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Bangalore - A Global City? Virtual Realities and Consumer Identities A research study that unravels the urban experience of Bangalore against the background of its

outsourcing boom and corresponding impacts

EQUATIONS

July 2006

This study explores the socio-cultural issues surrounding the off-shoring of US technology labour to Bangalore (Silicon

Valley of India), focusing on its young emerging working sector and their consumerist lifestyles. The purpose of this

study is to initiate discussion about a new identity of India that is burgeoning in the urban cities; to look at the flip

side of this economic development and the gaping disparities that continue to grow between the have’s and the have

not’s. As the representative strong hold of the IT industry, possessing the most number of IT campuses, MNCs and

being one of the major Indian metropolises in terms of demography and industry, Bangalore becomes a dynamic

example to illustrate the socio-cultural impacts of the outsourcing industry to India.

Introduction: Impetus for Research and Methodology Adopted

Visitors to urban India will be struck by the overwhelming emergence of a new type of working class, a youth sector

that is urbane, educated, professional and cool, casually referred to as the ‘Zippies’ or the Liberalization Children1.

The men and women of this new urban culture are workers of a budding economy created by the outsourcing industry

and other service industries such as Banking, Insurance, Finance, Real Estate, Construction, Marketing, Legal,

Hospitality and Entertainment. These industries thrive on the disposable incomes earned by those in the outsourcing

industry. Driven by multi-national companies (MNCs), this outsourcing industry, which runs the gamut from software

development to biotech research and development, to call centres and claims processing, recruit young English

speakers (and trains others that are not English proficient), recently graduated or drop-outs from India's universities

and technical schools. As a strategy to mitigate costs, MNC’s have developed this outsourcing model to offshore a

range of services to India, the largest English speaking population outside the USA, where highly skilled labour is

available at low cost 24 hours a day. Quarter of a million young Indians secure jobs as ‘knowledge workers’ in this

industry employed by companies such as Microsoft, Dell Inc. and Citigroup. Besides the MNC’s that have set up shop

in India, local Indian Fortune 500 companies such as Infosys and Wipro act as agents of outsourcing as well,

providing offshore services to international firms.

This study will explore the socio-cultural issues surrounding the off-shoring of US technology labour to Bangalore-the

Silicon Valley of India, focusing on its young emerging working sector and their consumer practices. By using a

variety of anthropological methodologies such as survey’s, interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, the objective of the

study has been to analyze some of the socio-cultural impacts of this economic phenomena being lead by forces of

globalization. The manifestation of these impacts takes form in Bangalore through the changes in the real estate

industry, demography and urban space in the city, consumerism of the youth, and the lifestyle of the urban

knowledge professionals in the primary IT city of India. The purpose of this study is to initiate discussion about a new

identity of India that is burgeoning in the urban cities; to look at the flip side of this economic development and the

gaping disparities that continue to persist between the have’s and the have not’s.; to bring to the forum different

perspectives and understanding of this urban anthropology. This paper hopes to initiate debate, discussion and

questions about the growth of urban India and its youth population through the lens of Bangalore and its young

knowledge professionals.

Looking at Bangalore as a “consumption of space as well as a space of consumption”, the study’s objective has been

to unravel how and why the ‘global’ economy and culture comprised of the young knowledge professionals in the

outsourcing sector exists in parallel, yet consciously alienated from the ‘local’ economy and culture2. The study begins

with the hypothesis that the virtual and placeless nature of work in outsourcing and the global personas that are

created for this type of work extend into the living realities of the urban city. The consumption of these lifestyles is an

extension of their work and mode of production. Their savvy global consumer identities are representative and

maintain “the superior economic value of the global persona” that is required by the type of work they perform, thus

making consumption and production intrinsically dependant on one another. While some have never left their home

shores, their work takes place in a virtual world transcending international borders, but their social lives remain

profoundly localized in India as extensions of the global personas cultivated through their work. As their labour

becomes deterritorialized (i.e. irrespective and independent of territorial location) and their consumption becomes

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reterritorialized (rooted in and impacting their current territorial location), a new ‘hybrid’ culture that is ‘both here and

there’ emerges.

