Code/Decode

Narain is the founder & CEO for 360 Degree Interactive, a web services firm based in Chennai, India. This blog is about his personal views on Web 2.0, RoR, Social networking,Digital media, interactive advertising, SaaS, Service Oriented Architecture, India Inc, rural education, Web standards, mobile 2.0 and more.

Thursday, November 3

Can an Indian city become sillicon valley ?

Sadagopan has teared the Indian hype about Bangalore. I for years strongly believe, there will be only one Sillicon Valley in the world. Bangalore for all the more reasons overhyped. The city is pathetic. Sillicon Valley is not just a place. It's a place full of ideas & experiments. Where Ideas are transacted into innovative products & services. Unlike Bangalore, where you will see swanky offices without additional parking space, too many one ways, narrow roads and tech coolies roaming the city. People will certainly get offended if I say, tech coolies are what Bangalore is all about. The truth is, Sillicon Valley is a place for experimentation. How many experimentation is happening in Bangalore ? India offers cheaper tech labour and our operating costs are less. We have certainly have some brilliant brains around. Few brains can't change the mindset of an industry or country.

To be fair to this statement, Badri talks about the investments to be made on IIScs, IITs and IIMs. India can't talk about competence with fewer brilliant brains. As C.K.Prahalad says there is money in doing business to poor. Unfortunately Indian techpreneurs neither takes the advice of doing the business with poor nor on technology. We as Indians although having a fair amount of basic education, we are very much poorer up in the ladder for technical & scientific education. India needs to invest atleast 50,000 crores in making this country really a power to reckon with the tech industry. Unfortunately we spend more than 80,000 crores for our defence and not for basic education & higher education.

A close look at the number of patents registered from Sillicon Valley and Bangalore will clearly give you an idea of how much we invest on R&D, Experimentation, Investing in new ideas and so on. To become the tech capital of the world is not just about having an army of coders, we need thinkers, ideators and an ability to take risk. Unfortunately, as Indians, we lack on all these and we can't claim that Bangalore or any other city for that matter, can become the next Sillcon Valley.

1 Comments:

At 8:35 AM, Blogger Pandhu said...

I am not sure whether India can become a Silicon Valley, but I don't think it should aim to become but, but aim to support the Silicom Valley, and build a computer empire exclusive to itself, and to its talents.

In tha aspect, I think Bangalore and Hyderabad are doing great with the building of hi-tech cities. There mighr be some bottle necks now when it comes to infrastructure, but I think foreign countries are looking into that, with the more established connections between India and other Asian countries.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

Performancing