Bangalore's IT future under scanner

Perhaps for the first time since its emergence as the Silicon Valley of India, the future of Information Technology in Bangalore has come under the scanner following reports of stagnated infrastructure and the row between Janata Dal-Secular chief H D Dev Gowda and Infosys chief mentor Narayanamurty.

But any speculation that Hyderabad, which has emerged as a hub of IT industry in a relatively short span of time, might stand to gain, might be premature.

"Predicting shift of investment from Bangalore to Hyderabad would be too premature," S N Murthy, Chief Operating Officer of Intoto Software Solutions India said.

"While infrastructure is a major issue, a mature industry like IT can go on its own as it had attained a critical mass in Bangalore which is not the case in Hyderabad," Murthy adds.

Southern cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore are more or less on an equal footing now. There has been intense competition but it may not be enough to pull companies out of Banglore, he says.

The issue of political stability in Karnataka is not taken so seriously by the IT industry too, according to analysts.

The mood at the recently held Bangalore IT.in was one of 'wait and see' but not to run away," says a top official of a city-based global IT firm who was present at the event.

Hyderabad, particularly the tier II cities like Vijayawada and Tirupati still need considerable scaling up to pull companies out of Bangalore, he adds.

Despite reports that Andhra Pradesh might strike a deal with Infosys close on the heels of annual IT event of Karnataka, so far nothing has been concretised.

"We have made offers to a couple of companies, including Infosys, to come and set up facilities in AP. We are awaiting their response," Ratna Prabha, IT secretary, government of Andhra Pradesh who had led the team at Bangalore IT.in, said.

"We are not competing with anybody. We are only promoting Andhra Pradesh. There has been lot of media hype on the issue," she added.