Bengaluru reinvented: CM BBAGs business czars
Deccan Chronicle had broken the story on the buzz in business-activists-NGO-political circuit that the letter had set off then.
Bengaluru: In a move that could transform Bengaluru from a pothole-ridden metropolis marked by crumbling infrastructure and perennial power shortages rather than the hip, well-connected, IT capital it aspires to be, the state government has announced the formation of a task force headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that will spearhead the change.
Named the Bengaluru Blueprint Action Group (BBAG), it brings on board IT giants N.R. Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji, business success stories like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon and Sachin Bansal of Flipkart, and Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan of Janaagraha, V Ravichander, R.K. Mishra, and Mohandas Pai among others, who have spoken out and initiated infrastructure improvements across our beleagured city.
In a move that is being seen as uncannily similar to action initiated by former chief minister S.M. Krishna who created BATF in 2001, BBAG owes its genesis to a letter written by IT czar Narayana Murthy to the city’s thinkers and doers in October 2015, inviting them to come together on a common platform floated by Janaagraha. Deccan Chronicle had broken the story on the buzz in business-activists-NGO-political circuit that the letter had set off then.
A Government Order (GO) to this effect was passed on April 28, 2016. The group will hold its first meeting later this month.
Sources at the secretariat told DC that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will be the president of the action group and Bengaluru Development Minister K J George his deputy.
“All the city MLAs will be members of the group, apart from stakeholders such as BBMP, BDA, BWSSB, which will be represented by their commissioners as permanent invitees,” sources said.