In order to construct this global identity, the spaces these “knowledge professionals” occupy while they work, live and

play have to be set distinctly apart from what is viewed by them as the embarrassing reality of Indian poverty and

disempowerment. Global images and icons mushroom in every corner of the urban space (entertainment, food, retail,

living environment, leisure options) and the consumption of these symbols becomes a ritual of identity development

as global stakeholders. These ivory towers, symbols and spaces of privilege and affluence are constructed to

consciously alienate from the other India that reflects poverty, chaos, ignorance, illiteracy, collectivism, sexual

segregation, duty, sluggishness and the absence of style” [Saldanha 2000 and my emphasis]. Shopping malls,

residential enclaves, serviced apartments, IT parks and IT corridors, five and seven star hotels, glossy chic bars-cafes

and luxury eco-tourism locations proliferate within the city and further beyond in the suburbs. These citadels of

luxury sit in stark contrast to the dilapidated, congested and overstrained urban systems that are the roads, public

transportation systems, public buildings, parks, rivers and air. While the ‘knowledge professional’ elite of the IT

industrial sector screen the reality of gritty public life sitting inside air-conditioned coffee shops, office buildings and

the tinted glass of imported cars, the local lives in the shadow of the pollution and congestion of a pot-holed

overstrained city. Encompassing immaculate Disney Land like work spaces, living spaces without the burden of living

in India and play spaces emulating New York chic, this young outsourcing work force lives and works in time to Pacific

Standard Time. Living inside the ‘bubble’ with its own time and space, when the clock strikes 11.30, the young are

reminded on a Friday night that one still lives in Bangalore and is at the mercy of the Karnataka State nightlife

curfew.

‘Americanization’ is recognizably the strongest western influence on the social and personal lives of these young

Indians in Bangalore. As IT professionals and call centre agents working 12 hours ahead of US central time in India,

their day commences in the middle of the night in step with the American business day. Trained professionally by

management companies, these outsourcing workers are taught to Americanize themselves and flatten out their

‘Indianess’ and thick accents, to help serve American clientele. Working at night, call centre agents bear typically

American pseudonyms such as Rebecca and John, returning home by day as Bharathi and Saroj. Acquiring culture

knowledge about an imagined America through television programs such as Friends and MTV, these youths learn to

enunciate and masquerade as an ‘American’. On the weekends, they shop for designer labels at one of Bangalore’s

many numerous malls or drink coffee at the café ‘Friends’ in Indiranagar. Another perspective of this study was to

investigate how these imagined notions of America become meaningful in their construction of a virtual global-

(American?) identity in Bangalore. By studying the political engagements and the exchange of power and meaning

between these two cultures, between the global and the local, the empowered and the disenfranchised, the study

asks ‘what is the ‘nature’ and ‘validity’ of such a virtual “global” identity and how does it become valuable even

beyond their labour needs? It intends to study and interpolate the multiple contradictory spaces and skewed

development constructed when forces of globalization and market economy collide.

Using what Venkatesh and Firat refer to as ‘Liberatory Postmodernism’3 this study looks at the emancipatory potential

of the consumption process, wherein this global culture of Bangalore is “not just the product of science, technology

and economic forces but the process of cultural presence that includes aesthetics, language, discourse and

practices”4. Similarly, this conceptual tool of thought and postmodern focus on urban culture allows a more nuanced

understanding of the “micropractices of everyday life, discontinuities, pluralities, chaos, instabilities, constant

changes, fluidity and paradoxes that better define the human condition”5. This lens of postmodern critique of the

‘information society’ reveals what James Heitzman quotes as “the disorganization of capitalism, fractionalized class,

de-centred identity, and replaced the aesthetic aura with consumption of the image, the virtual and the simulation”6.

These cultural practices of consumption and production of the global youth sector reveal the fragmentation and

disorientation experienced by urban citizens through globalization.

This global economy in Bangalore is driven by a foreign workforce comprising migrants that run the gamut of coming

from other states and cities on India as well as internationals. A substantial proportion of the workforce of this

economy hails from outside the city/state, imposing pressure on the city in terms of population and ethnic –cultural

dynamics. The city and the outsourcing economy attracts the brightest of the lot recruiting from IIT’s and IIM’s

dotting the country, and beyond national borders luring foreign investors, CEO’s, NRI’s and recent Ivy league

graduates finding themselves in the Orient. A key perspective for this thesis is to understand Bangalore’s global

economy as an attractive tourist destination for both local Indian and foreign “knowledge professionals” and their

visiting foreign counterparts to “Live and Work.” and thereby its transformation into an ‘urban tourism destination’.

