Survival of the fittest

For Hyderabad and Chennai, it’s now or never.

All over the world, people say Silicon Valley’s loses are India’s gains. If a same parallel is applied within India, the loss of competitiveness and attractiveness of one city certainly appears to be a gain to another.

For instance, the charm of Bangalore as 'IT/ITES destination number one' is slowly evaporating. Every media in every town has carried articles about its crumbling infrastructure. Still, no one seems to be working on it. Given the bureaucracy and my-votes-don’t-come-from-this-place logics, this is certainly not surprising.

What IS surprising is why no other city is trying to “hog the news” to sound as a serious alternative to companies.

Bangalore has been in the news for pretty long, and has certainly garnered world’s attention. Any MNC that was looking to move to a low cost destination had to consider India, and inevitably Bangalore. Hyderabad and Chennai came close, but Bangalore stood out.

Times have changed.

Things appear much simpler now. Chennai’s/Hyderabad’s wait seems to be over. An once-in-a-lifetime kind of a chance seems to have come. Now is the time for these cities to act. If this had been a story of three companies vying for a single client, it’s straight and simple that the two second-runners would’ve done everything possible to look good when the leader looked less ominous. But the same doesn’t seem to be happening with Chennai and Hyderabad.

Sure, there are odd stories here and there. But if Hyderabad and Chennai had been serious all this time, the need of the hour is to create a big buzz, the theme of which would be to hit where it pains the most – infrastructure. Forget about lower attrition, good water, people and other stuff. Statements by development ministers and press releases won’t work. People, media and research companies have to speak by themselves. For that to happen there has to be a noticeable difference. The only way is to ACT - and act hard and fast.

For instance, people speak about the negligence of Bangalore. Imagine if a media reports that Hyderabad or Chennai is building the IT expressway, adding 10 more flyovers, upgrading the airport and revamping key roads all at the same time. Companies simply have to notice. There are no two ways about it.

Sure, it’s going to cost a lot of money. But if the buzz is generated, with the leader crumbling, business for years is near-guaranteed. If cities have been businesses, this thinking is so obvious.

Net-net, it’s now or never.

The question is: can Hyderabad or Chennai or for that matter Pune/Noida/Gurgaon make the difference? Are these cities serious when they say they are wannabe IT destinations?

P.S: Having worked in Bangalore, I really love the city. But I guess it’s no reason to see the other picture.