Business and Bangalore-Engineered for growth
The cantonment history of Bangalore is long lost.
Bangalore developed its Engineering Educational Institutions over the last century and formed the nucleus of skilled manpower for the primarily Government Engineering companies. Amongst them Hindustan Machine Tools, Bharat Electronics Limited and Indian Telephone Industries. In the private sector, Motor Industries Company better known as MICO the automotive components manufacturer, a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH of Germany and WIDIA the machine tool manufacturer.
These companies employing together over 50,000 skilled employees developed their “old economy” products with great success.
However, the last ten years-possibly less-have seen the emergence of the new economy. Bangalore is leading the country in the development of software companies of world class. The two stars are Infosys Technologies and WIPRO. These companies have drawn from the same source-the excellent educational centers of Bangalore. Where the engineering companies looked primarily for male employees, the new software companies have opened up a whole new field of opportunity for the women employees- their percentage in the software companies being as high as 25%. These companies have also through their rapid growth developed a number of highly rewarded employees through their generous stock option schemes. A first in India and an important part in the democratization process of industrial ownership in India.
Bangalore is also a leader in exports to different parts of the world. It’s textile exports, especially silk are very high and account for a large portion of state revenue. Due to a large number of granite quarries in and around the city granite exports are also very high. Then there is sandalwood and agarbattis (incense sticks) that are also thriving businesses and international exports. Clearly, these are areas of high growth that will see significant developments in the years to come.
Bangalore sees this rapid growth cause some problems-affluence bringing heavy pressure on the infrastructure-in particular the roads over-burdened with a range of new cars and two-wheelers. But the corporate citizens of Bangalore have been a concerned lot and support the development of infrastructure with an active State Government leadership.
It is imaginable that the next phase of development in Bangalore will marry both software and engineering hardware skills to produce intelligent products like the new generation of white and brown goods, electronic controlled components to make cars and driving safe and more economical.
Bangalore has the foundation to be the industrial leader in India for the new millennium.
