It’s a great time to be an educated middle-class person in India - Mohandas Pai

The amazing transformation in the country’s job sector has only just begun, says Infosys’ Mohandas Pai.

GRN Somashekar

Welcome change: T.V. Mohandas Pai, HR chief of Infosys, says it’s a great time to be an educated middle-class person in today’s India.

Rasheeda Bhagat

He may have started his career in Infosys Technologies in 1994 in finance but, today, as a director on the Board and chief of HR, T.V. Mohandas Pai is all passion and excitement on the HR scene in India, where he sees HR as “the biggest challenge in the next 20 years. We have to invest in people, pay them well and respect them,” he says. Spelling out the amazing transformation on the job front in India in recent years, and the role played by the private sector in this, he says that when he qualified as a CA in 1982, “I had 12 job offers, all from the public sector, except for one. In the private sector, more than talent, jobs went by relationships, as we had a very feudal business culture. But the public sector took the brightest people. Till the last decade it was the one that respected the educated middle-class with no credentials… who didn’t have a chance in hell of getting into a good private company because it worked in very feudal and family oriented ways. But now the balance has shifted and it’s a great time to be an educated middle-class person in India, and the IT industry has created this. It has sent a message to parents: Invest in a child and pay good fees, because he/she will get a good salary.”

Pai was born in Bangalore in a lower middle-class family; his mother was a schoolteacher and his father was raised in an orphanage. The child was sent to a Bangalore school; “in those days you had to be first in class, and get 100 marks in mathematics.”

So did he manage it?

“Oh yes, it was not negotiable,” recalls Pai, seated in his spacious room at the sprawling green Infosys campus in Bangalore. As a child he was fascinated by books and continues to be a voracious reader — “name me a book and chances are I would have read it”. His holidays were spent in the public library where his mother had a membership and he devoured the books there “from Victor Hugo to the Grimm brothers.”

He did his CA and law together; “I wanted to be independent. I didn’t want to work for anybody; I was a rebel.” In 1982 he started practice as a CA in his friend’s office, did consultancy for Prakash Roadlines group from 1986, and later joined them as Executive Director, and remained there till he joined Infosys in 1994.

Even today Pai is visibly excited as he describes how he joined the IT giant. A friend in Enam Securities that handled the Infosys IPO suggested he buy some shares through private placement in 1992 “and I bought 1,500-2,000 shares at Rs 85.” Later he attended the investor conference held by the company before the IPO, along with a friend. “Murthy and Nandan (Nilekani) were making presentations and I told my friend to ask a lot of questions on the prospectus. Those days I had a collection of 3,000 reports; I used to have annual reports for breakfast, would go to AGMs, hound the management and ask a lot of questions. I was a bit of a shareholder activist,” he says.

He had invested in ACC, Kothari Sugars, Tata Steel and Bangalore Leasing, “though I didn’t make much money in equity!” He attended the AGM after the IPO at West End Hotel where all the six founders were there in suits, with three stenographers taking notes. “I asked them ‘why are you paying yourselves so little…?’ they were getting Rs 12,000 or so. I said ‘you should pay yourselves more, you’re making good money and you should respect talent’.” He also asked them why they were paying their auditors less!

After that he was in touch with Nilekani and at subsequent analyst meets too he posed questions on why Infosys was holding so much cash. “Then Nandan met me for lunch in December 1993, and said ‘we have a vacancy; will you join?’ I said ‘I’ll only join if you give me a senior position, but not as an employee, only a consultant’. He said ‘okay, come on board’.”

Murthy, the finance manager

So he joined in February 1994, and worked on several projects such as a private placement, ESOPs, annual report and so on. Pai is effusive in his praise of Murthy’s financial skills. “He was working on a financial model for Infosys, and working with him was a fascinating experience. Here was this man using a software... spreadsheet, et al. Actually he had prepared a financial model — he did 98 per cent of the work, my contribution was only 2 per cent — to forecast Infosys’s growth, and it’s a model that we use even today. He’s an unbelievable man; he’s probably the best finance manager this country has seen. His understanding of finance, the fundamentals, is unbelievable... he’s simply brilliant.”

They worked on this model together and, one day in 1995, “Murthy came to my room and said ‘why don’t you join us?’” G.R. Naik was retiring as head of finance, and “he told me I should take his place. So I joined as Vice President, Finance, and the rest has been a dream run!”

