Mysore underpins Bangalore boom

Bangalore has been in the limelight for close to a year now for the wrong reason. Its infrastructure has been bursting at the seams and the question being asked is: can Bangalore, and by extension Karnataka, continue to play host to a fast growing IT and BPO industry?

When the prime minister opened Infosys's massive training centre in Mysore recently, the event both underlined the problem facing the premier IT destination of the country and one of the solutions that Karnataka is seeking in order to overcome the problem.

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The arrival of Mysore on the IT scene is really part of a bigger trend encompassing other parts of the country.

States or regions which have one prime IT destination to boast of -- like Chennai for Tamil Nadu, Kolkata for West Bengal and the national capital region for north India -- are developing as second line of cities which can in a way be part of a hub and spoke system. In the case of Karnataka, the new talking point is: tired of traffic jams in Bangalore, try Mysore and Mangalore.

Mohandas Pai, director, CFO and head, finance and administration, at Infosys, underlines the emerging trend thus: "The Golden Triangle or the Knowledge Triangle which includes Hyderabad and Chennai is going to grow tremendously. Trivandrum is becoming more exciting, Pune presents great promise and other places to watch out for would include Chandigarh, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata."

But even as competition hots up from outside the state, the second- tier cities of Mysore and Mangalore within Karnataka are emerging as increasingly attractive choices.

"Mysore is at a stage where Bangalore used to be quite some time back. With the Bangalore-Mysore expressway coming up, I don't see any reason Mysore cannot be the next Bangalore," says Tamal Das Gupta, CIO of Wipro.

Mysore's advantages to the IT industry include lots of land, a reasonable climate and the comfort it affords in moving around the city.

With big names like Infosys already setting up shop there and Wipro waiting for a confirmation on land, the movement towards Mysore should increase.

Interestingly, Karnataka's third line of defence, Mangalore, is not only competing but in some ways ahead of the second. It has been getting a bigger pieces of the IT pie than Mysore and more software exports occur out of it than Mysore.

B V Naidu, chairman, Software Technology Parks India, Karnataka, explains the higher growth of Mangalore in software exports than of Mysore: "The educational cluster around Mangalore ensured that it came out on people's radars much earlier. The STPI set up its centre here in 1998 and some companies came in to establish an early presence. Moreover, the air connectivity from Mangalore is really good."

In fact, Infosys alone has around 1,600 people in Mangalore and has recorded software exports of Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) out of it in the last 12 months.

But despite the early start, Mangalore is not growing as much as some of the second tier cities in other states. Explains Bob Hoekstra, CEO of Philips Innovation Centre: "Satellite cities to Bangalore which want to play host to the expansion of companies out of Bangalore should be not more than an hour's drive from the city. As far as the Bangalore-Mysore expressway is concerned, I would like to hold judgement till the road is done and I don't see any stray cow and oxen on it."

So the status of Karnataka's second and third line of defence is as follows: Mysore, which is close to Bangalore, is just starting to move and Mangalore, which has more activity cannot geographically be a satellite to Bangalore (at 300 km, it is a bit far away) so as to literally take the spillover. So if you are looking for a tried and tested destination where you can start operations double quick, you come back to Bangalore.

Not surprisingly, there are companies like Logica CMG, which remain happy about the promise that Bangalore holds.

Says Mike Weston, offshore development director of Logica CMG, which had recently moved to a new campus, "The quantity and quality of IT talent in the city vis-a-vis outside means that we are committed to are growing in the city. Our campus satisfies our immediate expansion plans and we don't plan to go anywhere else at this stage."

Is the state taking the necessary steps to make sure that the IT industry does not migrate out of it?

Some feel that it may be difficult to make an impact on Bangalore but the government is also not doing much to improve the secondary cities of Mysore and Mangalore to become more attractive IT destinations. Officialdom naturally demurs.

Says Naidu: "The government is quite conscious of the IT industry's concerns and is all making all efforts in that direction."

There can be a dispute over whether there is much activity on the ground or not. But there is no dispute over what needs doing.

The government has to pay close attention to the development of Mysore and Mangalore while tackling the more intractable problems of Bangalore. Otherwise the state will have to bid goodbye to at least some future expansion.