28 February 2008

Booming Bangalore

By Jim Pinto

During the month of December, I was in booming Bangalore, India’s software capital. This is a city of some 6.5 million people, which makes it India’s third-most populous city and fifth-largest metropolitan area.

New technologies and tools abound. On a numerical basis, India is the largest growth market for cell phones, with 160 million already in use and about 6 million being added every month. Market penetration is still low (less than 20%), but projections are for more than 500 million subscribers by the end of 2010. I got my own local cell number, to connect with anywhere in the country for about 2 cents a minute, with incoming calls free. No one uses voicemail; you quickly get used to text-messaging as an effective alternative. But you also must get used to deleting lots of text advertising.

Broadband Internet is everywhere, and I connected quickly and easily with my wireless laptop. There are always some glitches, which take getting used to; but one quickly becomes tolerant of the interruptions. Internet cafes abound, with prices that are ridiculously low when translated to dollars.

And everywhere, there is the frenetic rush of traffic. Behind this rush is India’s huge middle class—some 400 million—motivated for growth and success. The media is as hyped up as anywhere, perhaps more. On TV, car radios, and cell phone media, the sales messages are constant and continuous, catering to that colossal consumer class in multiple languages, all mixed in with English phrases; it’s called “Indglish.” You witness the upwardly mobile middle-class just gobbling up the plethora of consumer products from Sony, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and the like.

Apart from Bangalore being the headquarters of India’s software giants such as Infosys and Wipro, the large multinationals all have major R&D establishments here. GE’s largest research center outside the U.S. and SAP’s largest outside Germany are here. Many automation majors have hundreds of design and development employees here too, including Honeywell, Rockwell, Invensys, and ABB.

Interestingly, the local thinking is not just about how to improve outsourcing services, or play consumer catch-up. Strategic plans at many of the growing giants include major new developments where India can lead rather than follow.

Related links:

• My month-long visit to India
  http://jimpinto.com/enews/jan23-2008.html#1
• Pinto visit to Bangalore, India, February 2007:
  http://jimpinto.com/enews/mar12-2007.html#1
• Tom Friedman book – The world is Flat:
  http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/flatworld.html

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his book, Pinto’s Points, at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.