On why he shifted from Finance to HR in 2005, Pai says, “It was a great journey in finance. The most important thing we did in finance was to set standards in financial reporting, corporate governance, transparency, quality of work, engaging government on policy issues, the ADR, etc. While doing all this I worked very hard to create a team of finance people.”

In April 2005 he told Murthy he wanted to step down as CFO, telling him: “I’ve done all this for 12 years and enjoyed every bit. But if I hang on too much, I will not allow my people their day in the sun, and won’t be true to myself or Infosys because a leader is supposed to create new leaders. If I hang on, they’ll get frustrated and that’s not right. So he said ‘why don’t you become Director, Finance and Bala can become CFO’ and I said that means he reports to me again, so what has changed. I should step away.”

Reluctantly, adds Pai, Murthy agreed, and the change was effected in May 2006. When asked what he’d do next “I told Murthy I’ll do some finance stuff, administration, and fade away. And he said: ‘No, handle HR. I know you’ll do it very well.” Around that time Hema (Ravichandran) wanted to go, and Pai stepped in, but as a director for governance, mentorship and policy. “I’m also responsible for HR, education and research, and now the Leadership Institute. When Murthy says something you listen! So that was it.”

Obviously he dotes on Murthy; so what was it like for him when he called it quits from day-to-day work at Infosys?

“It was a big personal loss for me. Murthy is such a brilliant man, I enjoyed going into the room and fighting with him, raising issues. He was my mentor; he mentored and challenged me to realise my potential. I learnt everything from him; how to be a better human being, the virtues of discharging obligations, to be courageous and stand up for what you believe in. I also learnt from him how to build a great company. He was like a foster father to me after I lost my father.”

Corruption

Did he have to deal with corruption and ethical issues?

“Yes, but comparatively less. First of all our need to deal with the government has been less compared to a manufacturing company. Two, we came at the right time when government activities vis-À-vis business came down in the liberalisation era. Three, because we were in technology and the export sector we were treated specially. The government did not understand what we were doing, and kept away! There was a mystery and aura about us.”

Also, he adds, IT had “a wonderful person called Dewang Mehta who created a brand equity for the industry”, and not too many “demands” were made from it.

But when they had to face corruption, “we remained steadfast and said we’ll not succumb and people respected us. For example in a North Indian city known for corruption, the officer said: “Infosys ko de do, donR 17;t waste time!”

Pai adds that integrity is very important in Infosys where background checks are rigorous; “we have low tolerance levels for breaches in integrity; if you breach you have to go.”

Dream for Infosys

“I want to see it become the most respected name in IT services in the world; we’re probably in the top 10 now, within 2-3 years we should be in top 5, but we have to become the most respected and symbolic of the aspirations of educated people the world over, recognised for quality, value system and ability to meet client needs.”

Original Story

Q&A: 'Reservations alone can't equip students to face competition'

Infosys Technologies with the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, has just concluded the first course of a Special Training Programme (STP) for SC, ST students aimed at enhancing their employability.

T V Mohandas Pai, director, human resources, Infosys, spoke to Dhanya Krishnakumar about the programme:


Are you looking at expanding this programme beyond Karnataka?

Ideally, there should be a similar effort in every state. Currently, we plan to conduct pilots in five other states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Orissa. A successful pilot will convince state governments of its need and feasibility. In Pune, we are collaborating with the Symbiosis Institute for a pilot in September. We are talking to two other institutions and we'll finalise things soon.

How did the idea for such a programme come about?

During a meeting with Narayana Murthy, Union minister for social justice and empowerment Meira Kumar asked him to come up with a programme to empower students from the socially disadvantaged classes. We believe that reservation alone cannot equip students for a sound future. The basic premise of STP is to equip these students who have done well in their engineering courses, but lack of resources or opportunities have not been able to get access to good quality higher education.

What are the skills imparted and how are students selected?

Anybody who has finished her engineering a year or two ago and belongs to SC/ST is eligible. We worked with the department of social welfare, government of Karnataka to come up with a list of candidates who would qualify for the pilot project. The training process is similar to the one we provide to those who join Infosys. Our usual process takes about five months, but the STP course is seven months.

We also train them in personality development, confidence building, articulation and communication because often people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds suffer from low esteem and it's essential to change that. The average perfor-mance of the STP batch was comparable to a typical batch at Infosys.

What about placements post this training?

From our first batch of 90, close to 76 got placed in companies like IBM, EDS, HP, MindTree, Wipro and Infosys itself. We made 23 offers, but only 15-16 joined us which shows the power of this programme. It made them competitive enough to have choices. Placement is based purely on merit.

