited and seen which individuals could deliver and only then allotted the ministries. “IT industries have moved out of Karnataka. For an industry that is facing a lot of infrastructure trauma, issues on taxation or import-export and traffic problems in the city, sadly the facilities given to the IT sector by former chief minister S M Krishna have died down. Now we have no option but to wait and watch.”