Bengaluru: A long forgotten debate on which of the two cities – Bengaluru or Hyderabad – is the IT sector’s best bet, has re-ignited over the past week. Overnight, the southern powerhouse states of Karnataka, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu are vying to extol the merits of their respective State capital cities.
The current developments began to unfold when, exasperated at the dismal state of the city’s roads and other infrastructure, the head of a Bengaluru-based startup let off steam on social media. Picking up the tweet, neighbouring Telangana’s IT minister KT Rama Rao promptly extended an invitation to “pack your bags and move to Hyderabad”.
While a city like Bengaluru has an unassailable lead in terms of attracting IT businesses, observers feel that infrastructure quality can play a role in business decisions at the end of the day.
“Bengaluru is infrastructure-faulted. People wake up and say if your infrastructure is so bad, my infrastructure is better. When you compare the physical infrastructure of a city, the infrastructure of Hyderabad is definitely better than that of Bengaluru. And Chennai is as good as Hyderabad. So, if you look at it, the competition is between these three cities. God’s own country will also wake up and say Thiruvananthapuram is the best. But that’s a distant fourth,” says leading brand consultant and expert, Harish Bijoor.
For those who came in late, the ‘rivalry’ between the Bengaluru and Hyderabad dates two decades, harking back to Bill Gates’ 2002 visit to India. Bengaluru by virtue of its position as India’s Silicon Valley, should have been the natural destination on the Microsoft founder’s itinerary. However, the then chief minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu aggressively pitched and managed to get Bill Gates to visit Hyderabad instead.
At that point it was considered a major achievement for Naidu who was trying to position Hyderabad as a viable alternative for the booming IT sector. Thereafter, Hyderabad gained in strength and is today among India’s leading IT and allied services centre.
But even as the IT sector continued to grow and expand to other centres, Bengaluru has retained its pre-eminent status as a preferred destination for investments in the IT sector. But the recent overture by the Telangana minister has definitely put Karnataka on the defensive. The chief minister assured that city roads would be repaired on priority basis.
To compound matters further for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu also stepped in to offer businesses a conducive environment.
Predictably, the ruling BJP in Karnataka is not taking too kindly to the overtures from their neighbours. “Inviting investors after criticising another state is not necessary. I have never called investors from Tamil Nadu and Telangana states to come here. That is our strength. If they are desperately calling companies, it will only mean that no one is going to their states for investments and that is why they are calling out,” CM Bommai stated.
Meanwhile, observers point out that political posturing apart, competition is always good for business in general. “For me from a very civic sense point of view, this kind of competition is very good, and very healthy because cities wake up. Now see Bengaluru has woken up, Karnataka has woken up. The CM has said all the roads will be perfect by May-end. So let us see. This competition is very essential. I would not only encourage it but I would spur it further. Cities must compete with one another for the businesses that they can get. Because at the end of the day, money speaks,” Bijoor explains.
However, Karnataka’s image faces a bigger threat in the form of communal polarisation taking a grip in the state. Pro-Hindu outfits and even BJP leaders have been advocating a boycott of Muslim traders and businesses. Bijoor emphasises that these kind of politics will surely have a negative impact on the state’s fortunes as a business destination.