What's the investment in this programme?

For the pilot, we invested Rs 3 crore. Starting with the next session, we are looking at Rs 1 crore with a 50-50 partnership with the state government. The government has the funds but lacks the capability to plan and execute something like this. That's where we come in. We also got support from our partners like HP, Canara Bank and some other corporate houses.

Infosys to hire 26,000 people this fiscal

IANS[ WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2007 02:01:36 PM]

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies Ltd will be on a hiring spree this fiscal (2007-08) too.

In a bid to stem the growing attrition rate due to competition from the booming IT industry, especially the multinationals, the company plans to hire a whopping 26,000 people this fiscal.

"Hiring continues to be strong and attrition is under control. We plan to hire 26,000 people for the year. In the first quarter (April-June), the gross addition was 7,004 employees and net addition 3,730," Infosys head for HRD and education and research TV Mohandas Pai said in a statement here on Wednesday.

As a result, by the end of the quarter under review (Q1), the total number of employees in the company and its subsidiaries worldwide stood at 75,971, compared to 58,409 a year ago and 72,241 a quarter ago.

The attrition rate during the last 12 months has gone up marginally to 13.7 per cent in Q1 from 11.9 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.

"Our investments in training and education are giving us enhanced capabilities to make our clients more competitive and meet our growth objectives," Pai claimed.

Of the total headcount, 71,018 are software professionals, including 63,895 billable and 5,070 trainees. There are 1,859 lateral employees.

In terms of utilisation rate, the percentage has declined to 73.9 per cent from 76.1 per cent a year ago, excluding trainees. Of the total software professionals, 73.7 per cent are deployed offshore and 26.3 per cent onsite.

"Revenues from our onshore-offshore operations continue to remain in the same range (49-50 per cent) as in the last four quarters, with offshore slightly higher," Pai added.

IT firms seek graduate flow throughout the yr

Indian software powerhouses have called for a change in the education system such that it would put out graduates at different points in the year, unlike now when almost everybody graduates in the May-July period.

With their hiring levels reaching gigantic proportions, IT firms are beginning to face the problem of having to do most of that hiring in the first half of the fiscal and concentrate their training resources during that period. Firms in US, for instance, are seen to be able to better handle hiring needs as students graduate at two different junctures.

TV Mohandas Pai, HR head of Infosys, says, "We see lumpy hiring patterns in the first six months because students graduate in hordes at this point. In Q3, it is typically senior people who are sought after. Then comes the crisis point as the market becomes dry in fourth quarter."

Says Pratik Kumar, executive VP (HR), Wipro, "Having two sets of graduates pass out every year, can help us phase out hiring. I hope colleges can think along these lines."

Already there are enough indications that the big three of Indian IT — TCS, Wipro and Infosys — will hire more than their targeted numbers for this year. Says Sudin Apte, senior analyst, Forrester Research, "They need to build the delivery team to ensure they are on track. Our research shows that the top three firms need to go to 200 engineering colleges to do their fresher recruitment. The process spans out quite long."

Original story

Infosys facing high employee attrition

- 12.9 per cent attrition rate in July-September quarter
- Up by 1 percentage point over the April-June quarter

It is one of the most sought after companies to work for as far as IT (information technology) professionals are concerned. But Bangalore-based software exporter, India's second largest, Infosys Technologies Ltd., is facing a high attrition of employees for a variety of reasons. Though the company added 10,795 people on a gross basis during the July-September quarter of the current fiscal year, the attrition rate (number of persons leaving the organisation) touched 12.9 per cent, according to T.V. Mohandas Pai, head, Human Resource Development, Education and Research, Infosys. The net addition during the second quarter was 7,741 employees.

The attrition rate has gone up by 1 percentage point over the April-June quarter of the current fiscal year when the rate was 11.9 per cent. Of the 12.9 per cent attrition rate in the second quarter, 2.9 per cent was "involuntary attrition." The attrition rate is more pronounced in the one to two years' and five to six years' experience categories. In the first category, workers leave the company to pursue higher education, go abroad or for personal reasons, including marriage and relocation, while some of them do not make the grade. Many in this category also leave because they do not get the rating and fitment they want.

"In the five to six years' experience category, employees leave because they don't get promoted," he said.

Infosys plans to hire 5,700 professionals during the October-December quarter of the current fiscal year.

Original story

Infy employees forced a night out

For scores of Infosys employees, it was a night out—by compulsion, not choice—on Tuesday.

