BANGALORE
This Silicon Valley of India lags behind Hyderabad in its competitiveness ranking, which can be taken as an honest reality check. On education and knowledge creation sub-dimension, it is supreme. Such a literate set-up, however, has one of the poorest quality of life and livability. Business costs too are extremely high. Migratory pressures are stretching the resources of the garden city.
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However, it is the city traffic which is one of the main barriers in its competitiveness. An acidic observation circulates around that while elsewhere people drive on the left of the road, in Bangalore they drive on what is left of the road. Over the last decade, the commuting time has quadrupled and road rage is on a high.
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Unfortunately, Bangalore is founded wanting in absorbing the upsurge of MNC invasion. The momentum gathered in assembling ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) tools of globalization is palpable. But the IT parks, called as the temples of modern India by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, cannot be the sole saviour. Diversifying into other industries is the strategic action awaiting political will. The government is carrying its gusto too far by indulging in repressive policies by grabbing farming land at non-negotiable prices to feed the IT needs. No doubt the industry and the citizenry are up in arms over this, but the city and state governments are adamantly repulsing such democratized involvement in city management.
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The appreciable initiative is the reduction of regulation and taxes with a vengeance, eliminating the 'taxes on taxes on taxes' regime. There is maximum mileage of reforms at macro policy level achieved by this city. Gone is the dullness Winston Churchill sensed when he compared the city to a prison. It is genuinely a high profile conference city.
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Deglommeration (destruction of the city) activities, the contrarian of agglomeration, has already set in to counter benefits of this city. It has begun to hit sub-optimality consequences of ill-managed size. A very aggressive agenda is needed that shifts the pains of the city and begins handling issues with a long term perspective. A conscious nurturing of satellite towns, and better connectivity with Mysore can help it a lot. But the real fight that awaits this city is on the microeconomic level.
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The IT firms have to chalk out plans to unleash global products, and not restricted to low premium services. Tourism again is an untapped realm. The large number of management and engineering professionals it throws up in the labour pool have to be shown the light of entrepreneurship to a greater degree. The firms have not shown much inclination for diversifying, nor have they sourced venture funding for global level ventures. Infrastructure development in waiting is certainly going to show positive results. Till then it is misery for the inhabitants.
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COMPETITIVE WEAKNESSES .
Excellent knowledge creation infrastructure
Good business sophistication
Good markets
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COMPETITIVE STRENGTHS .
Very inadequate infrastructure
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Poor income distribution pattern
Very high business costs
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