Harvard Business Publishing

Chennai and Hyderabad and other major metros are also facing severe heat w.r.to infrastructure crisis. Its not only restricted to Bangalore. Even Chennai, Mumbai are having potholes, sanitary issue during heavy rains and Traffic God only knows how much time it takes in Chennai from one area to another. Of course Mumbai and calcutta are far worst than any cities. So certainly Bangalore has more advantage in the coming years than rest of indian cities.

If we look at the strengths & opportunities , bangalore has been able to identify resources in the form of software talent & the business environment . Bangalore has emerged as one of the major software service provider to domestic as well as Global markets & this is going to continue in future. We forcee government & industry leaders comming closer & addressing issues related to infrastructure . In order to encash on opporunities government may redesign policies to attract other emerging sectors such as enegy & health care . I am optimistic about Bangalore's talent pool & expect to be a global hub for more than one sector .

However since business opportunities are shifting from atlantic to pacific , it is but for certain that Chennai & Hyderabad too will get beneffited out of this Global shift.

Well, nice to know that such a discussion has taken place. It may please be recalled that Bangalore and Karnataka have been pioneers in many technological developments such as the first city to get electricity in the whole of Asia, the concept of electronics city, ITPL, various industrial estates (Peenya Industrial estate was the biggest in Asia at its introduction). Furhter, Bangalore is having major Public Sector units and research institutions besides various colleges producing engineers, doctors, writers, management graduates etc.,.

The favourable factors are:

1. The salubrious climate and the atmosphere in and around Bangalore encourages/provides opportunity for creative thinking, allows long hours of work (less fatigue),
2. Peace loving people.
3. Vision of some political leaders and administrators (like Mr. R.K. Hegde, Mr. S.M. Krishna, Mr. Baliga0
4. Pool of intellignet and sensible people.
5. Peace loving and accommodating nature of people.
6. Various colleges and institutions.
7. Presence Huge manufacturing and software firms, R&D institutions.
8. Vast tract of land available for future developments.

The traffic congestion is a sign of growth like you find in any other city such as Beijing, Shanghai, New York etc., These cities witnessed huge jams previously and now also. However, efforts were made to develop the infrastructure and ease the congestions. The same being done in Bangalore also. Further, Bangalore is being developed more now in the outskirts, where the people go to work/ business without coming inside the city to experience the traffic jams. Varioys satellite towns and Special Econominc Zones are being identified and development is going on.

Hence, these above factors along with many more would make Bangalore the top most tech city. The competition by other cities in India and aborad with Bangalore is a good sign of growth as they are emulating the Bangalore model and it should be encouraged with more innovative projects/ ideas.

The policy makers or the politicians should foucs on the other town near to Bangalore such as Tumkur, Bidadi, Ramnagar, Mysore etc., and provide the similar facilities to ease pressure on Bangalore. The Bangalore- Mysore express corridor (NICE road)to be coupled with SEZs, IT Parks and Industrial estates along with hotels, housing, transport and other related infrasture development needs urgent attention. The Govt. should regulate the education system so as to ensure that the lesser privilaged also gets equal opportunities. Tax administration to be simplified like a single window approach to various types of taxes and licences.

These measures would surely complement the favourable factors stated above and encourage the trade and industry to grow at a much better speed. We can definitely envision Bangalore as a truly world class city.

I think I have missed many more points to add, which can be complemented by others.

Mr Radjou,
I must say that i am quite impressed at your magnificent research work.The fact however is a little bit different.B`lore is way different from other states.
Let me assume by now that you have read the news of TATA`s project in Singur.India`s large time investment sector be it IT or clean industry, politics plays a major role.The TATA`s project is at stake because of political opposition.Chennai is not at all exempted from political turmoil.B`lore is the only hub as we can see and project which has no kind of political stiffness.Its only hardcore pot boiler of money and investments from MNC`s.
The second contradiction i would like to place is that B`lore has a large and more efficient mode of education than Chennai and B`lore.B`lore has students migrating from places like Africa and Saudi-Arabia.Moreover a down in IT cannot be predicted at this point of time when analysts are unaware of the American movement.If at all outsourcing is to be sealed it takes a different road if not then move along the highway.Analysts may have a fail of their theories without considering the American policies.70% of Indian IT jobs are Outsourcing related.

