Is Brand Banglore losing sheen?

Is Brand Banglore losing sheen?
UTVi Newsdesk


Tuesday, Bangalore: This is a city with many faces, but one that is best recognised for changing the face of the Indian IT industry.

R K Misra, founder, Change India Foundation: "I have seen the phase when Brand Bangalore was aggresively marketed and we had fantastic results. The last few years has been a rough ride for Brand Bangalore."

The city's infrastructure started crumbling, resulting in bad roads, painful traffic jams, power shortage, soaring crime rate and even terror threats. Suddenly the garden city was not looking so beautiful anymore.

Leo Saldana, Environmentalist: "95% of Bangalore sites that has been sold is built upon. So, it is a speculative city. The growth of Bangalore is a speculative growth."

The brand value of the city is on rapid decline, and Bangaloreans hope the new government would put development on top of its agenda.

A SWOT analysis on Brand Bangalore:

Strengths

*Global recognition through the IT industry, a large pool of employable talent and a pleasant climate

Weakness

* Crumbling infrastructure and incomplete projects, poor governance and a weak public transport system

Opportunities

* New world-class international airport, upcoming projects like the Metro and focus on decongestion

Threats

* Flight of investment to Chennai and Hyderabad, increasing signs of terrorist activities,

Unstable government

Providing some hope to investors are a new world-class international airport and the metro rail that is under construction.

If the state government does not act fast, Chennai and Hyderabad may steal the march over Bangalore in IT investments.

Harish Bijoor, Brand Consultant: "We have lots of issues outside of the city but what happens to the highest common denominator issues. Bangalore is a highest common denominator city. Every other place is LCD. Politicians flip and tend to defocus on Bangalore."

But this time around, defocusing Bangalore won't be an option as the number of constituencies from the city has increased to 36 from 16 after the delimitation process.

Bangaloreans are happy to see the development of the city on every politicians agenda, but are wary of how it will be implemented once the new government is formed. Many say rebuilding the brand will depend on how the government involves its citizens in its decision making process to ensure transparency and accountability.