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By looking at spaces such as Hotels, Short-Stay accommodations such as serviced apartments and residential

enclaves and pub culture destinations in the outskirts of Bangalore, to the study unravels ways in which space in

Bangalore is being constructed for the consumption and leisure of these global personas who are metaphorically

speaking from “somewhere else” or imagine they are.

Statistical and quantitative research have been performed on this new young urban sector, measuring up their

economic growth, tallying up their disposable incomes and elasticity, but to truly understand the lived realities and

identity construction of these ‘Zippies’, a truly qualitative approach is required. Using ethnographic tools of open-

ended interviews and fieldwork in the urban consumer spaces, the study will illuminate and demystify the identity of

these anonymous “cool urban youth”1. Four types of youth as major players of this ‘knowledge professionals’ sector

have been identified- the local Bangalore youth, migrant youth from other parts of the country, NRI’s and foreign

youth migrating temporarily to Bangalore. The researcher’s own self-reflexive experience of this city have also been

inserted as a tool and method for approaching this study. Interactions with other foreigners and NRI friends in the

city have been used to dwell deeper into how these players of globalization experience Bangalore.

To gleam a clearer understanding of the global economy a better understanding of the increasingly marginalized local

culture in the city is required. Thus, interviews are conducted with agents of Bangalore’s local. Interviews with youth

will be supplemented with talks with old residents, questioning what they think of the changing identity of Bangalore,

how they adapt and challenge the changes. Informal Interviews were also be conducted with housekeepers and

auto-rickshaw drivers who actively participate in the local economy, and meet at cross roads with the IT industry as

blue collar labourers for the white collar professionals.

In addition to informal interviews conducted through daily interactions with city players, the study collected a total of

15 formal interviews. Open-ended questionnaires will be designed to allow for the thick descriptions that entail lived

realities of city life. Interviews will be conducted at homes, in retail environments, in public spaces and entertainment

localities. A workshop type of format will also be used, where participants will be invited to public spaces such as Café

Coffee Day or a Bangalore park creating a space for group discussion amongst the youth that live and play in this city

everyday. Rather than a linear questionnaire lead discussion, this forum will be guided by what the participants find

important.

To talk about Bangalore as a ‘space for consumerism as a well as a consumer of space’ these open-ended interviews

have been supplemented with a photographic narrative of the city that the researcher as a foreigner has experienced,

and that which her co-researcher and colleague has experienced as a local. By paralleling image with word, the

project aspires to demystify the impact of globalization to the urban life of Bangalore.

Bangalore is one metropolitan city of India that is experiencing these changes, and we use it its urban space for

pragmatic reasons of representing the similar changes that are happening in other IT/BPO hubs around the country

like Hyderabad, Mysore, Chennai, Kolkata and Chandigarh. As the representative strong hold of the IT industry,

possessing the most number of IT campuses, MNC’s and being one of the major Indian metropolis in terms of

demography and industry, Bangalore experiences the strongest pressure of supporting a highly concentrated

economy, in terms of providing talent, infrastructure and leisure activities. For these reasons, Bangalore becomes the

most dynamic example to illustrate the socio-cultural impacts of the outsourcing industry to India. As smaller cities

like Jodhpur, Mohali, Nagpur, Patiala and Madurai emerge as attractive destinations for outsourcing it is important to

understand the nuanced socio-cultural implications of such economic changes.7 Alongside infrastructure changes and

an influx of migrants to a city, what is brought into these economies is the culture of globalization and the sentiment

of western market-economy.

It has taken me, Nalika Gajaweera, 8 months to conceptualize this research and gather secondary research material,

through this paper and documentation; I hope to initiate question and debate for future researchers to unravel.

Financially supported by the US State Department via the Fulbright Fellowship program, this study is being carried

out with help from EQUATIONS, a Bangalore-based NGO that studies the impacts of tourism, and the advice and

institutional support of Dr. Vibuthi Patel of SNDT University in Mumbai.