They were done in by the chaotic traffic as they were heading home to Bangalore, from the Infosys Technologies campus at Electronics City.

Even senior executives like TV Mohandas Pai, Head of the Human Resources division, and V Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer, were forced to return to Infosys and spend the night at a hotel owned by the company.

The pileup of vehicles on the Bangalore-Hosur highway on the outskirts of the city forced the techies and senior executives to go back to the campus.

"We were unable to proceed and turned back," Mohandas Pai told Hindustan Times.

Pai added that the lack of easy access to Electronics City, the hub of the IT industry with more than 75, 000 employees, was one of the main causes for spiraling attrition at Infosys.

"All of us have to endure bumper to bumper traffic when we come in to work and on our way back home." The Electronics City Industries Association has written to the Chief Minister to tackle the problem. "We have suggested that trucks and buses coming to Bangalore from Tamil Nadu be diverted at Attibele (a village about 15 kms away from the Electronics City) and alternative roads to the city be widened. "But so far little has been done."

In 1996, a similar situation had forced the CEOs of well known infotech companies to block road traffic outside the Electronics City and thereby draw the attention of the then Janata Dal government, headed by the late JH Patel, to their plight.

It prompted the government to plan a four-lane approach highway, but work on that project has moved at snail's pace.

On June 24, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unveiled the foundation stone for the Rs 450 crore, 10-laned, 9.985 km elevated highway project, the first of its kind in the country, aimed at solving the traffic woes on the Bangalore-Hosur section of NH-7. The highway will be completed in 24 months.

Apart from traffic woes, Infosys has been forced to put off its expansion plans in this tech hub because of lack of land. The software behemoth will not
increase its headcount in Karnataka though it plans to hire 9,500 people over the next six months.

"We are full in Bangalore and Mangalore. The bulk of hiring for this year will be for outside Karnataka," Pai said pointing at paucity of land for expansion of operations.

Original story

Infy hired 10,795 people in 2nd quarter

Keeping pace with its scorching growth, Infosys Technologies Ltd hired a record number of 10,795 people during the second quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal (FY 2006-07).

"The gross addition of 10,795 people during the quarter (Q2) is the highest employee addition in any quarter. We are increasing our investment in education and training, besides improving the knowledge base of entry-level talent through the Infosys Campus Connect programme," said Infosys board member and head of HRD T V Mohandas Pai in a statement here Wednesday.

As a result, the total number of employees was 66,150 by the end of September, against 46,196 in the same period last fiscal (FY 2005-06) and 58,409 by the end of previous quarter (April-June).

With attrition level increasing to 12.9 percent in the last 12 months, the net addition was 7,741 by the end of September, as against 6,390 a year ago and 5,694 by the end of previous quarter (April-June) when the attrition levels were 10 percent and 11.9 percent respectively.

"We have also put in place a long-term retention bonus plan for senior employees during the quarter," Pai added.

Of the total employees, software professionals are 61,966, including 53,873 billable and 6,264 as trainees. The rest are employed in the banking product group (1,809) and sales & support (4,184).

Original story

Are IT firms using SEZs to maintain tax holiday?

Over 90 information technology special economic zones, SEZs, have been cleared and atleast 40 more are going to come up. In fact IT SEZS make up for almost half of the total number of SEZS approved as yet. So, why are Indian IT companies so enthused by the SEZ concept? Is it because it offers them a chance to perpetuate a tax holiday that otherwise ends in 2009? Debating this issue are Director of Human Resources of Infosys, Mohandas Pai, CEO of i-Flex, Deepak Ghaisas and Partner at BMR & Associates, Mukesh Butani.

Excerpts from an interview given to CNBC-TV18:

Q: You said that you were convinced that if tax benefits on software exports was extended, then e so many IT companies would not clamour to set up SEZs?

Ghaisas: I think the major attraction clearly is the tax concessions that IT companies have got and if they are going to get extended by or through the mechanism of SEZs, then I think most IT companies would be interested in doing that. But there are a lot of difficulties and variations between STPI and SEZ schemes.

Q: But you said if tax concessions were extended beyond 2009, then so many IT companies would not be jumping into the SEZ bandwagon?

Ghaisas: Absolutely right.

Q: Today you have Infosys, Satyam ,Wipro and TCS - all clamouring to set up SEZs and all have got approvals to some extent. So, what do you think of this big rush to try and perpetuate a tax holiday that otherwise ends in 2009?

