The Hindu : Two contrasting styles of economic leadership

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 14, 2003

Business

Business

Two contrasting styles of economic leadership

A BUSINESS leader of Chennai having extensive operations in Andhra Pradesh referred to a recent experience of his: "Y. Ramakrishnudu, finance minister of A.P., visited Chennai recently. He telephoned and dropped in at my office. To a query of mine, he took the marker pen and explained the issue in simple terms on a board. He always appreciated the pressure on time for every one of us and volunteered to meet us wherever convenient.''

Such an attitude is not confined to Ramakrishnudu. One could expect a similar experience with several other senior members of the Chandrababu Naidu government. An interesting fact is, all these ministers are well-educated, well-informed, articulate, self-assured and, most importantly, exhibit the same degree of passion for reforms noticeable in their chief minister. They are easily accessible (you can phone them and get an appointment and they meet you at the appointed time!) and talk with assurance and without inhibition — a striking contrast to Tamil Nadu ministers who seem to suffer from a sort of fear complex.

The lead is, of course, provided by the leader ever willing to learn and grasp opportunities whenever and wherever present.

A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) showed an overwhelming 84 per cent of business leaders in the country selecting Mr. Naidu as the best chief minister.

In early January, CII held its annual mega event, the Partnership Summit, at Hyderabad. The A.P. government provided whole-hearted support to the four-day summit in which several international and national celebrities, including administrators, academics, business leaders and professionals including 22 foreign delegations participated.

From the inauguration at the spanky State government built new auditorium, the Shilpakala Vedika, filled to its capacity of 2121, by deputy prime minister L. K. Advani, to the valedictory session addressed by finance minister Jaswant Singh three days later, the presence and participation of Mr Naidu and his senior colleagues was extensive.

This was quite a contrast to the experience in Chennai where the chief minister is present just for the inaugural session, with all her cabinet colleagues vying with one another to occupy the couple of front rows and trooping out after the CM. Mr. Naidu had dozens of breakfast, luncheon and dinner meetings with the foreign delegations, with the Indian business leaders, with the academics, the management gurus who were the star attractions and the diplomatic corps.

Mr. Naidu is no great orator. But he is extremely focussed, selling Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh effectively. CII's director general Tarun Das, who avoids speaking from the podium at such meets, made an exception: he had a lot to applaud in Mr. Naidu's involvement and said it so whole-heartedly.

This networking between business and the government has been mutually beneficial with the CII presenting Mr. Naidu in several national and international fora — such as the annual economic summits it organises in Delhi in November and the World Economic Forum meetings at Davos. Mr. Naidu finds time to attend the World Economic Summit every year.

He effectively networks with global business leaders, heads of multilateral institutions, bankers and academics. Mr. Naidu is quite effective in getting the best out of many of these. I give two instances:

In early 2000, along with the CII, Mr. Naidu organised The India Financial Forum (TIFF). The two-day conference presented a galaxy of experts from the financial world including the managing director of the World Bank, almost all the top brass of the financial world from Mumbai including the Governor of Reserve Bank, a few brilliant academics and the chairman of IRDA.

Mr. Naidu explained his dream to make Hyderabad the financial capital of India. The active participation of past governors of Reserve Bank of India, M. Narasimham and C. Rangarajan (then Governor of A.P.) and a host of prominent business leaders and bankers of the State contributed to the success of TIFF. There was an immediate fall out: IRDA chose Hyderabad as its headquarters!

I noticed an equally admirable focus in Mr. Naidu conducting the CII's International Knowledge Millennium Conference in close association with the ICICI Knowledge Park. The active involvement of Bala S. Manian, a renowned U.S. based scientist, ICI's Ashok Ganguly, ICICI's N. Vaghul and K. V. Kamath, R. A. Mashelkar of CSIR and ICMR's director general, Nirmal K. Ganguly, so richly contributed to the success of this two-day conference attended by over 400 leaders from science and business. Mr. Naidu had involved this galaxy of participants to work on a road- map for positioning Hyderabad as an international centre for life sciences. A.P. already accounts for some 35 per cent of the drugs and pharmaceuticals produced in India.

There are several other instances of Mr. Naidu bringing to A.P. the best of institutions and practices elsewhere: The hi-tech infocity inspired by the success of the IT industry in Bangalore.

Taking the help of senior civil servant G. V. Ramakrishna and the head of L&T-ECC, A. Ramakrishna, Mr. Naidu has set up the National Academy of Construction that is contributing so richly to training and skills development in the construction industry.

A tissue culture centre has been established with the help of the National Chemical Laboratory. Actively involving the CSIR labs, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, A.P. has set up ICICI's Knowledge Park and the sprawling Genome Valley: the Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park Pvt. Ltd. adjacent to the Knowledge Park is taking shape at a frenetic pace over an area of 600 sq. km.

Mr. Naidu is truly considered the CEO of the State. His accessibility and willingness to spot and attract talent, while being politically alert all the time to get for the State more than its due from the Centre, has attracted wide notice. Remember the heartburn of several chief ministers when A.P. succeeded in getting nearly two-thirds of all the rice given to the States free for the `food-for-work' programme? Or persuading NTPC to set up a second super thermal station at Simhadri? In close cooperation with BHEL, NTPC has set up a 1000 MW capacity in quick time and the entire power goes to A.P.! Mr. Naidu is actively working to double this capacity. The State today accounts for an installed capacity of 10,500 MW, way ahead of others in the southern region. In the seven years of Mr. Naidu's rule, the increase has been 4500 MW, more than double the capacity addition in Tamil Nadu over this period.

Remember, since 1996 Tamil Nadu has been so well-represented in the Central cabinet, with a share of 9 ministers. While the State leaders were content to win representation for their parties in the NDA and get some sinecure jobs and favours for their partymen, Mr. Naidu chose to keep out of the NDA but leveraged his support so effectively to get the best out of Central allocations for A.P.

These range from handsome loans for drought and flood relief to free foodgrains. Whether it be for getting the clearance for construction of a new airport or for new four lane highways, Mr. Naidu's ability to get the best is in contrast to that of Tamil Nadu and others.

At the root lies the willingness to update himself constantly on developments the world over by frequent visits abroad and effectively networking with the Andhra diaspora. During the Dravidian rule of 35 years, the chief ministers of DMK or AIADMK had rarely gone abroad.

The lesson for Tamil Nadu lies in its leaders improving their access to different sections of the society.

Kamaraj had provided a great model: he focussed on politics, on his party and on building essential contact with the masses leaving the task of administration to competent young colleagues in a compact eight-member cabinet.

The freedom and the encouragement given to these helped in the evolution of M. Bhakthavatsalam, C. Subramaniam and R. Venkataraman as outstanding administrators. Mr. Naidu has encouraged his cabinet colleagues to perform, to display initiative. In contrast, the Dravidian parties have not thrown up great talent in their 35 long years of rule.

S. Viswanathan

Editor, Industrial Economist

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