Bangalore's loss is Hyderabad's gain.
Bangalore developed rapidly through the early 1990s as the software and computer capital of India. It is now equally quickly losing its monopoly hold over everything that has to do with software and computers. The Garden City´s place in the sun is being challenged by other metros of the Indian south, mainly Hyderabad, Madras, Pune and Bhubaneswar, in that order.
There were several reasons why the global players flew in to set up shop amidst the tree-lined avenues and colonial and post-colonial villas of Bangalore. These included Bangalore´s fine legacy of higher education, a ´cosmopolitan´ population, its salubrious climate, and importantly, a receptive Karnataka state government offering a variety of incentives. The mix had proved irresistible. All too quickly, however, roads and power supply failed to keep pace with the growth of industry and population. Despite its hifalutin industries, Bangalore began to look and smell of just another crowded, unplanned, congested Indian city, and the software companies began to look at other options.
Bangalorian blues
Karnataka, or in fact largely Bangalore, accounted for INR 12 billion, or 29 percent, of India´s software exports in 1996-97. Karnataka presently hosts 130 of the 700 major companies in the software business in India. The spectacular rise of Bangalore had mainly to do with the quick clearance of projects. Karnataka was the one place where the ´single window´ policy´ actually worked. In 1996-97 alone, for instance, projects worth INR 16 billion were cleared by the government. The software technology parks (STPs) set up by the state also had a lot to do with this growth and development: the Bangalore STP alone has some 150 units, the biggest in the country.