Burgeoning Incomes and Rising Consumerism in India: The Young Consumer is King

Post-independence governance and policy reform in India concentrated on the necessity for self-sufficient ‘swadeshi’

industrialization through the agency of the state, but stringent economic policies of the monopolistic regime lead to

rising government expenditure and fiscal deficits. However, the alarming exhaustion of foreign exchange reserves

lead to a major economic crisis in 1991 and Manmohan Singh, at the time Finance Minister of India, through

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structural reform and under the instructions of the International Monetary Fund opened the economy8. “It opened the

economy to foreign investment and trade; it dismantled import controls, lowered customs duties, and devalued the

currency, virtually abolished licensing controls on private investment, dropped tax rates, and broke public sector

monopolies”9.Bringing a dramatic “policy change from protectionism to globalization”, liberalization “sought to link

India’s Economy with the rest of the world by aggressively inviting direct foreign investment” 10

Within the past 15 years, the Indian marketplace has welcomes foreign investors and multinational companies such

as Proctor and Gamble, Citibank, Microsoft, Nestle and General Motors through direct investment and joint ventures

and outsourcing. While India repositioned itself in the global market space, it also opened itself to imported

commodities, brands, media and the capitalist ethos of the western market economy. Along with the revamping of

the economic systems, liberalization brought in with it the dramatic socio-cultural impacts of globalization. Fifteen

years since liberalization, India has transcended from its marginalization in the global economy to being the fastest

consumer market in the world. According to AC Nielsen’s Online Consumer Confidence survey, along side China it also

boasts being the most positive and optimistic about their countries economic performance11. In the latest World

Economic Outlook September 2005 of the IMF, the global economy is expected to grow by 4.3% during 2006, while

the Chinese and Indian economy accounting for almost 40% of the world’s population is expected to grow by a

whopping 8.2% and 6.3% respectively, the United States is expected to fall behind at a rate of growth of 3.3%12.

Moreover, Private consumption currently accounts for 64% of Indian GDP—higher than shares in Europe (58%),

Japan (55%), and especially China (42%)13. However, these promising statistics do not delude the reality that India is

still an emerging economy with the largest number of poor in the world, having a population of over 260 million living

under the poverty line, with a per capita income of $450, which places it the 162nd of the 206 countries in the last

World Development Report of 2000-200114.

Alladi Venkatesh identified 13 different factors that describe India as an emerging consumer society, indicating India’s

movement towards a consumer-oriented society15. The factors are:

• A burgeoning middle class, its changing values and pent-up consumer demand

• Changing women’s roles, women’s labour participation, and the changing structure of the family

• Rising consumer aspirations and expectations across many segments of the population

• Increased consumer spending on luxury items aided by past saving and the introduction of the credit system

• New types of shopping environments and outlets

• Media proliferation, satellite and cable television and thriving film industry

• Media sophistication and familiarity with English language among media people and wide segments of the

population

• High degree of consumer awareness and sophistication across different segments

• The emergence of travelling Indian consumers-immigrants in the United States and England, overseas

workers, tourists, and professionals- and their exposure to worldwide consumer products

• Strong domestic consumer goods manufacturing sector

• Resurfacing of hedonistic cultural elements after centuries of dormancy

• Entry of multinational corporations into India

• The emergence of the rural consumer sector

These 13 factors while not exhaustive, provide a framework with which to understand the rising consumer

orientedness of India and its emerging generation that has come of age post-liberalization; demanding ‘I want my

MTV’© and urged by the Nike ethos of ‘Just do it’©. Referring to the new culture as the “liberalization children,"

Rama Bijapurkar, a Bombay-based marketing consultant says that "this generation has a hunger in the belly for

achievement and all the good things money can buy."1 “Some 47% of India’s current 1 billion population is under the

age of 20. By 2015, Indians under 20 will make up 55% of the population. As this group, with its more materialistic,

more globally informed opinions, comes into its own, sociologist predict India will gradually abandon the austere ways

and restricted markets that have kept it an economic backwater, the youth will demand a more cosmopolitan society

that is full-fledged member of the global economy16. “India adds around 3 million young earners in the age group of

20-24 each year17. Comparing this generation to the baby boomers of America, Suman Bery asserts that “the roughly

60 crore Indians born since 1980 will shape the future of India in much the same way as the boomers shaped that of

the US18.

