B.V. Naidu
Director, STPI, Bangalore

The music video could pass off as an MTV chart-buster. Shot in slow motion with soft lights, the video has a young man crooning in English:

Emerge, connect, shaping a better world/ Striving, never asking why/ We make it happen at STPI.

Pardon the rhyme; they will get it right eventually. But no one could associate such a slick, morale-boosting company anthem with an Indian government organisation. There are many other things too about Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Bangalore ? an IT-promotion body under the ministry of communication & information technology ? that are very non-government-like.

B.V. Naidu is one of them. In fact, if there is one thing that the director of STPI shuns, it is babudom. He does not have Government of India stamped on him. It is not written on the rear of his car either. STPI could be a corporate headquarters. Office hours begin at 8.30 am sharp and every employee reports on time. Work agendas are planned 18 months in advance. Profit centres have been created within STPI so that it does not have to depend on the state exchequer for funds. The organisation brings out an annual HR booklet, which says ? among other things ? that people are its greatest asset.

In the midst of all this, Naidu looks completely corporate in his formal, off-white shirt with an STPI access card tucked into the pocket. ?I don?t believe in behaving in typical Indian sarkari style. This practice has percolated right down to the computer operator in the organisation,? says Naidu, who has been head of STPI since 1996.

Shedding the babu image and the novel work culture has worked wonders for STPI. It has enabled the organisation to spearhead the IT boom in Bangalore. STPI has become one of the biggest communication network providers in the country. It earns Rs 45 lakh per employee annually. ?This is higher than in any software company in India,? says Naidu.

Bangalore?s annual software fair ? BangaloreIT.com, which was held this month ? is another feather in STPI?s cap. ?IT.com is not a part of STPI?s charter of work. It was born over a cup of tea with colleagues and has become Bangalore?s biggest brand-building exercise,? says Naidu.

Naidu?s over-a-decade-long stint with STPI ? he was deputed to the organisation by the ministry of communication in 1992 ? made a bureaucrat out of a technocrat. After completing a masters in computer communication from the Madras Institute of Technology, Naidu joined the ministry of communication in New Delhi as an out-and-out technical hand.

In 1986, he initiated the education and research network project (ERNET). He worked on the ERNET team, did a good job of it and was sent to Bangalore to head the ERNET department at STPI.

Naidu had reached the right place at the right time. The early Nineties was the time when IT-wallahs were discovering Bangalore. STPI was in the thick of things. ?I was brimming with ideas on how to expand Bangalore?s software horizons. I branched out from ERNET to other areas,? recalls Naidu. In 1996, at the age of 33, Naidu became the youngest director of STPI.

The director?s job required superior networking skills. Naidu honed his people skills double quick. ?STPI was Bangalore?s single-window agency which interfaced with foreign firms. We had to look like a professional, investment-friendly organisation,? he says.

Eight years on, Naidu has stuck steadfastly to the hot seat at STPI. No lucrative job or seven-figure salary offers have made him budge. He says his sarkari job gives him maximum job satisfaction. ?Government jobs offer the biggest challenges ? provided there is a will to work,? says he.

And he has never said ?no? to a challenge. Naidu?s electrical engineer father was very keen that his son followed in his footsteps. Electrical engineering was a safe branch to pursue. But Naidu was fascinated by computers. ?I followed my passion,? he says. He studied computers at a time when software made little sense to an Indian.

Things have come a long way since. But Naidu?s passion for progress lives on. The government official who works 11-12 hours a day (more out of habit than necessity, he says) is full of mega plans. ?We want to enter consultancy work, help developing nations to become IT-friendly and turn Karnataka?s smaller towns into software centres,? he says. The challenges of a government job never end. Not if you are B.V. Naidu.