Tracing roots, IT biggies on Mission Kashmir

This long list of top execs8212;who boast of some connection, business as well as personal, to J038;K8212;is being lined up by IT industry association Nasscom for the three-day Kashmir trip, scheduled to set off on June 19, 2006.

The list is impressive. NIIT Chairman Rajendra S. Pawar, software maker iFlex8217;s Rajesh Hukku, Microsoft India8217;s former chief Rajiv Kaul, and Pradeep Kar, the founder of Microland, are from the state.

Others on board8212;Flextronics President and MD Arun Kumar, venture evangelist Saurabh Srivastava, Sun Microsystems MD Bhaskar Pramanik, TCS Executive Vice President Phiroz Vandrewala8212;are busy roping in more CEOs who share links with the state.

8216;8216;The thing is, if you have enterprise anywhere in the country, you8217;ll have it in Kashmir too. And you could be run down by a speeding truck anywhere in the world, what does that say about security threat anywhere?8217;8217; says Srivastava, one of India8217;s most powerful VCs and angel investor who is counting on nurturing new entrepreneurs from Kashmir8217;s graduate English-speaking population.

8216;8216;Xansa has an existing tie-up with a university in Kashmir to grow its IT talent, entrepreneurship is only the next step8217;8217; he says.

Adds Nasscom8217;s Karnik, 8216;8216;I always say that 100 jobs in any context are better than a 100 soldiers. A lot of unhappiness and frustration comes from being educated but jobless. To the extent that it can, the industry will be helping fight one of the reasons behind militancy.8217;8217;

The Kashmir IT story, as it unfolds, is being backed up by the normal-by-Indian-standards power supply in Jammu, the excellent climate in Srinagar, reasonable prosperity in the communities and standard of education, not to mention a supportive new state government. Industry veteran Rajendra S. Pawar met CM Ghulam Nabi Azad last week and found a 8216;8216;tremendous interest.8217;8217;

8216;8216;We would have gone to Kashmir last year but we couldn8217;t, what with the regime change8230; But the current CM is quite keen and very in the middle of the action we8217;re planning,8217;8217; says Pawar.

Nasscom8217;s Karnik adds, 8216;8216;We are keen on starting a process where industry first hires people from the state and builds a base that will attract the IT industry to go there and set up shop. This is how the BPO industry had first gone to Kolkata.8217;8217;

The theory that both IT software and BPO firms can do well in Kashmir is being presented thanks to an earlier example set by the tourism sector. A state that was earlier clouded by risk perceptions suddenly became the turnaround child. Soon after tourism hit a high in 2004 and 2005 in the Valley, airline services picked up too.

8216;8216;There are a couple of very small BPOs in Kashmir, but as the risk perception gradually improves, we believe there will be a flooding of interest and business. Since development has not happened in the state when compared with other parts of the country, it is natural that when movement starts it will be immense,8217;8217; says Pawar.

Under the Nasscom umbrella, a three-stage effort is being planned to roll out from June. In the first step, the state government and private educational bodies are to be encouraged to finetune the graduate talent to suit the IT industry.

The total number of graduates in the state has been growing roughly six times every year in the past decade. There are about 20,000 graduates, post-graduates, degree and diploma holders and about 12,000 ITI trained youth enrolled in the state at present.

In the second stage, the Nasscom-industry effort is to push the government into adopting e-governance faster, to speed IT usage and skill levels. 8216;8216;After that, the only thing left is to create meaningful IT jobs in the state. We believe the best way to start this process is by taking people who will have the most neutral view of the region8217;s situation8212;the NRK and NRJ CEOs,8217;8217; says Pawar.

For many on the new Mission Kashmir team, the third and final leg of the effort, which is likely to start immediately after the five-day trip, rests on convincing the world that the risk reality and perception about Kashmir are actually poles apart.