Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in the US, and we can do for $250,000 what would cost $1m in the US,' The number of
units registered in Hyderabad's Software Technology Park rose from seven in 1991-92 to
over 1,405 in 2004 and software exports rose from Rs 200,000 to Rs 180bn.
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To support this initiative and utilize the region's adept brainpower, Naidu set up various
high-technology institutes and 180 engineering colleges (allegedly leaking their locations
to friendly businessmen who bought land at nominal prices before announcements were
made). One of his biggest coups was persuading the internationally recognized and suppor-
ted Indian School of Business to set up in Hyderabad in the late 1990s. Previously there had
been little large-scale industrial development apart from some public sector technology-
based corporations that would never by themselves have become engines of economic
growth. They now became significant because they helped provide a base for both the IT
businesses and defence-oriented establishments plus a growing pharmaceutical industry.
The Electronics Corporation of India, which was set up in 1967, specialises in electron-
ics for nuclear, space and defence industries, and Bharat Dynamics, established in 1970,
develops guided weapon systems. These corporations have been the catalysts for a string
of allied missile and defence research establishments. Hyderabad's other main industry is
pharmaceuticals. It originated with the public sector Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals that
was set up in 1961 to fulfil Nehru's (understandable) belief that there was 'far too much
exploitation of the public in this industry' so the private sector should not be allowed to
ive private sector industry, led by Dr Reddy's Laboratories, which was founded in 1984 by
a former chemical engineer employee, Kallam Anji Reddy, and is one of India's leading
pharmaceutical companies.
Naidu lost power in 2004, primarily because he focused too much on urban and tech-
nological development, and on extensive personal globetrotting and international publicity.
This bred resentment in problem-ridden rural areas, and made him vulnerable politically.
He was accused of ignoring rural development, and large numbers of farmers hit by heavy
debt and other problems committed suicide. The rural landscape was in a shambles, wrote
systems have collapsed. Taking their place are new entities [microcredit schemes] that can
make the village moneylender seem relatively less coercive. Prices have pushed most in-
puts beyond the reach of the small farmer. For many, a move from food crops to cash crops
proved fatal. In some cases, the shift was towards high-outlay, water-guzzling crops such
as sugar cane. All this, in an era of huge power tariff hikes. A steady shrinking of local
democracy further deepened the chaos.'
YSR and Jagan
