DISCOVER HI-TECH ECONOMY
Welcome to the smartest country in the world
From rocket science to DNA research, India is ridding itself THE HI-TECH SUBCONTINENT
of its poor country image. In this extract from her new
book Geek Nation, Angela Saini visits an emerging ‘dream
city’ where machines rule and ‘geeks’ will inherit the earth...
A
1,000-mile stretch of
high hills blanketed
in forests near India’s
west coast is one of the
most remote places in
the world. There are
at least 5,000 types
of flower. Elephants, snakes, tigers,
and cave bats all live here, secluded
from the rest of India. Zoologists who
have occasionally ventured into the
Ghats have found new species by the
handful. The mountainous territory is
inhospitable. The second I cross into
it, civilisation disappears. I can’t get a
mobile phone signal.
And yet here in the middle of the
Western Ghats, in what can reasonably
be called nowhere, I descend into a
steep valley and find myself in what
will soon become one of the most
advanced cities on earth.
I first read about it in an
advertisement in an inflight magazine,
and became intrigued by what the
advert claimed will be a metropolis
governed mainly by machines. A
central bank computers will control
everything here from household
security to the transport network. It’s a
half-billion dollar project to build, from
scratch, an urban dream in the middle
of the mountains.
Standing on the promenade in the
heart of Lavasa, I have a vantage point
across the entire site. Ten years ago
there was nothing here but a few tribal
villagers living in low thatched huts.
They grow food by terracing the slopes
JAMMU
WIRED NATION Women study computer
science in Bengaluru. Tom Bible
issues surrounding the development,
though few seriously doubt that the
project will reach completion. The
city is eerily quiet. There’s a state-of-
the-art hospital, which looks deserted.
Electricity pylons stretch from here
to the horizon, standing tall in the sun
like marching aliens. The only building
that could be described as remotely
busy is the canary-coloured town hall
where men in suits and sleeveless
yellow safety jackets stand outside for
a smoke, but by any normal standards
it’s very quiet. This is the opposite of
an Indian city.
The ambitious
promise is that ‘this
HI-TECH ECONOMY DISCOVER
THE NEW GURUS People in the driving seat
KIRAN new ID programme, the UIDAI (Unique
CODE CRACKING
0 200 MAZUMDAR-SHAW
Biotech queen
Identification Authority of India), which
many believe will benefit the country’s
AND
In 2009, researchers at the
Institute of Genomics
Miles Named one of the
world’s 100 most
faceless millions.
KASHMIR and Integrative Biologyin influential people G MADHAVAN NAIR
Delhi were the first in last year by Time magazine and Space-race
Ghats must have been a culture the world to sequence the
CHINA dubbed “India’s mother of invention”, heavyweight
shock for him. Many Indian cities are genome of zebrafish. Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon in Until recently the
unplanned and riddled with slums. her Bengaluru basement aged 25. Her chairman of the Indian
HIMACHAL
Affluent districts have security guards aim was to make drugs affordable to Space Research
on constant watch or locked gates at PRADESH everyone. Now Biocon is Asia’s largest Organisation, Nair supervised sending
1 in 5
least. Since 24-hour access to any kind biotech company. the Chandrayaan-1 rocket to the moon
of amenity, from water to electricity, in 2008 and 27 other space missions.
is rarely guaranteed, people who can GM BANANAS NR NARAYANA
afford it have their own electricity PUNJAB UTTARANCHAL Scientists at the National MURTHY MANISH GUPTA
generators and water pumps. Botanical Research Institute in “India’s Bill Gates” Spoken Web prophet
So the challenge for Lavasa’s Medical staff in UK are of Indian origin Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, are Chairman of Infosys Runs IBM’s Spoken Web,
planners is to create a city that doesn’t working to genetically modify the Technologies, a a voice-based internet
suffer from these problems. The way HARYANA banana so it stays fresh for longer. consulting and IT service which could
they hope to do it is by wherever services company with offices in 33 boost the number of
possible replacing human bureaucrats PAKISTAN
 countries and some 128,000 employees. internet surfers by hundreds of millions.
