The evolution of Bengaluru

I am lucky to have seen Bengaluru for a large part of my life. I met my wife, my daughter was born here, and one of our two dogs was also rescued and adopted here. So in every possible way, it is my home. And I love the city.

On this Rajyotsava Day, it is probably appropriate to look back to how the city changed over the years (including a name change). I have seen some of it too — largely the digital and intellectual transformation, while the infrastructure has collapsed.

Bangalore has multiple identities — nice cultured people, IT and start-up hub, great weather, military cantonments, traffic, and of late flooding billionaire homes.

Like any mega city, it has its good and bad- of course, good overwhelmingly supersedes the bad. And that shows how millions are still flocking to the city, the highest migration in the country.

I think Bengaluru is a city that probably changed the most among all the metros in the last seven decades. And this is a fundamental change in the core DNA, which is very unique. I see the five distinct phases.

Phase 1 was the military cantonment and the retiree’s paradise. The climate, availability of land, and the British legacy first made it a military base, which soon transformed itself into the post-retirement hub of army brass.

Karnataka has a very strong armed forces legacy, with Mysore Kings and Tipu Sultan maintaining some of the best pre-independence armies. It created many warrior classes, which fed the Indian army over the years (General Thimayya — just one of the icons). The distance between the North and West borders was an additional advantage. And the ecosystem shows army barracks and civilian hubs like Defence Colony, and many “Sainik” prefixed layouts and institutions.

Phase 2 was intricately connected with Phase 1 — the establishment of scientific institutions.

The fountainhead is of course the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Started in 1909 with a huge endowment from the Tatas (Jamsetji Tata considered it as one of his children and gave an equal share of his property — so much so it is still called Tata Institute by many). It was augmented by the likes of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in 1940, and a bunch of Defence Research and Development (DRDO) laboratories came up, along with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The distance from the volatile borders was a reason, but the chief draw was the highly trained workforce coming out of IISc, and some of the technical institutes which also took root.

Phase 3 was the Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled Services (ITeS) or BPO waver. A province of some of the best entrepreneurial minds, skilled scientific talent (both fresh and well trained from the government organizations, enabling political climate, weather suitable to the Western world, and large tracts of land with relatively high affordability germinated the wave. And it is continuing, the IT and ITeS (though this has lost some sheen to the likes of the Philippines) — the headroom is significant.

The Global Delivery model once perfected attracted the global service providers to come to India (IBM and Accenture at various times have reported their highest workforce in India), and then came the inhouse tech units of the Fortune 500 companies (the captives).

This created a virtuous cycle. Private engineering colleges came up, support jobs were created, real estate demand increased, and personal disposable income exploded. Karnataka’s already rich cultural heritage (which has the highest number of Gnanpith award winners, and is the citadel of Carnatic music) found many more sponsors. And it saw the growth of new theatres, museums, and culture hubs. All the times aided the clubs and pubs as places one can meet and greet.

The IT and ITeS also provided traction to other knowledge industries to come to the adjacent industries like Biotechnology, Industrial Design, Digital Marketing, and Auto electronics (which slowly morphed into an auto hub).

Phase 4 is the natural migration — being the start-up hub. Talent, global connection, brand, culture, and reputation of the technology space were already there. Also with many product companies outsourcing their ancillary development, and many captive centers doing even the core part, the market was ripe.

What changed was money. Venture capitalists from China and Japan (looking for growth markets) and OECD funds provided the fuel. The clean money generated by the Indian tech entrepreneurs also came it, but it had always been a trickle. This was supported by many who planned to come back after working in cutting-edge space in global corporations — either to set up on their own or be Venture Capitalists.

And the results are there to see — Bengaluru is now called the second Silicon Valley.

Phase 5 is what is playing now, and is the most interesting. I will call this the journey of Bengaluru as the intellectual hub.
The building blocks are very credible — an educated gentry who are globally exposed and connected, a cultural hub that is already growing, a liberal social and political (?) climate, relatively high personal disposable income, less traditional baggage (society has witnessed major political reforms, and is far away from hotbeds of the communal divide), and many more.

But most of all, it is the clean money, made by clean people, in clean businesses, in a clean way. So while many of the old money initiatives, though noble in purpose and intent, become captive to the vested interests because of the inherent vulnerabilities of the donors, the Bengaluru initiatives for a better society have much fewer strings attached.

So we are increasingly finding new entities coming up, and old ones are getting energized. We have the hubs (Bangalore International Centre — BIC), Think Tanks (Takshashila, or Daksh); Museums (Indian Music Experience Museum, or Museum of Art & Photography — MAP), or civic governance (Bangalore Political Action Committee — BPAC, Citizens for Bengaluru — CFB, Janaagraha), institutions (Indian Institute of Human Settlements — IIHS, Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy — CSTEP) the list is ever increasing.

And this is moving beyond the conventional. Some of the new ones are path-breaking, like the Center for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) which is working to make people about the Constitution, or Fields of View which uses games and simulations to make better public policy. And almost all these organizations have been conceptualized, formed, and run by young people who had the best education, exposure, and opportunities, but decided to do something more meaningful.

The ground is well set, it is a win-win for all — clean money, enabling society, erudite patrons, passionate foot soldiers, and legendary Bengaluru comfort.

I believe Bangalore is poised to become the New York or Paris of the East, a hotbed of brainy stuff — much sooner than we can imagine.

PS: Painting Dall. E 2 creations.