By Kollengode S Venkataraman (written in 2004)
Recently, the UK’s Prince Charles was in India. His visits to Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus, chawls, and his interactions with dabbawallas (whose delivery performance is better than FedEx’s) were all over the Indian media. However, the event that did not receive wide publicity was his meeting with the Indian IT gurus at the Taj Hotel’s ornate Crystal Room, where he heard how the Indian IT wizards eased the traffic problem in central London’s shopping district.
Ramananda Sengupta covered this for Rediff.com, a web magazine (www.rediff.com/money/2003/nov/04charles.htm).
According to Sengupta, industry leaders — Kiran Karnik, chief of the Indian software industry organization, Ashank Desai, chairman of an Indian software company, and others — made multimedia PowerPoint presentations to the prince highlighting India’s software industry.
Desai presented the challenges he faced in designing a system for collecting the toll from the 250,000 cars daily entering London’s shopping district: 1) The already congested London traffic should not be slowed down further, 2) no booths or barriers are to be erected, and 3) vehicles should not be stopped.
Desai told the prince how his group did it: Every day a) 500 fixed and mobile cameras read number plates of over 250,000 cars, b) computers process 1,000,000 images and issue 75,000 permits for new drivers wanting to enter the area, and c) an India-based call center answers 64,000 calls and processes 100,000 financial transactions.
Desai told the prince, “All this was completed and delivered in record time. Not only has this brought down noise and traffic pollution, but it has also earned revenue for London’s Municipality.”
Charles then asked questions. Even though he had a microphone, journalists didn’t hear his questions, a reminder that low-tech problems are still endemic in India. But they heard a peal of polite laughter from the software gurus at one point at what the prince told them.
Sengupta later came to know what made the Indian software gurus laugh. The prince told them: “You’ve cleaned up London’s congestion. What about Mumbai?”
While the Indian software gurus solve the problems of the English-speaking societies and the industrialized West, India’s nuts-and-bolts problems are only fit for their polite laughter.
During our visits to India, most of us make similar remarks to our friends and relatives. Hearing it from a videshi Desi who was one of them years ago, our remarks only evoke their anger.
But hearing it from the descendant of India’s erstwhile colonial master, the latter-day Indian brown sahibs politely laugh it off instead of feeling embarrassed, betraying their own assessment of India. END