Soon Pune gonna overtake B'lore

BANGALORE: The biggest work campus of tech giants Infosys and Wipro will soon be outside Bangalore, their home turf. Pune is set to overtake Bangalore as the largest single unit campus (SUC) for Infosys by 2008-end, while in the case of Wipro, it is Pune, Chennai or Hyderabad that may eclipse the headquarters in the next 2-3 years. Already, 70 per cent Wipro’s employee billings are outside of Bangalore.

The latest infrastructure data from Infosys shows that as of June 30, 2007, the company is looking at adding about 34,049 seats across a built-up area of 10.56 million sq ft in India and Mauritius in the near future. Out of this, 14,400 seats are based in Pune with a proposed built-up area of 2.7 million sq ft.

With current capacity in Pune being 9,181 seats in a built-up area of 1.4 million sq ft, total capacity in Pune by end of 2008 will be about 23,581 seats. While in Bangalore, the company has 20,715 seats currently, it plans to add another 2,330 seats in the same timeframe. This puts total seat capacity in Infy’s headquarters at 23,045 seats, marginally less than Pune.

Stating that the Pune centre will see expansion completed by end of this fiscal or latest by next, Infosys director-HRD T V Mohandas Pai said: “The procedural delays, especially in acquiring land, have forced us to look at other centres where the governments are more proactive like in Maharasthra and Rajasthan.’’

Wipro executive vice president-HR Pratik Kumar agrees, saying that the reason why Wipro is looking at other centres is ‘space constraint’. “We have got zero expansion capacity in Bangalore, what choices do we have,” he asks, adding “I believe the city still has the best talent but there is no space.”

Wipro employs between 15,000 and 17,000 people in India’s tech capital, which accounts for 21-24 per cent of total employee strength of 71,137. But, according to Mr Kumar, “For the last five quarters, almost 70 per cent of our billing growth has come from outside Bangalore.”

He said, “We will continue to expand wherever there is availability of infrastructure and land.” However, Bangalore will remain its biggest campus at least in the near term, he said, though the scenario will change in three years.

However, Karnataka IT secretary M N Vidyashankar said, “There is more demand for developed space in Bangalore which is available in plenty. However if the firm wants to build a single unit complex (SUC), then they need land in hundreds. If there is demand, then we can acquire land for them.”

Procedural delays in land acquisition has been a major grouse of the IT industry in Bangalore. And expansion into other cities has become passe but having another centre overtake its headquarters in terms of headcount and capacity is the surprise. Mr Pai adds, “The IT industry in Bangalore adds about a lakh jobs per year. Even with a bit of delay, the state tends to lose about 25,000 jobs in a quarter.’’

Bangalore name change is not important - Murthy

Infosys chief mentor Narayana Murthy today wanted the Karnataka government to show the same enthusiasm in improving the city's infrastructure as it displayed in changing the city's name to Bengalooru.

Talking to reporters, he said it did not matter to him by what name the country's IT hub was called.

"For me, changing the name is not important. As a Kannadiga and as a person who speaks Kannada at home, you always called it Bengalooru. So I don't think that matters much," Murthy said.

He rather wished that "all this energy, enthusiasm and debate" (over name change), instead, takes place on how to improve city infrastructure, road safety, health care and education.

"I would say those are the issues that should be debated rather than Bangalore or Bengalooru," the software icon said. "This (name change) is a very easy thing. Government can issue an order and change it. That does not require any hard work".

Asked whether he was not in favour of the name change or he was not proud of it, Murthy said: "This is immaterial to me. This is not what I would spend my time on. I would spend my time on improving the quality of life of every Bangalorean....".

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Bangalore Set to Be Renamed Bengalooru

Bangalore, the Indian city where the largest technology companies such as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have offices, is being renamed Bengalooru.

The name change for the city, capital of southern Karnataka state and home to two of India's biggest software companies, will be announced later today by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy during the province's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Bangalore follows cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in adopting local-language versions of their names following independence from Britain in 1947.