Let us hope sincerely Barack Obama takes the right steps catering to both his and our interest.
Its all an unpredictable game down here.the following 3years can pave the road to predictions, till then we have to watch the game ..

Hai friends,
I appriciate each one of your opinion equally. My opinion is to look outside the box such as Delhi, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Baroda, Poona keeping in view that world is shrinking faster so is the development of technolgy. Since there are vast development in transportation such as bullet train and very light jet aircraft as well as technology other IT such as sustainable energy etc etc one can never say that future will be only bangalore/madras/hyderabad. I feel the greatest factor to influence might be the vast development of individual knowledge which in turn effects rest of his or her thinking ability. Suggestions are welcome-- regards==Joseph Elenjickal JJ.

There seems to be an interesting discussion here and couldn't resist being part of it.
I'd second everybody's thoughts here. I'm a hard core Bangalorean and would speak for it, for sure. Many of us end up speaking as one and that's good. But now, lets be practical for a moment. We've seen drastic changes in Bangalore - its environment, social life, infrastructure (most loved subject!), political scenario, rift between have's and have not's, being cosmopolitan, advanced knowledge scenario and bits of brain drain too. I might have missed few but lets go with it for now. It is certainly a "decent" mix of portfolio and certainly not 'lot of eggs in a basket' scenario. Looking at a longer term, I see this as a good foundation to be an internationally recognized city from various perspectives, not just software/services.
My argument: Bangalore now needs a breathing place, needs a breather, needs some space to look back and chalkl-out plans for its good future. I see there are very few things in place for long term. This breathing place can be provided if it takes a break and stops the inflow of big projects to the city. This idle time should be then be spent on mending the flaws, recuperating from short-term fallouts etc.
Having said that, I consider this as a natural phase where the neighboring cities share the limelight for our own good. There will be certain balance in the region and helps reduce regional disparity too.
If I were to be an administrator of this city then would take this stop-gap issue as a golden opportunity to strengthen and prepare for much better things. Let this issue take its own pace but not loose the message of silver lining lying beneath it.
Thejendra

I look at it this way:

- Whether its a team or a company or a city or a nation, there is 1 primary requirement for being globally there or locally nowhere....VISION.

- Irrespective whether the citizens of the city are talented or not, a bad leader will never take them closer to thier dreams.

- 1 horse leading a pack of donkeys is better than 1 donkey leading a army of horses.

- To be global innovation hub, each decision maker in the political, legal and corporate system has to think like an entreprenuer and realize that there lies a bigger promise of wealth and fame if they work in synergy. They have to give up thier scheming tactics for petty wins and look at the big wave.

Once this is in place, infrastructure, talent, competition from other cities etc will automatically see the solutions emerging.

Nothing is impossible once you put your heart to it....I'm not saying be honest, simple etc...be selfish very selfish....get a bunch of selfish guys like you who are willing to work togeather for the sole reason of making it big..I'm not taliking short term gains here....Bangalore unlike the silicon valley is a canvas that still has a lot more space left to paint one's dreams..

The people and city will benefit automatically once the right leaders get togeather.

I recently document from one of the Government departments, which supports Karnataka Government for rapid industrial growth -

 Establishing Skill Development Centres or Knowledge hubs consisting of schools, colleges, vocational institutes, engineering/technical institutes etc. Encouraging Private sector in skill development.

 Encouraging Private power producers - conventional and non conventional.

 Developing Bangalore as aerospace hub of the country and encouraging MRO and aircraft related industries adjacent to all airports.

 Strengthening connectivity between Production centres, Market and ports. Ring roads and by passes in all tier – 2 cities. Express ways and dedicated freight corridors connecting all district head quarters with Bangalore (International Airport) and Mangalore (Port).

 Encouraging Auto industries in Hubli Dharwad Region.

 Encouraging Steel industries to utilise available iron ore which results in value addition

 Bellary, Gadag, Haveri, Hospet, Chitradurga as Steel Region.

 Gulbarga, Bagalkote, Bijapura as Cement Region.

 Hubli, Shimoga, Mangalore as IT Region.

 Bagalkot, Dharwad as Agro food Processing Region.

Wait....What is slipping from brand Bangalore? Is it IT or....?

Lehman Brothers fallout is estimated to hit some 16,000 jobs in India. Infrastructure spending is not stopping in India despite US economic fallout.

