Musings – Abhay S. Kushwaha

Well, looks like we might have one soon. Rediff is reporting reporting that our IT Minister is going to meet Intel top brass end of May just to make that happen.

"I am meeting Intel chief Craig Barett in the end of this month and I have one point agenda to press him for setting up a manufacturing facility here," Maran told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.

Reuters has a slightly differently phrased report but says more or less the same thing.

If it were any other person, I would simply shrug and say, “Bah, another reason for a foreign visit.” But when it comes to this man, I sit up and read the reports carefully. Why? Because Mr. Maran is one of those rare politicians who also work well. He’s 37 or maybe 38 (not sure) and that was perhaps one of the reasons he was chosen for the IT Ministry in the first place. Among his achievements are the recent opening up of .IN domain and a comprehensive broadband policy where it was made clear that anything below 256kbps simply can’t be labelled as ‘broadband’. That put a lot of ISPs in trouble since IIRC at least Sify was selling a 64kbps limited connection under its broadband range of products.

What is also significant is his statement that it that he is going there with a one point agenda. That would mean that he has specific plans and offers to put across to Intel people. Besides, since a Cabinet level minister is going, that itself says a lot on how seriously the Central Government supports this move and overt solicitation. He will have a significant arsenal of candies and goodies in his bag when he sits down with the Intel bigwigs.

Mr. Maran has already convinced Nokia and Motorola. That itself takes care of the mobile market. We will soon have locally manufactured units. And with the Intel manufacturing unit under his belt, he will find it much easier to convince others in the hardware manufacturing business. It’s the brand power baby! That is why it is so important that India gets this unit instead of China (the other contender).

Good luck Mr. Maran!