Save Bangalore: Part I Tech Boom turns into Doom

Save Bangalore: Part I



Trying to whip the IT men into line a series of events, accusations and innuendo have been unleashed to push the techies onto the backfoot and get them to give up some of their powers to the politicians.

The most high-profile of the incidents is the one where Infosys Chairman and mentor Narayan Murthy was targeted by Janata Dal (S)’s Deve Gowda, former Prime Minister of India.

Gowda indicated in harsh language that Murthy was not contributing to the wealth and prosperity of the area but was in fact taking advantage of his reputation and the success of his company to corner land for the company. In addition, he blamed Murthy for not being an asset on the board of the Bangalore International Airport Authority Ltd. A post that the Infy man quickly quit.

Former Chief Minister S M Krishna did not bother to get involved in the fracas, choosing to stay mum as elections and an ally are at stake. He is letting Gowda do his dirty work for him. While Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram made placating noises to retain Murthy, he did not issue any whip or ultimatum, signalling that he is powerless to step into this war between the techies and the politicians.

Far from appreciating the money and employment generated by the sector, the politicians are trying to get control over the future of the sector (the Indian IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) industry) that generated $5.7 bn in exports in 2002 and jumped to $17 billion in 2004-05.

With over half of Fortune 500 companies being clients of Indian IT companies, realisation has dawned on other, smaller, Western firms about the advantages of outsourcing and this promises an even bigger bonanza for India. Politicians have not lost sight of the factor that the sector’s exports are growing at about 34.5% per year.

The IT-ITES sector employs over 2.5 million people. With companies other than in US and UK seeking to outsource to India (Holland, Sweden, even tiny Switzerland), the job opportunities are going to be huge. They may not be big in terms of money but they will be many in number and all together they will add up to an astronomical amount, though no one is willing to hazard a guesstimate.

Also, not only are Indian companies doing well, foreign corporate giants like IBM and SAP are hiring indiscriminately in India, while firing their employs in US and Europe.

Hewlett-Packard will be retrenching 14,000 workers, IBM went on record targeting a similar number. Everyday another foreign company reveals a similar strategy in India.

All of these together also generate innumerable jobs in terms of transport, real estate, catering, and many more, besides firing up demand for phones, cars, computers, et al.

With so much money in circulation and power to be had over providing jobs to a job-starved India, was there any doubt in the mind of anyone that an attack for subverting control was imminent.

The strategy made, politicians sought to push home the victory.

How?

First and foremost was to ensure that infrastructure projects never took off or were mired in controversy or bureaucracy. As such, we can see a flyover being built on airport road since 2003. The workers are idle and the hulk of the structure is rusting. No deal!

There are innumerable other instances of the same thing happening over every area of activity that is crucial to the IT sector.


With inadequate infrastructure the IT sector was forced to go to politicians to improve things. The politicians are willing, but they want control over the money in the sector.

Since the IT men are, understandably unwilling to give up what they worked so hard to create, no understanding has been reached and the politicians have rung Round Two of the contest – get up close and personal to the techies and create fear in their hearts.

Is it any wonder that the city has ground to a halt and its uncaring government could not bother less to do something about.

Wipro’s Azim Premji, and Infosys’ Narayana Murthy warned of the consequences of such unconcern. It would spike any chance for Bangalore to grow further. Its reputation would be mud and people elsewhere in India would take advantage of its problems and build their own spanking new IT magnet cities.

That Bangalore is crumbling is no longer a regional story, it has even surpassed national boundaries and gone international. MNCs are looking at more than just Bangalore for their future. From Chennai to Chandigarh, there are numerous other new kids on the block seeking to boot Bangalore where it hurts.

But that is not the end of the story.

While it is welcome that more and more Indian cities are vying to become a Bangalore of the future, what is not comforting is that it should be on the ashes of the Karnataka city.

For India to benefit from the outsourcing bonanza, the leading IT city had to be Bangalore, (as it had a huge headstart) with the rest of the latecomers competing to be No. 2.

Also, the Bangalore story has rung alarm bells across the country – will the same thing happen in Chandigarh, Hyderabad and all the others dreaming of IT glory.

Join us in the Save Bangalore campaign and send us your views in around 200 words at articles@expressindia.com