with machines. NEPAL Founded by Murthy in 1981 with just
Miles from the reach of even the
BHUTAN $250, Infosys is based in a vast Google- AZIM PREMJI
police and the emergency services, style campus in Electronics City, Modest IT billionaire
Lavasa is, by accident or design (I ASSAM Bengaluru’s answer to Silicon Valley. Media-shy chairman
RAJASTHAN NAGALAND
can’t figure out which), forced to be Lucknow Murthy, 64, is now worth an estimated of Wipro who turned
self-sufficient. The chairman of the NEW TOWN $1.6bn but lives a simple life. a family business that
Lavasa Corporation, Ajit Gulabchand, The hi-tech new half- MEGHALAYA produced cooking oil into
dreams of turning this city into its billion-dollar city of UTTAR PRADESH BIHAR NANDAN NILEKANI a software giant, after entering IT in the
own governmental entity, so it can Lavasa is being built in the MANIPUR Socially conscious 1980s. Premji, 65, is, according to Forbes,
do whatever any other Indian city remote Western Ghats. tech guru the 28th richest person in the world
is allowed to do, from providing The charismatic former but drives a Toyota Corolla and flies
healthcare and education to levying CEO of Infosys helped economy class. His Premji Foundation,
taxes. His ambitious promise is that MIZORAM move India into the based in Bengaluru, donated £1.2bn to
JHARKHAND TRIPURA
Lavasa “will be a city that governs IT age. Now he’s heading up India’s education in rural India. Killian Fox
itself” using technology, leapfrogging
cities in the rest of the world. WEST
But this isn’t just an idealistic BENGAL BANGLADESH won’t only work here but can also the city. When the Lavasa Corporation
MADHYA PRADESH
community. Lavasa is also a profitable be a role model for the rest of India. arrived in the Western Ghats, she
real-estate development. Mumbai GUJARAT “We can’t just cram more people into continues, 150 families moved out of
is only a few hours away. And the BURMA these already overloaded cities,” says the valley.
nearest city, Pune, is famous as an Wrighton. “They just moved from their land?
up-and-coming IT hub. In fact, the
MINI MIRACLE
The Tata Group, based in CHHATTISGARH
ORISSA “What we’re going to have to think Didn’t they mind?” I ask.
more I wander around the perfect
pavements and delicate fountains in
Mumbai, launched the
world’s cheapest car, the
about is how to structure that and
and waiting for the monsoon rains to
feed their rice and vegetables. And now
they can be found on the outskirts of
Lavasa, watching this city rise from the
valley, like a girl gazing at her mother
while she puts on her makeup.
If it looks surreal to me, it must
look bizarre to the villagers. There are
tall, thin, multicoloured apartment
blocks in long terraces; they appear to
have been lifted brick by brick from
the Italian streets of Portofino. The
opulent chalets above me, nestled
inside the forests, could be from
Bavaria. In the brochure, the Lavasa
Corporation has used pictures of
Oxford to illustrate how picturesque
Lavasa will look when it’s finished. It’s
as if the developers have picked the
most beautiful parts of Europe and
transplanted them here.
Right now, though, it’s a ghost town.
Work has halted while the Indian
authorities debate environmental
will be a city that
governs itself’
through technology
“Indian cities have not distinguished
themselves in the annals of urban
management in terms of how well
run they are,” says Scot Wrighton, the
American city manager for Lavasa,
whose small office is upstairs inside
the town hall. He’s responsible for
running the city until it receives its
first residents and elects a real mayor.
Although this is an Indian project, the
developers scoured the world for an
expert who knew how to run towns
with western efficiency and cutting-
edge technology. Wrighton, who has
previously managed a few midwestern
cities, was their choice.
