Patshaala @ e-City

Patshaala @ e-City

Acceding to a long-standing demand of the IT and BT industry, KIADB has identified two plots of land for setting up a school in Electronics City itself. National Public School is being considered to set up shop

By Ashoka M K & Atul Chaturvedi
Posted On Wednesday, October 01, 2008

It’s an anomaly that has been bugging them for years. Electronics City is the Ground Zero of the global outsourcing industry, where over a lakh techies work for such IT and BT giants like Wipro, HP, Infosys, Siemens, Motorola, Satyam and Biocon, but there is not a single quality school here to cater to the children of the workforce.

There are a couple of international schools in Electronics City and its satellite areas of Bommasandra and Jigani industrial area but nothing for the wards of mid-level techies. On the other end of the spectrum there are the lower-end schools, which are hardly the kind of institutions these techies would want to send their kids to.

While the CEOs, CFOs, VPs and MDs can afford the cost of international schools, the mid-and-lower level techies are forced to send their children to schools located far away in Koramangala and Indiranagar.

FINALLY, GOOD NEWS
Now, at last, some of IT and BT giants operating from here have decided to come to the rescue of their workforce by requesting the Chief Minister’s office to allot land for a decent school.

The CM’s office has responded to this and directed the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) to look for an appropriate plot of land and allot the same. The KIADB has finalised the project and National Public School may be asked to set up a new school in this area.

The techies had actually petitioned the CM’s office several times in the past. Whenever an interaction between the industry and government agencies was held, IT and BT majors raised this issue.

This demand was also placed before the CM of the time whenever he visited Wipro, Infosys or Biocon.

This time, however, taking the initiative, Wipro representatives recently approached the CM’s Principal Secretary V P Baligar. Baligar did not waste much time on this and directed KIADB’s chief Shaam Bhatt to look into the demand. Acting on it, KIADB has identified two plots. One in Bommasandra and another at Jigani.

National Public School, which has a few branches in the city and is known for imparting quality education at an affordable price for children from middle class families, may get this land and asked to set up shop here at the earliest, a senior KIADB officer said.

But, the founder chairman of National Public School owner, Dr K B Gopalakrishna has a different take on this issue.

“Setting up a school need Rs 25 crore. The KIADB’s price for the land is exorbitant. This being the scene, I am not interested in setting up a school their on my own. If somebody is interested in setting up a school their, I will lend a helping hand by tying up with them,’’ Gopalakrishna told Bangalore Mirror.

Reacting to this, a KIADB official said “Land for the school will come with a concession. Companies like Wipro have evinced interest in this project. We will find a way to this and ensure that a good and affordable school comes in this area.’’

A SIGH OF RELIEF
Techies welcomed this move and termed it a great relief. Tejesh GN who works for IT giant, Infosys, said “A good number of my colleagues are facing this problem. You either have high cost international schools or lower-standard primary schools in and around Electronics City.”

“If a National Public School comes up here, it will be a great relief for us. We will be spared from sending our children to far off places in this chaotic traffic.’’

A good number of Tejesh’s colleagues voiced a similar opinion. “Having a school at Bommasandra or Jigani is like finding a oasis. Traffic and movement of vehicles is smoother in these areas and children need not spend hours on the road while going to school and coming back,” Ravikiran, who works for Siemens, added.

BALIGA’S DREAM

Electronics City Stage I & II is spread over 332 acres in Konappana Agrahara and Doddathogur villages around Hosur Road. Bommasandra and Jigani industrial hubs are located around Electronics City. It houses more than a hundred industries, including industry leaders such as Wipro, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Infosys, Siemens, ITI, Satyam etc. The area is maintained by Keonics, which provides all the necessary infrastructure.

Electronics City was the brainchild of R K Baliga, the first Chairman and Managing Director of Keonics, Karnataka Electronics. He dreamt of making Bangalore the Silicon Valley of India when he developed the concept of Electronics City. He did not live to see his dream materialise (he died in 1988).

The liberalisation of the Indian economy in the early 1990s by the then Indian Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and then Indian Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh helped Electronics City to become what it is today.

In November 2004 the government decided to construct a 9-kilometre long elevated road from Silk Board junction to the entrance of Electronics City on Hosur Road to enable smoother traffic flow. Work has already started and is expected to be completed by January 2009.

PRESTIGIOUS SCHOOLS GALORE
Electronics City is the home of the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, one of the premier graduate schools in India, focussing on all aspects of Information Technology. It is also home to the following prestigious institutions:

Symbiosis Institute Of Business Management
Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (WE School)
IFIM B-School l XIME l ICFAI
SFS PU COLLEGE
SFS KANNADA MEDIUM SCHOOL
SFS ICSE SCHOOL
SFS ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOL
ACTS college
BTL College
Christ Academy
TREAMIS World School
International School of Business and Research
Ebenezer International School
International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore
Noble Institute of Education Society