City is still India’s Silicon Valley

City is still India’s Silicon Valley
Monday March 10 2008 09:44 IST

A T Subrahmanya

BANGALORE: Despite potholed roads, endless traffic snarls and a new airport 60 km away from Electronic city, Bangalore continues to be the IT capital of India — at least for now.

A recent study by Dun and Bradstreet has found that Bangalore was the foremost choice for having an operations centre in India. Mumbai was second. The study, “India’s top IT companies 2008’, profiled around 210 IT companies.

Of the total operating centres for all companies profiled in the study, Bangalore is home to 15.6 percent, followed by Mumbai with 14.7 percent. The south zone is home to 38 percent of delivery centres, followed by west zone with 30 percent.

Principal secretary to IT/BT department MN Vidyashankar told this website’s newspaper: “Bangalore has a variety of factors that make it the most preferred destination. The ecosystem which is available in this city is unparalleled.

Any budding entrepreneur can set up a business across verticals like BPO, VLSI design or embedded systems. You can have end-to-end solutions here irrespective of the nature of the business”.

When asked about the appalling state of the city’s infrastructure, he said, “Because of the phenomenal rate of growth in the previous decade, demand did outstrip supply but now there are many projects which will help the city retain its competitive advantage”.

Vidyashankar said the Bangalore Metro Rail and the new International Airport would spur IT growth in city. There is a ‘knowledge city’ coming up at Bidadi and five townships are also planned with connectivity to the new airport.