I imagine that travelling from the
American midwest to the Western
the blistering midday heat, the more
I notice how hard they’re trying to
attract the kind of nerdy IT workers
who are working in India’s booming
technology companies like Infosys and
Tata Consultancy Services. There’s
a videogaming arcade opposite the
American diner. In the next few years
developers will also be building a space
theme park, masterminded by the same
people who created the American
Space Camp in Alabama.
This may be India’s first city
designed for Generation Y. It’s a geek’s
paradise. And not only will the geeks
live here, the geeks will rule.
“Electronic governance is really
nothing more than conducting the
basic transactions of government
via an electronic portal,” says Scot
Wrighton. This means replacing
paper-based filing, official forms and
bills with digital ones, and transferring
every point of contact between the
government and its citizens online. The
philosophy behind it is that automating
the government can make bureaucracy
faster, easier and more transparent.
(The idea itself isn’t new. About a
decade ago countries around the
world, but particularly in Asia, began
putting these ideas into practice in
  
 
    
deliver those services differently.
“They were hardly connected to the
city,” she replies. “There used to be
Nano, in 2009. It costs just That’s the laboratory of Lavasa. The a bus maybe once a day, maybe less.”
Rs100,000 (£1,360). HOME-GROWN DRUGS vision of the chairman is that we can Now there are regular buses. And to
INDIA The Indian Institute for create a new governance model that help keep the peace, the corporation
can be replicated elsewhere. That’s also gave them electricity connections
MAHARASHTRA Chemical Technology
in Hyderabad has a terribly grand and idealistic goal, for the first time, and built creches to
developed its own OK. It really doesn’t exist anywhere educate the local children. “This is
version of zidovudine, else. So his idea is that we will be the better for them,” she insists.
an antiretroviral laboratory, and figure out what works I leave Lavasa the following day.
Mumbai drug to combat Aids and what doesn’t work.” Rushing to the airport, the driver is
Lavasa costing just Rs15 (20p), He suggests that I check out the reluctant to take a shortcut. He tells me
in collaboration corporate video in the building next he’s scared to go down the minor roads
with a Mumbai-based door. He’s in it, he tells me, half because people living outside Lavasa
Hyderabad company, Cipla. proud and half embarrassed. It’s as throw rocks at vehicles coming out of
professional as a Hollywood movie. the city when they see them.
ANDHRA Over helicopter shots of the lush hills Some fear that the environmental
someone quotes Byron: “There is
PRADESH TARGETING ILLITERACY
KARNATAKA society where none intrudes, By the
The world’s first satellite devoted to
long-distance learning, for the
deep sea, and music in its roar: I love Will it turn India into
not man the less but Nature more…”
GOA
country’s remote regions, was launched
Gulabchand appears on screen in an even more split
at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at
SILICON VALLEY
Sriharikota island in the Bay of Bengal.
sunglasses and a sharp suit. “Four
hundred million people will migrate
society, with a digital
A third of India’s IT workers are based at
Bengaluru – formerly Bangalore, tech
Sriharikota TB RESEARCH
Medical researchers
from rural areas to the urban areas in
India over the next 40 years,” he says,
divide being added
hub and home to Infosys, Microsoft and at the Tuberculosis his thick, silvery hair fluttering as he to economic divides?
IBM. By 2015 the Indian software- Research Centre in walks past some bushes, the towering
product market will be worth £7bn. Chennai Chennai, Tamil Nadu, hills behind him. “This huge migration impact on this corner of the Western
are working on the took a thousand years to happen in Ghats may be too big, and that’s
Bengaluru Kalpakkam first new tuberculosis Europe. It will happen in India in just why work is currently at a standstill.
drug for 40 years. 40. India will have to expand its cities The Lavasa Corporation is waiting
and towns.” The solution, Gulabchand for clearance before it can continue

   
      
     announces, is Lavasa. construction, which, given the might

earnest, using the terms e-government
and Government 2.0.)