Pai: There are two aspects. Firstly, large companies need large infrastructure requirements for expansion. They are not finding it in the existing places except in SEZs and so they have to go to the SEZ to expand. For example, we want to set up a 25,000-person campus in Chennai and the only place you can do it is the Mahindra SEZ.

Secondly, when a policy framework has been made about an SEZ - all of us in the corporate sector have to take advantage of the policy framework so that our shareholders will not point a finger at us. Yes, Narayan Murthy has made the statement - it is a larger policy issue but while running the corporation, we have to do what is available and is required.

But one must remember that, at the national level, the tax holiday is worth about Rs 125,000 crore in terms of market value for the whole industry. The industry today has market value of Rs 500,000 crore, which works out to 25% liquid stock, 5% of revenues and around 20%-25% of profits are tax exempt - this if calculated is worth Rs 125,000 crore and we can't throw it away.

Q: So you are saying that it is all right for IT companies to try and perpetuate that tax holiday even if it doesn’t exist beyond 2009 via the SEZ route? You spoke of infrastructure, we understand that the minimum area required for an IT SEZ is 25 acres and whereas the minimum area required for a multi-product SEZ is 2,500 acres, 25 acres is the minimum but that cannot clearly be an infrastructure play, it has to be a tax play?

Pai: It is a tax play but it is not a good policy for smaller companies. For eg a smaller companies with 100 people want to set up shop and we need many more small innovative companies in this country who are into a product area. For them, an SEZ restricts their choice, they need an STPI scheme. I think from a policy point of view, it is best to extend STPI schemeS like the commerce secretary has said and also give software companies a choice of the STPI scheme. But once you have a policy, naturally all companies will take advantage of the policy to do what is best for them.

Q: Do you think it is fair that IT companies be given another chance to extend what is now becoming a 2-3 decade long tax-free period for them via the SEZ policy? And is it going to be operationally possible for them to migrate existing business contracts or the renewed ones to these zones and treat them as new businesses and avail of the benefits?

Butani: There are two aspects - one is from the policy standpoint - the expiry of tax holiday in 2009 is something that the government thought about. Several successive tax reform committees suggested that we should get rid of all tax holidays.

The second is the policy - something that the government is trying to think since the late 1990s that we should have SEZs designed on the basis of what you have in China. But it is a different story about how the policy has evolved and there is a 25 acre limit for IT SEZs and also there is a limit of one million sq.ft for developed areas. I don’t think we should confuse the tax holiday with the policy part of it. The government from a policy standpoint is saying that this policy is going to encourage greater level of investment at large, in the country.

Q: What about the fact that this investment may not be new investment, it may be existing business contracts that are renewed in a zone and thereby allowing IT companies to use this to perpetuate the holiday?

Butani: How can you say that you can renew the contract? After all, at the end of the day I don’t have to set up an SEZ just because I have to expand. I have to set up an SEZ because I may want to have multiple locations. I may have significant expansions. After all, any entrepreneur who is thinking of developing one million square feet has to demonstrate significant investment, has to demonstrate he's hiring new people and has to demonstrate he's got new contracts.

Q: So are you saying that the Department of Revenue is going to lay out very strict guidelines that doesn’t allow IT companies to actually renew existing business contracts and insist that all business in SEZs is new business?

Butani: If you look at the law today, there is no provision in the law which talks about migration. So, if today I move from an STPI into SEZ with my people and with a contract, nothing prevents me from claiming a tax holiday. The only difference here is that as a part of the amendment in the special economic zone rules, they have put a prohibition on transfer of plant and machinery.

So, if I am using a plant and machinery in an STPI I can't move it into a SEZ. However, having said that and given the larger intent and substance of the law, I won't be surprised if the Department of Revenue comes out with suitable checks and balances to prevent migration from occurring.

Q: If they come up with that list of preventions, do you think that many IT companies will actually clamour to set-up SEZs?

Ghaisas: Let us look at this arithmetic what we talked about. We are talking about 25 acres, we are talking about million square feet of built-up area within three years time and this means 10,000 people and therefore you require 10,000 new people and everybody knows that any new project that comes up, you can't just stock it with new people. You need to have the old people also working with the new people. So, I am not sure exactly how the tax benefit is going to work.

More than that, the Ministry of Finance's real intention is not to give the tax benefits left right and centre as it was before, and therefore my worry is that the laws are going to be so stringent. And therefore, there will be a lot of disputes with the income tax department going forward - that people are not going to get benefits like they used to under the STPI.

