THE JUNGLE REPORT

Two years ago, Bangalore over took California’s silicon valley in number of engineers employed. But, is the tag of “silicon valley of India” really appropriate for Bangalore. With my first hand experience here in Bangalore, It is clear that Bangalore is much more than silicon valley. “Bangalore” brand is now globally recognized just as silicon valley is. But the industrial landscape is much more broadly diversified.

Of course, much of the growth had been fueled by American companies, however, the Europeans are just now starting to realize it’s potential and getting a footprint here.Bangalore’s rise, and thus, India’s rise, has been despite the corrupt political system and barriers put up by the government itself. It has truely been a bottoms up phenomenon rather than top down. Companies have built sprawling campuses that are fully self sufficient, modern, green sanctuaries. Inside the corporate fence looks nothng like the outside.

The infrastructues problems speak volumes about how government has done compared to the private sector. Granted things are improving, as the private sector is pulling the government along by its hair, though kicking and screaming.

We’ll cover these points in depth in later columns. Let’s get back to the tag of “silicon valley”.

Driving around Bangalore, one quickly notices that it is not just high tech that is here. Virtually every industrial sector is represented here. Of course high tech has a primary foothold here. To give you an idea, let’s take a look at a few sectors:

High tech - companies like IBM, Micosoft, Dell, Intel, Motorola, HP, Oracle, Cisco, TI, Autodesk, Tektronix, Novell, and the list goes on.

Conumer - GE, Sony, Honeywell, Samsung, …

Automotive - GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, Honda, …

Financials - Fidelity, Bank of America, …

Others - Internal Revenue Service, …

Well, you get the idea. No longer is this just a call center for tech support. Complete end to end solutions are being offered, in addition to BPO (business process outsourcing), which is really all the non-core functions of the businessess. Product development work is now also being done here.

Here are some pictures I have taken to show the mega campuses and structures sprawling accross Bangalore:

Intel

Cisco, Qwest

JP Morgan

International Tech Park

Brigade Tech Park

Motorola, TI, HP, Juniper, I-flex, Target, Volvo, ….

IBM, Microsoft

Fidelity

Oracle

Caterpillar

Adobe, LSI Logic