IAS officers are quitting their jobs to take charge of existing IT companies or starting business ventures of their own. A DNA Special
BANGALORE: Bureaucrats are eyeing the lure and lucre of the IT sector — not to help its further growth but to join it. A horde of Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers are putting in their papers, only to take charge of assignments in IT companies or starting one of their own.
BV Naidu of Karnataka has just quit his government job as the director of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) in Bangalore, to head a semiconductor company. He is not the first and won’t be the last to board IT’s gravy train, say officials. “Many officers are waiting for a chance to make a move,” says Naidu, who will be the India Managing Director of SemiIndia Systems after some fifteen years of working closely with the IT industry. SimiIndia plans to invest $ 3 billion in India to make chips.
Vivek Harinarayan, who was Tamil Nadu’s IT secretary till June last, has quit the IAS and will become an IT consultant next week. In Karnataka, it was Vivek Kulkarni and in Tamil Nadu it was D Prakash, who kicked off the trend many years ago, when the quit as IT secretaries and hitched onto the IT bandwagon. Kulkarni now heads a successful Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company.
Maharashtra’s IT secretary Arvind Kumar is not quitting but says he is not surprised by this trend. Senior bureaucrats in Mumbai say that in Maharashtra as many as four IAS officers have left the service in the last one year and two more have sought permission to quit, to enter the corporate sector and it won’t be surprising if many more follow suit and take up IT jobs.
“It’s a trend that if anything it will only get stronger,” says Prabhakar Karandikar, a 1973 batch IAS and the divisional commissioner of Pune, who is quitting to join the Mahindra and Mahindra group as an advisor.
At least two middle-level IAS officers in Andhra Pradesh and one in West Bengal are seriously weighing the option of quitting their jobs and heading BPOs. “It’s a trend that will catch up on a significant if not a large scale,” remarks an officer in Hyderabad. At least three officers of the Gujarat cadre left the service in recent months.
No doubt, it’s the proximity to and involvement with the industry, as well the knowledge of the IT sector’s inner workings, that drive the pen-pushers to take the plunge.
“I have witnessed the development of software industry from scratch and I see in the semiconductors, an opportunity to start a new career,” says Naidu.
“After 20 years of service, all that an IAS officer gets is some Rs35,000 a month and the astronomical salaries you keep hearing in IT are certainly an attraction,” says an officer in Mumbai, adding: “This trend will catch up and lead to a crisis leaving the IAS short of talent.”
Salaries in the IT sector are among the highest, and the financial rewards that the officers could get are incomparable to their government salaries.
A senior management position like that of a CEO in an IT company can fetch anywhere between Rs one to ten lakh a month. But, whether the officers start up a BPO or become consultants, the windfall can be unlimited.
“Besides the money, IAS is no outlet for those who want to be creative,” points out Karandikar. “When you find that the objectives with which you join the IAS — money is not one of them — are not realised you have to leave,” adds Harinarayan.
Kerala’s IT secretary KR Jyothilal says that officers are “just above poverty line” and he is not surprised that they should look for other jobs. “It’s not a big thing that they are looking at IT since that is an emerging sector.” A chemical engineering graduate from IIT Chennai, Jyothilal says an IAS officer — recruited after rigorous selection and with vast administrative experience — can always get a job in any sector including IT “though the question is at what level.”
Some like Aruna Sunderarajan, who did pioneering work in e-literacy as Kerala IT secretary, are taking long breaks on deputation to other jobs to enhance their skills.
With Arun Ram (Chennai), Bhargavi Kerur (Bangalore)
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