``The name change is to give Bangalore the original Kannada flavor, which has been Anglicized,'' said I.M. Vittal Murthy, Karnataka's secretary of information and culture. ``It is being done in respect for the sentiments of the people.''

Bangalore had its administration taken over by the British in 1831. Today, the city of 6.5 million is home to more than 250 high-tech companies, including Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. The city is considered the technology hub of the country and often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India.

With the growth of India as an outsourcing destination, the city's name was used as a verb -- ``Bangalored'' -- to describe the loss of such jobs in the U.S. and other economies.

``I don't think it will make any difference to the Bangalore brand or to the people of Karnataka,'' T.V. Mohandas Pai, head of human resources at Infosys, said. ``It is perfectly OK to use the local name of the city. It will not affect the industry.''

Political Gains

The name change won't help much, except as a reminder of historical significance that political parties are trying to use to gain popularity, said N. Bhaskara Rao, chairman of the Centre for Media Studies, a policy research group in New Delhi.

``The changeover may cause some inconvenience to the people, especially to foreigners, and cost some additional money, but it will not have an effect on the brand name internationally,'' Rao said.

India's commercial hub changed its name to Mumbai from Bombay in 1995. The southern city of Madras switched back to Chennai in 1996 and the eastern city of Calcutta, once the capital of India during British rule, to Kolkata in 2001.

The proposal to rename Bangalore and at least eight other cities and towns in Karnataka has been sent to the federal government for approval, Murthy said. The name changes will become effective after they are notified by the federal home ministry.

The name Bengalooru was recorded in a ninth-century temple inscription, according to the Web site of the Karnataka government's department of information technology.

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Infy employees forced a night out

For scores of Infosys employees, it was a night out—by compulsion, not choice—on Tuesday.

They were done in by the chaotic traffic as they were heading home to Bangalore, from the Infosys Technologies campus at Electronics City.

Even senior executives like TV Mohandas Pai, Head of the Human Resources division, and V Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer, were forced to return to Infosys and spend the night at a hotel owned by the company.

The pileup of vehicles on the Bangalore-Hosur highway on the outskirts of the city forced the techies and senior executives to go back to the campus.

"We were unable to proceed and turned back," Mohandas Pai told Hindustan Times.

Pai added that the lack of easy access to Electronics City, the hub of the IT industry with more than 75, 000 employees, was one of the main causes for spiraling attrition at Infosys.

"All of us have to endure bumper to bumper traffic when we come in to work and on our way back home." The Electronics City Industries Association has written to the Chief Minister to tackle the problem. "We have suggested that trucks and buses coming to Bangalore from Tamil Nadu be diverted at Attibele (a village about 15 kms away from the Electronics City) and alternative roads to the city be widened. "But so far little has been done."

In 1996, a similar situation had forced the CEOs of well known infotech companies to block road traffic outside the Electronics City and thereby draw the attention of the then Janata Dal government, headed by the late JH Patel, to their plight.

It prompted the government to plan a four-lane approach highway, but work on that project has moved at snail's pace.

On June 24, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unveiled the foundation stone for the Rs 450 crore, 10-laned, 9.985 km elevated highway project, the first of its kind in the country, aimed at solving the traffic woes on the Bangalore-Hosur section of NH-7. The highway will be completed in 24 months.

Apart from traffic woes, Infosys has been forced to put off its expansion plans in this tech hub because of lack of land. The software behemoth will not
increase its headcount in Karnataka though it plans to hire 9,500 people over the next six months.

"We are full in Bangalore and Mangalore. The bulk of hiring for this year will be for outside Karnataka," Pai said pointing at paucity of land for expansion of operations.

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How about Narayana Murthy as CEO of Bangalore?

How about Narayana Murthy as CEO of Bangalore, Ratan Tata as CEO of Mumbai and YC Deveshwar as CEO of Delhi? This sounds like a radical idea but that’s what citizens in these cities are hoping for since the three CEOs possess great managerial skills that are needed to transform Indian cities which are fast deteriorating into urban sprawls.

