Infosys pill for Orissa

Software major Infosys today prescribed a slew of suggestions to transform Bhubaneswar into the intellectual, cultural and business capital of eastern India.

In his hour-long presentation before Naveen Patnaik this afternoon, Infosys chief financial officer T.V. Mohandas Pai laid out the company’s blueprint for Mission Bhubaneswar.

As the chief minister, principal secretary Bijoy Patnaik and a host of bureaucrats listened with rapt attention, Pai read out his prescription: “Bhubaneswar should become the educational centre of the country. Invite India’s 20 best private schools to open (centres)… to offer quality education.”

The Infosys official also advised Patnaik to invite the country’s top engineering and medical colleges to set up shop in Bhubaneswar and the districts. “Aim to have at least 1 lakh students in centres of higher education, 60,000 children in high-quality schools and 25,000 foreign students in the next 3-8 years,” Pai said, suggesting that the state should ask the foreign embassies to set up their own schools in the city.

For excellence in business, Pai held that Singapore should be Bhubaneswar’s role model. His advice: the state should rope in builders from Singapore, Japan, Korea and other countries to set up business parks here.

“Target high-value industries like asset management companies, brokerages and investment banks to create a financial district,” the Infosys board member suggested, urging hoteliers to open restaurants serving Japanese, French, Thai, Mexican, Spanish and Moroccon cuisine.

On the culture front, Pai recommended Broadway and West End for the capital. “The government’s role would be to provide infrastructure and land at a reasonable cost to cultural bodies of national importance,” he advised the chief minister.

Sports, too, was on Pai’s agenda. “Get the Sports Authority of India to have a regional headquarters in Bhubaneswar so that the best of sports facilities are created,” he said.

In the evening, Patnaik assigned the job of working on Pai’s prescription to three IAS officers — special secretary in the urban development department A.K. Panda, women and child development secretary Mona Sharma and information technology director Vishal Dev.