Real Estate prices in Bangalore are at a stand still with zero transactions on Independent houses for the past 6 months. Appartments / Flats prices have plunged to 30% already. Cost Cutting is on everyone's mind in bangalore. Job cuts started all the way in January 2008 when the Sub Prime mortgage crisis started to make an impact on Indian Markets. Several other companies are expected to cut jobs in coming months.

We dont have any independent innovation / research either funded locally or any force driving it. Once the VC's and FII's pull out the plug for what so ever reason,what do you expect to be pushing India...let alone bangalore

I think the world tomorrow is going to be far more mobile than it is today, just like we are much more mobile than few decades. I think in the future technologies will ensure that you can work from wherever you are, and not move to the places that offer opportunities for employment / growth.

Having said that, I think every city should be restricted to a size, that would ensure that no city goes beyond its capacity and provides a quality life to its citizens. In 2025, we should be looking at many more cities being developed as hubs of Innovation in whatever space that time demands. Bangalore came as a IT hub as late nineties demanded it to be. Let us leave Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and other over grown cities where they are and move to new cities which still have breathing spaces left. Just like patriotism, there is no point in pointlessly defending the city we live in and insist that everything that is good should come to it, because I live here.

In the same breath I would like to say that I am based out of Bangalore and its my chosen home.

There is no innovation going on in IT in Bangalore.

I have been working in the Bangalore IT industry since 1992. My teams have delivered (and continue to deliver) business applications that meet customer needs (starting from requirements definition through design and programming all the way to acceptance test). Was this "innovative"? I doubt it. Maybe, offshore software development was an innovation in the early ninties, but that is very commonplace now.

What is happening now is a commodity play, where Indian companies lease out capacity, which I define as:

capacity = commodity + campus + conformance

Cannot see innovation fitting into this equation. Innovation needs a completely different equation!

Of course, since innovation is the current buzzword, every one and his grandmother claim they are innovating. If only innovation was that easy.

About political and administrative leadership in Bangalore city, there is none. Same story in other Indian cities too. You need to understand, the software industry succeeded "in spite of" a lack of vision among the political leardership, not "because of" it.

Bangalore in 2025 will have more of disappearance of present IT-related brouhaha and infrastructure-based requirements.
1. Metro will takeover and more like Tokyo, people will be mechanically going about their visits into the centre of the city now and then.
2. Work from home will become the norm. Local communities will prevail over office-centric social networks. What's the need to worry about the roads or potholes? Stay cool at home and attend to work online.
2. Professionals from agro-based manufacturing sector will replace present-day IT workers as this sector will get to occupy more than 50% of the workforce by 2025. Farmers will be replaced by agro-manufacturing companies irrespective of nationality. Bangalore may become the world's largest food-making centre by thne.
3. Newspapers will disappear and e-papers will cater to the personal designs and tastes of readers and all of them will be instant software-generated e-newspapers.
4. Social networks will be more of professional-based and caste and community will take a back seat. Nobody will know who the other person is but only his ID number and code name, perhaps.
5. India will not be a country be then but a continent more like Europe with people freely moving from one region to the other transcending present-day Pakistan or Bangladesh or Nepal.
6. Yes, by 2025 enormous changes will take place and Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore will be more like twin centres placed nearer to each other, within a distance of 30 minutes travel time. And the mode of transport will be something entirely different from the trains or vehicles that we use now.
Let's await the new world and not worry over roads that will never be used by our children.

The idea of Bangalore being innovative isnt that convincing. Infact , we still are great marketing opportunities for the western world and innovation whatever it is , is very less. If we compare some of our cities to the USA , Bangalore comes close to San Francisco (or the Bay Area in general) in terms of its industrial opportunities , while Mumbai remains the equivalence of NYC.
What cities like Bangalore , Hyderabad and Chennai need is better infrastructure which will drive the investments towards them. Mumbai remains the heart-throb of our country on virtue of its better infrastructural facilities. Its jammed , cramped with exhorbitant home prices but still remains the hotspot (not for innovation but for investment).
May be we are closeby to challenge the big economies of the world , but certainly not in innovation. Theres a long way to go for our country to achieve that. For that we have to look beyond The Big3 cities (not considering Kolkata here) and the other fast developers.