Flooded Bengaluru losing sheen as software hub

WFH Comes To The Fore

- Bengaluru-East remained flooded

- Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) is hub for most major technology centres

- ORRCA instructed almost a million tech and bank workers to work from home

- Owing to poor infra, Bengaluru is already losing out to Hyderabad, Pune and New Delhi

- Hyd is already giving a tough fight to Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Bengaluru, the city touted as the Silicon Valley of India, is slowly losing its sheen as the technology and startup hub of the country with crumbling infrastructure of the city getting exposed due to the torrential rains this week.

The city, which is known for its infamous & choking traffic, is now witnessing social media being flooded with memes on Bengaluru rains. As a result, many technology sector veterans and startup founders have expressed concern that the city may soon lose its crown as the technology centres to Hyderabad or Pune because of better infrastructure and living conditions.

"What will it take for Bengaluru to get the due attention it needs? A city with superb software & lousy hardware! Must the citizens now come on the roads? Not to commute, but to protest its conditions?" Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru & Founder of Harish Bijoor Consults, wrote in social media platform twitter.

"We sure do need a Tejas to get out of here!" he tweeted along with a video of city's flooded area .

Bengaluru is not only home to the maximum number of IT companies, it has also emerged as the startup hub of the country with the city having the highest number of unicorns. It is also home of major public-sector defence establishments including Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) among others.

Highlighting the woes of the techies living in the city, Mohandas Pai, former board member of Infosys, and Chairman of Aarin Capital, reacted to a meme about the fate of engineers that said: "Bangalore must be the only tech hub in the world, where software developers travel two hours to get to office so that they can build apps to deliver groceries in 10 minutes."

Currently, many low-lying areas of Bengaluru-East remained flooded at the time of going to press.

"The state of affairs in the city is really bad. We have many of our staffers from the affected areas to work from home. I think, the city's infrastructure needs urgent attention," said a healthtech startup founder based in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) has instructed almost a million tech and bank workers employed by various enterprises in the Outer Ring Road (ORR) area to work from home for the whole of this week. This area is hub for most major technology centres.

Owing to poor infrastructure, Bengaluru is already losing out to cities like Hyderabad, Pune, and New Delhi which are fast emerging as technology and startup hubs in the country. Hyderabad is already giving a tough fight to Bengaluru to emerge as the preferred city for setting up centres for Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and startups.

What will it take for Bengaluru to get the due attention it needs? A city with superb software & lousy hardware! Must the citizens now come on the roads? Not to commute, but to protest its conditions? We sure do need Tejas to get out of here, tweets Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru & Founder of Harish Bijoor Consults