The Karnataka government needs a better strategy for development. Even though its overall performance in the last two years leans on the positive side, the state government can do a lot more.
But just betting on big projects could lead to big problems. So mobilisation of rural capital is the key. There is little done on tapping local capital and agrarian capital and moving it to industry. I think the last time I really saw this effort was during the time of Devaraj Urs.
It is important to look at the transition of rural/agrarian capital to industrial capital in whatever scale. We have seen this being done in Gujarat with Amul, where it tapped rural capital as small as a cow. In Tamil Nadu, rural capital was turned into pumpsets first and then to automobiles. Every agriculturist has become a capitalist in Tamil Nadu. So if Karnataka can attract rural capital and pull it off, it can take credit for it. The government is taking foreign capital to rural areas. This will lead to lower costs but the tradeoff is that low cost could equal to low infrastructure.
Sustainable growth comes from smaller projects which are grown here. Bengaluru grew on account of the growth of Infosys and Wipro. Foreign capital will only come when local capital has sustained itself here. The success of the IT industry was because of the local industry demonstrating its capabilities here. And now these companies are investing in foreign locations.
The state has brought the poor into some level of focus. All this talk of growth means nothing if the basic requirement of feeding the poor is not taken into account. Karnataka is one of the poorer states in south India, and we are not very proud of it, and so hope that the state comes out with more pro-poor schemes (like Anna Bhagya).
As for delivering on promises, it has been a mixed bag; for example, in Bengaluru, the garbage crisis was avoidable but they have managed to do something about it. What matters is what their promises mean on ground rather than in spirit.
Dr Narendra Pani
Prof, National Institute of Advanced Studies