Q: Are you in favour or do you think the industry would be in favour of very strict guidelines that ensure that only new business is set up in special economic zones?

Pai: The industry would be in favour of good guidelines. One that there is incremental large-scale investment and two, large-scale incremental employment is created and three large-scale incremental works. I don’t think the industry expects the existing work to shift to the SEZ. They would expect to play by the rules and the rules are very clear - ie. incremental investment, incremental employment and incremental business.

Earlier, the Software Technology Parks Of India (STPI) policy was existing and continuing possibly to grow. Now the existing STPIs will not grow and all new investment, new development and new employment will be in the SEZs - that is the interpretation the industry is making

Q: Do you think we are going about this entire SEZ policy in the right fashion? Should we be following the China example or do you think that is not applicable to India?

Pai: I think the vision should be much larger. Our vision is very myopic. We should make large-scale investment. We should ensure that manufacturing gets priority, followed by services but the division has to be much larger. The way it is today, the division is very myopic and too small and I am afraid that we may not get the benefits that China did.

Q: What do you think of the SEZ policy?

Ghaisas: The SEZ policy in-principle is fine. We require big townships to balance growth in the country. The areas which are underdeveloped need to get developed through SEZ schemes and that is how the SEZ policy should be implemented - with very simple and straightforward rules, which don’t give any interpretation disputes later on.

Q: Do you approve of this - about not leaving any space open for interpretation?

Butani: I entirely echo Deepak's view and I would rather make one suggestion - that if there is a single window clearance by the Minister of Commerce and Board of Approvals, then why can't they actually guarantee tax exemption at that stage itself. That will prevent all kinds of controversy and litigations that could come up in the future.

Mohandas Pai on Reservation in India

"We have to be sensitive to create a totally transparent and non-discriminatory policy for employment coupled with an affirmative action programme to reach out to the people who are disadvantaged," T.V. Mohandas Pai, Member of the Infosys Board, has said.

Mr. Pai was responding to a question about his views on "Reservation in industry" during an interactive session with professionals, students and academics at Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday. Stating that there was truth in the reservation debate, Mr. Pai said: "The whole issue boils down to making available access to education to everybody where money should not be a constraint."

Stating that he was all for merit, Mr. Pai said: "You have to be realistic and accept the argument about reservation for what it is."

Full story

Bangalore not getting investment it needs, says Mohandas Pai

"I am not very optimistic about cities in India (in terms of their infrastructure development for expansion of IT industry)," T.V. Mohandas Pai, Director (HR), Infosys, said here on Saturday.

Asked about the expansion plans of Infosys, Mr. Pai said, "We have only 10 cities, so we will expand in each of these cities."

"Bangalore is not getting the investment it needs in public area to develop infrastructure," he said while replying to questions of presspersons after addressing professionals, academics and students at the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On Karnataka Government's initiatives to improve infrastructure in Bangalore, Mr. Pai said, "They are trying to do something now. Let us see what happens."

On the problems in Bangalore, Mr. Pai said, "You need to look at Bangalore in a different manner. I think the present Government is trying to see what can be done for Bangalore, but it is not enough. It will never be enough because we need more." He was critical of Bangalore's transport woes. "We have 24 lakh vehicles for 70 lakh people. Every household has a two-wheeler. We have around 18 lakh two-wheelers. So the roads are not enough. There is no performing public transport system either. In the sense, we have 4,000 buses, but they are not enough, obviously," Mr. Pai said.

To ease congestion, he suggested building ring roads. "Bangalore needs ring roads, Beijing has eight ring roads. So we need not go to the middle of the city and congest traffic to go from one end to another," he said. Asked if he saw any other city emerging in competition to Bangalore as an IT destination in the near future, Mr. Pai said, "Hyderabad has done well, they have got good infrastructure. They are proactive. Chennai is becoming very exciting, Maran (Union Minister for Communications Dayanidi Maran) is doing a lot of work."

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Goa should improve intellectual capital: Mohandas Pai

Goa needs to address its ‘limited educational capabilities’ if it is to come anywhere near its dream of luring IT players to this region, said Infosys Director (resources) T.V. Mohandas Pai.

Pai critiqued the view that IT companies would come in if they were merely provided ‘power and land’ and suggested that the region needed to work on the most vital ingredient the state still lacks - intellectual capital.

IT involved ‘building businesses with nothing but what you have in your mind’, said Pai Saturday while speaking at the launch of the Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products organised by the Computer Society of India (Goa chapter).

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