IT and Bhopal

India in the past decade has become synonymous with software and IT. For the outsiders India has suddenly transformed, almost overnight, from a land of snake charmers and elephants, to a place which can do anything in computers. Slowly the confidence generated by the Software and IT industry has started percolating to other spheres of life, so much so that the proud NRIs of yesteryears have started wondering why they ever left this land of opportunity.

Madhya Pradesh under different chief ministers has made encouraging noises from time to time. Ex chief minister Sri Digvijay Singh declared a space for IT park at Ayodha Nagar in Bhopal. The board can still be read at the site with some efforts, where a water hole has developed overtime, where many buffalows can be seen working on a very futuristic IT project. Now the new government, presently under the leadership of Sri Shivraj Singh Chauhan has another policy in place, as per which a IT Software park is to be established near the Bhopal Airport.

Recently SEM India announced $3B investment at Hyderabad. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) aligned with the government and a set of non-resident Indians led by San Jose, California-based techie Vinod K Agarwal to announce a $3 billion microprocessor chip making plant—India’s first. The back ground story has been unfolding over sometime now. What has not been reported however, was Vinod Agarwal did his schooling from Cambridge Convent situated at Idgah Hills, Bhopal. He went on do his Graduation from IIT Pilani, and then taught at Mcgill University, Montreal. He started his own venture at Silicon Valley. As is the case with many expatriats, Vinod Agarwal also wanted to give something back to Madhya Pradesh where he spent his childhood. All the project sought was 1500 acers land near an International Airport, electricity, water and roads. As can be visuallised by any veteran Bhopali, the files would be lying somewhere at the Babu dom, for some fortunate mouse to devour it