The pros and cons of the outsourcing industry have been heavily debated and argued. While the benefits of

outsourcing companies in the West are obvious (in terms of increased product and service quality and lowered costs),

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the impacts on countries that are outsourced to are both economic and socio-cultural. The IT-enabled Services and

Business Process Outsourcing (ITES-BPO) sector continues to drive ahead an estimated growth rate of 37% in 2005-

2006 and estimated to earn $6.3 billion in revenues by the end of the current fiscal year19. These figures offer

evidence of ITES/BPO becoming the brand identity of India within the global economy. The impact on the reality for

Indians themselves is represented by the employment statistics, wherein, in the fiscal year 2006-07, total

employment for the entire country is projected to reach 409,000 compared to 216,000 of the fiscal year of 2004-0520

The majority of the service categories this employment occupies is within finance and accounting, and Customer

Interaction Services as shown below21. Undoubtedly, ITES and BPO are crucial sectors for the Indian economy and

have opened new venues for income and employment. But the question is – can this sector be promoted at the cost

of the rest? After all, India still has 600 million farmers!

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Jobs such as call-centre work that are viewed as low paying and low prestige in the USA become high paying and high

prestige in India where the workers often would have been unemployed or have had to work much less desirable

jobs. For India where unemployment runs high and wages in public and government sector are relatively low, working

for the outsourcing industry provides work opportunities for the talented, educated, English proficient and computer

technology-savvy youth. The high disposable incomes earned that range from 8000 rupees a month to 8 Lakhs per

annum afford them personal and monetary independence22. While some use these to support their families and fund

their further education, others use their incomes for conspicuous consumption that allows them admiration and

approval from friends. While their parents would much rather see their children put their incomes into a fixed deposit

and follow the Indian Nehruvian custom of saving, these youth are lured by the consumer market flooded by brands

and global brand identities associated with them.

The Liberalization Children

A focus on the young urban elite of Bangalore shows that the situation is nuanced and complex; it suggests that the

outsourcing economy is simultaneously opening and closing off options for these young workers. Critics of

globalization and capitalist market economy would argue that the outsourcing industry acts as an agent for

multinational profit making and further exploitation of the production and consumer power of poor country. As a

response to this emerging sector possessing disposable incomes, western consumerist habits and capitalist ideologies,

new consumer markets targeting this youth culture have boomed in the past couple of years. Cell phones, credit

cards, cigarettes, dining out, coffee shops, vacationing, drag-racing and late night clubbing are the consumer habits

of this new emerging young working sector, targeted relentlessly by companies long waiting to see India develop a

capitalist-style consumer class. Through the outsourcing, industry young India is rearticulating itself with respect to

the modern globalizing world. Through their active participation as consumers and producers of the global market

economy, and through their access to the ‘global language’ of English, Master Card and Nokia, this group of youth are

asserting their right to reap the profits of capitalism, rather than being victims of globalization and multinational

exploitation. Consumption becomes a form of agency, revealing the emancipatory potential of the consumption

process, wherein as Amartya Sen defines agency as “the pursuit of goals and objectives that a person has reason

value and advance”23. Moreover, through their conspicuous consumption they are able to determine and cultivate

their own identities, attaching their own values and ideals of self, revealing the emotional and symbolic meanings of

what it is to be a post-colonial, post-liberalization youth of today.

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As the Editor in Chief of India Today, Aroon Purie notes, “today, Indians are finicky global consumers and the opening

up of the economy has meant that the latest goods and products are launched in India and Indiana at the very same

time. Whether it is designer labels in clothing, high-end electronics or computer software and hardware, they can be

all found here in the increasing number of shopping malls or in the high-end stores of every Indian metro. The

availability of easy credits, EMIS means we can acquire them. The great Indian bazaar is a brighter, more attractive

place than it was a mere two decades ago”24. “In this glut of choice, the young Indian is now more brand conscious

and particularly wants to conspicuously display how much he spends. Ownership, whether gizmos or gadgets, brands

or ‘bling’ is now synonymous with making a personal statement. What we buy says something about who we are. The

utility or function of the product is incidental. Brands are what matter today”25.

The Pressures and Pleasures of the Outsourcing Generation

Criticism to the outsourcing phenomena arises largely from the working conditions associated with the work. Health

and psychological problems associated with the work stress of conducting long monotonous work shifts at odd hours

to serve customers based around the world. Loss of work-life balance; having worked the entire night and sleeping

through out the day and forgoing national holidays, they are unable to spend time with family, disturbing traditionally

close family structures that are integral to the Indian culture.