Here in Lavasa, one of the major
companies responsible for installing
and maintaining the technology is
Wipro, one of India’s big three IT firms.
The linchpin of the e-governance
system is a website through which
residents will be able to pay their bills,
access emergency services, report
any problems, make complaints
and do anything else involving the
government’s help. Households
without computers will have a digital
automation unit fitted in their homes
to give them access to the site. The
hardware will be replaced every four
years or so, and the software will
be automatically updated through
the internet cloud. It’s a “slimmed-
down, more efficient” infrastructure,
Wrighton explains.
TAMIL
NADU
THE FINAL FRONTIER
India plans to send
its first astronaut into
space in 2015, from KERALA
the Vikram Sarabhai
Space Centre in
Thiruvananthapuram,
Kerala.
The Lavasa public relations team me, “whether it is the streetlights,
take me next to speak to the person whether it is the roads, whether it is
from Wipro responsible for installing utilities. In the phase one, we would be
the hardware. He’s known here only by having approximately 70km of optical
his initials, UGK. He won’t tell me what fibre.”
the U stands for but the GK means Metre by metre, researchers are
Gopal Krishna. “Lavasa on a proactive mapping the city using a geographic
basis would be looking at every aspect information system. It includes water
of infrastructure in the city,” he tells pipes, fibre optic cables, electrical
SRI
LANKA
wires, transport links, and the footprint
of every building. If a pipe bursts, they
will know exactly where it is.
UGK continues: “You will have smart
metering enabled which will allow
you to capture the points of failure on
a predictive basis, a preventive basis.
It will also exactly pinpoint where the
fault is. All this would ensure that a
THORIUM REACTOR
The world’s first nuclear reactors powered
by thorium, a lesser-known radioactive
element, are being developed at Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre. An experimental
reactor has been operating in Kalpakkam,
Chennai, since 1996.
resident at Lavasa would experience a
very quick turnaround of faulty actions
and repairs around that.”
I’m impressed, but at the same
time I can’t escape the feeling that
I’m being given the hard sell. Indeed,
from the slick brochures to the
manicured gardens, it all feels like a
giant sales pitch. But I guess I should
have expected this. If the Lavasa
Corporation doesn’t attract a critical
mass of at least 100,000 residents,
there simply won’t be enough teachers,
doctors, lecturers, shop staff and other
people to supply and use the services.
It will remain a ghost town.
The PR team and the staff continue
to drill me with the idea that Lavasa
T
he next morning I take a tour
of the entire 25,000-acre site
with the woman from public
relations. Most of the site
is empty land, with only the odd
bulldozer lazily nuzzling the dirt.
Reaching the edges, where the black
Tarmac gives way to dirt roads, we
stray into tribal territory. The number
of people living in Lavasa, the PR
woman tells me, will be capped at
300,000 to make sure that services
aren’t overwhelmed. The city will be
a quarter of the size of Mumbai but
with only 2% of the population. There
isn’t a town on earth I know of that
is so tightly controlled that the size
is decided upfront, except maybe a
retirement village.
I also wonder what this means for
the poorer families on the outskirts of
of the project, I am sure it will do.
But I wonder whether the geeky
governance model being used here
can be replicated, as the corporation
seems to believe, or if it runs the risk of
turning India into an even more split
society by introducing a digital divide
where economic divides already exist.
Lavasans will be living their hi-tech,
sheltered lives parallel to the forest-
dwelling tribes just a few mountains
away. For it to work, it would have to
meet everyone’s needs, not just those of
the wealthy and privileged.
Angela Saini is a science journalist and
author of Geek Nation, How Indian
Science is Taking Over the World
(Hodder and Stoughton, £20). To buy
a copy for £16 with free UK p&p, go to
guardianbookshop.co.uk or call 0330
333 6847

22 THE NEW REVIEW | 06.03.11 | The Observer The Observer | 06.03.11 | THE NEW REVIEW 23