It’s true that that the Indian economy is growing at a break-neck speed at over eight per cent a year, and matching infrastructure to support this growth is never going to be easy. Rural poverty and fast population growth have seen mass migration and changed the once beautiful cities and towns into mass refugee camps.

So, tough challenges need innovative solutions. Knowing India’s high corruption levels and the rural politicians’ main objective to plunder cities’ wealth, there is a need today for a major systemic change. Citizen groups are campaigning for de-linking provincial (state) government and city administration. Currently, for example, the Bangalore city mayor reports to the state government and has little autonomy to effect change. Most of the tax collected in the city is spent elsewhere and very little is ploughed back. City corporations, in fact, have to borrow from financial institutions to fund basic infrastructure projects.

The suggestion doing the rounds is to make cities independent of the states even if they continue to function as their political capitals. The mayor or the CEO of the city can be directly elected by the people of the city, as it happens in New York. This way, cities can be sure of what percentage of their revenues can be spent and what can be used for rural development. This will ensure greater accountability. Some Indian cities such as Chennai and Kolkata have some kind of autonomy and the difference is evident.

With constant media campaigning and pressure from the industry, the central government must be made to effect this systemic change quickly by an amendment in the constitution. Governance is the biggest issue under consideration today and a more accountable administration can provide it better. Corruption can be brought down significantly with an independent city mayor. This will also make it easier for businesses to function better and cities can attract more investment since investors wouldn’t need to go to multiple points for approvals. Resistance from politicians will be there but it’s time citizens and businesses pushed for change.

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Infosys Bangalore Campus Pictures

One of our readers sent us these amazing pictures of Infosys's Bangalore campus. Hey, is it the heaven on the Earth? :-) Click to see in original size.

If you have more beautiful pictures of Infosys (Bangalore or other locations), do send to us for publishing in this blog.

Bangalore not getting investment it needs, says Mohandas Pai

"I am not very optimistic about cities in India (in terms of their infrastructure development for expansion of IT industry)," T.V. Mohandas Pai, Director (HR), Infosys, said here on Saturday.

Asked about the expansion plans of Infosys, Mr. Pai said, "We have only 10 cities, so we will expand in each of these cities."

"Bangalore is not getting the investment it needs in public area to develop infrastructure," he said while replying to questions of presspersons after addressing professionals, academics and students at the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On Karnataka Government's initiatives to improve infrastructure in Bangalore, Mr. Pai said, "They are trying to do something now. Let us see what happens."

On the problems in Bangalore, Mr. Pai said, "You need to look at Bangalore in a different manner. I think the present Government is trying to see what can be done for Bangalore, but it is not enough. It will never be enough because we need more." He was critical of Bangalore's transport woes. "We have 24 lakh vehicles for 70 lakh people. Every household has a two-wheeler. We have around 18 lakh two-wheelers. So the roads are not enough. There is no performing public transport system either. In the sense, we have 4,000 buses, but they are not enough, obviously," Mr. Pai said.

To ease congestion, he suggested building ring roads. "Bangalore needs ring roads, Beijing has eight ring roads. So we need not go to the middle of the city and congest traffic to go from one end to another," he said. Asked if he saw any other city emerging in competition to Bangalore as an IT destination in the near future, Mr. Pai said, "Hyderabad has done well, they have got good infrastructure. They are proactive. Chennai is becoming very exciting, Maran (Union Minister for Communications Dayanidi Maran) is doing a lot of work."

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Narayana Murthy to Head Karnataka IT Vision Group

N R Narayan Murthy, the former chairman of Infosys, has accepted the Karanataka Government's offer to head the State IT Vision Group and provide guidance to the sector in the State.

The State chief minister's office informed that Murthy has agreed to shoulder the responsibility following an offer from the chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy.

Accepting the offer, Murthy, in a letter to chief minister, said, "I am grateful to you for inviting me to chair the state vision group. It will be both a privilege and pleasure to do so."

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