Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon founder and a key voice of India Inc., met Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar at their homes in Bengaluru this morning. The entrepreneur, it is learnt, visited the Congress leaders to invite them to her nephew’s wedding. The meetings have created a buzz because they come in the aftermath of heated exchanges between Shaw and Karnataka ministers over infrastructure in Bengaluru.
While Shaw did not speak to the media, Shivakumar said in a post on X that they had an “engaging discussion on Bengaluru’s growth, innovation, and the path ahead for Karnataka’s growth story”.
Earlier, Shivakumar had attributed Shaw’s criticism of Bengaluru’s infrastructure, including the condition of its roads, to “personal agenda” and questioned why such issues were not flagged when the BJP was in power in Karnataka. Shaw contested this and said she criticised “deteriorating infrastructure” in Bengaluru during the BJP and JDS regimes too. “Our agenda is clear, clean up and restore roads,” she said.
The Biocon founder and other key voices of India Inc., such as former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai, have been flagging poor infrastructure and civic amenities in the country’s IT capital.
“I had an overseas business visitor to Biocon Park who said, ‘Why are the roads so bad and why is there so much garbage around? Doesn’t the government want to support investment? I have just come from China and can’t understand why India can’t get its act together, especially when the winds are favourable?'” Shaw said in a post on X.
Earlier, Pai said the state of Bengaluru’s road infrastructure is not a byproduct of growth but the result of corruption and bad governance. “Can we not have roads without potholes? This is not AI work; it has been done for more than 200 years,” he said.
Ministers such as Santosh Lad have questioned if Shaw would also question the Centre on issues such as GST. The Biocon founder hit back. “All I am seeking is garbage clearance and road resurfacing which ought to be done by the GBA (Greater Bengaluru Authority). Government ministers need to hold them responsible and accountable for shoddy and slow work. Here government and citizens need to be on the same page,” she said.
