So, Bangalore is India’s IT city. But now it’s moving into another bigger league. With every MNC and Indian company worth its salt setting up development centres in the city, it’s turning into a genuine high-tech cluster - India’ first Technopolis. Bangalore has often been compared with technology clusters like Silicon Valley, Boston Route 128, Cambridge and Hsinchin.

Technology investments by MNCs in Bangalore

• Three to four years from now, Bangalore will be home to several development centres, each housing 3,000-5,000 people working on the latest technologies.
  
  

• Bangalore averaged $300 million a year in terms of technology investments. In 2000, the city got close to $1 billion. In 1999, the government cleared big projects worth Rs 3,500 crore and the figure soared to Rs 13,000 the following year.
  
  

• In 1999, 400,000 sq. ft. of land was leased to companies. In 2000, 400,000 sq. ft. was leased every quarter.
  
  

• Apart from development centres, huge technology parks are being set up.
  
  

• Reliance is investing Rs 1,600 crore to build a technology park and has bought 25 acres already for the purpose.
  
  

• The second stage of the International Technology Park (ITPL) is coming up with an investment of Rs 160 crore and is expected to be ready by 2002.
  
  

• Industry observers expect Venture Capitalists to invest about $10 billion in the country over the next three years. According to venture capital firm Walden International, Bangalore will receive 50% of the risk capital, which is approximately $5 billion.
  
  

• These days it is common to find Indian companies in the Garden City working on contemporary technologies - Bluetooth, 3G, MPEG, DSL and so on, besides handling full product development.
  
  

• IBM is investing $100 million (Rs 450 crore) in Bangalore over the next three years.
  
  

• Cisco plans to invest $200 million (Rs 900 crore) in its development centre in the city over the next three years.
  
  

• Sun Microsystems is building its largest engineering centre in the world here. At present, it will employ 250 people, 900 by 2002, 3,000-5,000 by 2005.
  
  

• Motorola has bought land at Whitefield to expand its development centre. It will invest $40 million (Rs 180 crore) on the centre, which will house 1,500 developers.
  
  

• Texas Instruments (TI), the first MNC to start a development centre in Bangalore, will invest Rs 200 crore, doubling its engineers to 1,000.
  
  

• Huwei Technologies, a Chinese telecom firm, set up an R&D centre in the city six months ago and now has 280 people on its rolls.
  
  Why has Bangalore seen a sudden burgeoning in technology investments by MNCs? The biggest strength of this city is the breeding grounds for expertise that it is constantly throwing up. Besides, Karnataka has 73 engineering colleges and Bangalore has 18. There are 103 R&D institutions in the city. With such a vast pool of highly skilled manpower, who have proved that they are capable of working on large, complex projects, the city offers great opportunities. As far as Bangalore is concerned, the best is yet to come!