Why are India’s roads in bad condition? Despite repairs, potholes appear within a few months. Presumably because there will be employment generation effects with a fresh round of repairs and a new round of rent-seeking when fresh contracts are invited. The Karnataka High Court certainly believes this hypothesis. Not very long ago, responding to a PIL, the court observed, “They (Bangalore Mahanagar Palike) want the roads to remain in good condition only for two months so that they get kickbacks from the contractors for awarding relaying works. The palike does not want the road to be in good condition even for two years.” By any criterion (per capita state domestic product, growth, poverty ratio, unemployment rate, human development, FDI share, percentage area irrigated), Karnataka is among the better-performing states and, post-1991, divergence with all-India trends has increased. There will soon be a new government in Karnataka. Shouldn’t good economic performance make a new government’s task of governance easier? Enhancing Karnataka’s performance is in a different league from transforming Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa or the Northeast. In that sense, a Karnataka government is more culpable. Unfavourable exogenous scapegoats aren’t that easy to find.

Karnataka isn’t about IT, BT, the service sector and the knowledge economy alone. There is plenty of manufacturing (public sector included) and 56 per cent of the workforce is still employed in agriculture. Nor is Karnataka synonymous with Bangalore, even for IT and BT. However, Bangalore is Karnataka’s visible face. Lest we forget, in 1906, Bangalore was the first city in India to have electricity. And by Bangalore, we typically mean the district Bangalore Urban. Rarely do we mean Bangalore Rural or Ramanagara. The Davos-type figures for Bangalore Urban have often been cited — second fastest-growing city between 1991 and 2001 (after Delhi), third largest number of high net worth (dollar millionaires) individuals (after Mumbai and Delhi), fourth most affluent market (after Delhi, Mumbai Suburban and Thane), second highest literacy rate for a city (after Mumbai), slum population of only 10 per cent and a low crime rate. If silicon implants fail to leave a more lasting imprint on the garden city, that’s because of creaking infrastructure, infrastructure interpreted not just as roads and transport, but also power, water and urban waste disposal.

... contd.