First Impressions of Bangalore
By Alicia Arroyo

Bangalore has been an intriguing city even before I set foot there a few weeks ago. Being half-asleep at the Mumbai airport to catch the first flight to Bangalore was interesting; it was amazing to note that around half of the passengers there were foreigners. None of the foreigners seem to be appalled by the backward environment of a Third World nation. In spite of the old infrastructure of the airport, passengers remained patient. The flow of passengers was smooth, and the seats were comfortable. 

It still did not feel safe to grab a cab. My best bet was to hire a car with an English-speaking driver. The highly-skilled, English-speaking workforce makes it easy for one to travel around India conveniently.

All the stress of flying in and getting into the city was eliminated as we had a splendid breakfast at the Leela hotel. I am not fond of Indian food, but for the first time the food was exquisite. I did not realize how vegetarian dishes could taste so unique and delectable! I was looking forward to losing weight on the trip, but unfortunately gained those unwanted pounds.

Bangalore is analogous to a spot in the midst of a desert where large multinationals pursued drilling operations and struck oil, just as the large base of human capital of India is similar to the oil findings.

Bangalore is the city Jack Welch visited way back in 1989, 18 years ago, for the first time. He was impressed by the source of India’s intellectual advantage and then decided to leverage on the country’s talent pool. In 1991, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opened the Indian economy to foreign investment. He made it much easier for companies to set up satellite downlink stations in Bangalore so they could skip over the Indian phone system and connect to home bases in America.

We had the pleasure of meeting Vivek Kulkarni, the young former IT Secretary of the Karnataka-Bangalore Government responsible for attracting high-tech global technology investments. He was responsible for bringing multinationals and other companies to Bangalore up to 2003. He also mentioned that people seem to be comfortable with Bangalore. In spite of his achievements and hectic schedule, he had time to meet with us. All those we met represented the humility and the kindness Indians are known for, despite their achievements. That is also why people are comfortable.

We went to Dell, whose General Manager is a very young, vibrant and smart chap, now in charge of developing domestic business managing 600 to 700 staff. He has been able to make Dell reach the Number Two spot after HP in such a short period.

After visiting a few companies for the day in different areas, I understood how the multinationals quickly set up world class infrastructure in Bangalore, allowing high-quality manpower to perform outstandingly in a stressful 24/7 environment. This is globalization in the IT and service world: bringing Silicon Valley to a third world location.

We also visited GE, a company who not only developed operations in Bangalore, but also sent non-Indians there. GE established its R&D Center in Bangalore which today employs 1,800 PhDs, 60 percent Indians and 40 percent foreigners. The entire GE products are researched in Bangalore. Any talent you can think of can be outsourced in Bangalore. 

At present, 106 research centers have flourished in Bangalore.  Seven to eight million square feet are created for such research centers in Bangalore annually. New employment numbers up to 120,000 yearly.

Bangalore has 45 colleges in Bangalore, the highest in the world. The students of top universities, ITSE and ITM, already have a job upon graduation. As a nation, India has numbers on their side.  Their educational system produces 2.5 million graduates, enough to take care of yearly expansion. 

Bangalore has become very cosmopolitan, but also getting very expensive. India has other developed outsourcing centers in Hyderabad, New Delhi, Chennai and Pune, while other rural areas are fast emerging.

There are glaring similarities of both India and the Philippines.  Both Asian countries focus on family values, value education as shown in the high literacy rate and encourage the ability to speak English. It is very easy for both Indians and Filipinos to get along with each other.

Cooperation between both countries is key. The Philippines must endeavor to position itself as good alternative site not only for voice but non voice outsourcing to meet the diversification needs of global corporations. Since our population and land area is much smaller than India we must focus on developing other knowledge processes to be outsourced. We should not compete on cost on cost, but cooperate on providing quality knowledge process outsourcing.

For now, India does not have enough malls, cafés restaurants, serviced apartments, hotels and other entertainment and recreation establishments. The Philippines’ affinity for the United States must be utilized to accelerate the speed at which it can expand its outsourcing capability.