Bangalore, the next Silicon Valley? Now, the community has always been divided on this one. With its early mover advantage and it being home to probably the highest technology companies in India , some say Bangalore is ‘the’ contender to become the next Silicon Valley. A certain section of the community is very clear that Bangalore does not have what it takes to become the Silicon Valley of India.
As was pointed out in this post on The Next Silicon Valley – Pune or Chennai or ? , Bangalore has become the hub for IT service companies and it is too late for the city to change to a creator of new products. The reason is well founded to a certain extent and there are probably many more reasons to ponder if Bangalore really has the where wit-halls to take on the Silicon Valley.
One crucial factor where Bangalore (which is true for all other cities as well) seems to losing the battle is Infrastructure. The city has been expanding at a break neck speed with IT companies, hotels, shopping malls etc without paying heed to proper planning. The traffic management has deteriorated, public transport has not scaled up accordingly and as some say, the city is nearing saturation.
Things might change for good soon though for Bangalore. The true Silicon Valley has lent a helping hand to Bangalore city which could change the fortunes of Nemma Bengaluroo. San Francisco has chosen Bangalore to its be its Sister City in a bid to promote co-operation and understanding between the two cities.
San Francisco has singed 7 MOUs in areas of health care, water and sanitation, education and research, art, museum and culture, trade and commerce and fashion.
The Sister City arrangement is seen as a symbiotic relationship wherein,
Bangalore will benefit from San Francisco on solid waste and traffic management, while the former will pitch in to help the latter bring down its high cost of public healthcare.
San Francisco has a mandatory goal of 75% recycling of waste and Bangalore could definitely use their expertise in improving its waste management system. Another area that Bangalore could really benefit is the kind of entrepreneurship mind set that San Francisco could bring in it via cultural and education exchanges.
Bangalore needs to break out of the IT Services stigma and make giant steps in becoming an R&D and a technology hub. San Francisco is looking to reduce it exceptionally high health care costs by possibly patterning with the Biocon.
The alliance could very well be the breakthrough that Bangalore needs to become the next Silicon Valley.
What are your thoughts on this alliance? Would this Sister city arrangement with the real Silicon Valley prove to be the stepping stone or Bangalore has gone too far to accommodate entrepreneur minds?