Silicon Valley of India

Reporting from Bangalore...

The Times of India had an interesting article about a couple of Harvard students yesterday...

Also, in unrelated news - the Indians are experiencing their own form of corporate scandal ala Madoff Investments. It appears that Mr. Raju, the CEO of Satyam (an IT company), overstated the worth of his corporation by 1.2 billion dollars.

Yesterday we flew to Bangalore in the morning and drove straight to the Infosys headquarters. They have a campus similar to that of Google in Silicon Valley (or so they say, I've never been invited to Google). WIth about 25,000 employees at that location, the facility has several gyms, a pool hall, a swimming pool, a few dining facilities, not to mention the office space. The site does look like it belongs more in Southern California than Southern India. India, and it's traffic, are waiting just outside the gates though!

We discussed the growth model for the largest of India's IT companies (especially after the transgressions of their closest competitor) and the interaction they've had with various government sectors. The challenge of growing from a 300 person company in 1991 to one expected to top 110,000 this year is fairly significant. This especially when one considers the state of Indian infrastructure in 1991. Since then, they had to create the telecom backbone enabling such a significant operation.

Infosys was named the best Indian company to work for the last two years and has had a strong focus on community development. They've made a sustainability pledge and are working to be recognized as a responsible global corporation. With the economic downturn, they've shifted some of their focus back home (90% of their work is done in North America and Europe and only 1% in India). We discussed the problems and possibilities in such a shift, but it looks like their business model won't change too much, there still isn't much money to be made outsourcing within India.

As a side note - several times on this trip, our guides and presenters have discussed how Chinese manufacturing is underpricing India's and closing down industries: textiles in particular. I suppose it's just further proof that no one can be happy in a globalized economy.

On the way home we had the opportunity to experience Banaglore's infamous traffic. It took us 2 hours to drive 6 miles. That evening, we went out to dinner riding in the local taxi (a tricycle motor carraige or tuk-tuk.) On the way home, the tuk-tuk drivers decided it would be fun to race. There's nothing like swerving in and out of traffic on the back of a flimsy tuk-tuk in a place where the rules of the road frequently seem optional.

No pictures of Infosys and nothing worth posting otherwise. More tomorrow, now I have to finish one of my finals...