Karnataka HC quashes entrepreneurs-studded Bengaluru Vision Group

Bengaluru Vision Group formed under the chairmanship of former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has been scrapped down by the state government following the notice from the High Court.

The vision group was also accompanied by notable personalities from IT industry and startup ecosystems such as Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, Wipro chairman Azim Premji, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, and Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal.

Formed two years ago with the responsibility of scripting the city’s future and to draw a blueprint for Bengaluru's overall development. Besides ministers representing Bengaluru city, the vision group had 23 members in all.

The decision was taken after a petition filed by Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Chandrashekar who said that there was no need for setting up a separate group when the Constitutional body Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee has been constituted for the same purpose.

The High Court had also questioned the creation of Bengaluru Vision Group — Bangalore Blue Print Action Group (BBPAG) — on April 28, 2016, parallel to the BMPC and observed that there was no necessity of creating such body.

In its notification government has explained that the Vision Group was only an advisory body consisting of entrepreneurs and experts, while Metropolitan Planning Committee is a Constitutional body which has the highest number of elected representatives as its members — about 70-80.

However, as per the high court order, it is disbanding the group with immediate effect.
Since its inception, the vision group has been facing criticism for being a group of elite people.The vision group was formed long after the failure of Bangalore Agenda Task Force functional from 1999 till 2004.

Last year, founders of large-scaled tech startups had launched an industry body Indiatech.org led by Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal. It is a non-profit entity slated to help the Indian online companies to lobby for policy support with the government and other stakeholders.

The group has been advocating against foreign companies advocating requirement of measures to be taken for safeguarding of interests of home-grown startups against foreign players.

As Walmart-Flipkart deal is done and Ola-Uber merger is in talks, the vision of the group is quite uncertain.

The lobby group started to lose its shine when its CEO and former IAS officer and economist Gyanendra Badgaiyan left the body due to differences in opinion. The report further added that not a single employee works for it at present and there is not much action taking place inside the group.

Notably, the lobby group head Sachin Bansal is no longer with Flipkart.

The development was first reported by Business Standard via PTI.