Engineering utopia

The audience exceeded 3,000. The sponsors: India’s largest infotech company, Tata Consultancy Services. Among the audience were sundry ...

The audience exceeded 3,000. The sponsors: India’s largest infotech company, Tata Consultancy Services. Among the audience were sundry ministers, Karnataka’s governor-and his security detail of swarthy policemen, as intensely involved in the proceedings on stage as the participants themselves. The setting for this extraordinary evening was the third rural IT quiz in Bangalore’s Palace Grounds last week. The innocuous-sounding event largely escaped the attention of the media, but its success showcased how change permeates a society to its grassroots. The criterion for taking part was simple: participants should be students of schools outside the municipal limits of Karnataka’s major towns.

More than 48,000 students — 6,000 more than last year — sent in their entries. The groundswell of popular enthusiasm at the finals was clearly a message that the ideal of technology was permeating through to the hinterland. How did this happen? Could other states replicate this silent stream of knowledge? It’s possible. But it’s not likely to happen in a hurry. A lot of the things that Karnataka does are indeed replicable — and to some extent is going on in states like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

As in Karnataka, government promotion of tech in is well-organised and extremely enthusiastic, seeping into daily life through an increasing wiring up of administrative functions. The local media too are well versed with the workings, promises and prospects of technology industries. The school system, even in rural areas, is geared towards engineering utopia. The Narayanmurthys, the Premjis and a host of lesser stars are shining role models. Their stories are widely publicised and known in the remotest village in some fashion. This is why you will find a host of village-boys-who-made-it-big among Bangalore’s tech elite. Of course, there are enormous hardships and the school system that allows them to follow their dreams is far from perfect, but it is accessible.

Still, these are support functions at best. Ultimate success seems to occur when all these happen at once, seamlessly segueing into the other, not in isolation. In Karnataka, it all seems to have come together rather beautifully over the last decade. At the end of the day, children and their parents only consider a career option if they know it works, when they see others make their fortunes. In Karnataka’s hinterland, they see that and they want in.

EXCLUSIVE: EC brings in feature to check misuse of identity to seek voter list deletions

Political Pulse1 hr ago

The Election Commission has launched a new 'e-sign' feature on its portal and app to prevent fraud. This comes after allegations of misuse of online voter deletion forms in Karnataka. The feature requires voters to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers, reducing the possibility of fraud.

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