Other criticisms to the outsourcing industry are concerned with a form of brain drain that occurs wherein youth are

drawn to the high salaries of the outsourcing jobs while similarly being drawn away from other career avenues in the

sciences, politics, humanities and public services that they would have otherwise chosen; creating many jobs but not

many careers. Also one of the additional things is that it really does not provide is long-term job security as

outsourcing is predicted to phase out of India soon, and neither does it guarantee short-term job security as labour

and work is on an on-demand basis. While opening up avenues for progress and gain in terms of economic and career

opportunities, it also requires accommodation, change, sacrifice and loss of their cultural identity. Below are a few

anecdotes from workers in the industry through personal communication with the researcher:

Gautam: Mumbai- Former Call Centre Employee now Pursuing a Degree in Commerce

“After working 6 days of the week, the 7th day was spent sleeping the day away. Others met up with girlfriends etc,

did shopping, caught up with errands, your like an owl, your social life is completely disturbed, parents and family

become very upset and frustrated with the quality of life…I have come to think we are in the US, my clock was set to

their time, I would know what the weather was like from coast to coast. We do our own research on the market…

“[When asked if he feels like he lives in two time zones: “No you’re not in two time zones, because you are in their

time zone, not yours. Parents have difficulty understanding the concept of night shift. Not at the dinner table, cultural

festivals, hardly even NYE. I sleep all through the day, one becomes a zombie of a sort and it is draining. Friends

outside work are not supportive in that they will always make plans to do things. So, one begins to hang out more

with social group at work. Often people fall into “bad company”, everyone has to smoke. People have affairs at work.

Family cannot say anything because of financial independence. Health becomes disturbed because of the irregularity

in time. Anger/frustration with lack of sleep. Indigestion is very common because of the irregularity in eating. Eat

only twice a day. Weight loss, asthma, restlessness. Often people abuse drugs, someone at work just got caught

“doping” [Gautham: Personal Communication, Dec 20, 2005).

Geetha: Geetha was working at that time as an editor for Oracle and before that as a writer.

“It’s been 2 years now and I’m getting “fed up of the scene and wants to move completely out of the industry. I am

really interested in doing is pursuing a career in hair design. This work is great for financial reward but after a while it

becomes monotonous and lacks personal satisfaction…But young people want the cars, the mobiles and the gadgets

and the only careers that can afford the lifestyle they demand is salaries from the outsourcing work. [I ask if many

people own cars, and she replies] that for a young person to have a car, you have to be super well-off, and to do that

you work in the outsourcing industry. Basically, you can stay in your own country, feed your own economy, and

afford an upper-middle class lifestyle that wouldn’t be possible to achieve if one relocated to the west.” [Geetha:

Personal Communication, February 3rd 2006].

Rahul: One of the informants to this study who works as a 20-year-old ITES trainer for the American company

Leximark

“My usual work day starts at about 9pm and ends about 9 hours later, for five days a week. The rest of my day I

spend catching up with lost sleep and then I wake up and play video games; my weekends are spent partying late

into the night and hanging out with friends, others might think this is unusual but this works fine with me” [Rahul:

Personal Communication, July 17, 2006].

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For a nation dramatically changing but strongly adhering to elements of conservatism, the western persona required

to be emulated in professional environments- as in adopting western names, English accent and western cultural

ethos- is creating dramatic changes to traditional definitions of identity such as class, cast, ethnicity, religion and

gender. As Kiran Karnik, Director of NASSCOM asserts, one of the social transformation obstacles faced is to move

from “singular, differentiated, birth-based and exclusive identities to multiple-chosen, inclusive identities”26. For a

country strongly grounded in a hierarchical class and caste system, the outsourcing industry introduced by capitalist

agency provides opportunity based on merit rather than status. But a caveat deserves mention: the economic and

social accessibility of all classes of youth to jobs in outsourcing is questionable. While it is true that BPO work certain

provides the opportunity for all, namely those who have access to an English education; few end up making the most

of it as IT companies and the corporate sector still maintains a strict no-no to the proposal for reservation in private

sector jobs.

Stanley: [When asked about the notion that call centre work was merit based rather than background]

“That’s exactly what I like about this work. I had a very bad time in junior college because after my 10th I couldn’t

get into the school I wanted to because I was not of the scheduled caste. Now I got 70 points and this other kid he

got 53 points in our final exams in College, but just because he was of scheduled cast he got selected in this college,

and I didn’t make it to that college. That is something I didn’t like, so I had to go to a Christian college and I was

chosen there because I was Christian. But after that, I wanted to take up a job where your background does not

matter, your performance matters. This is something where your hard work matters, if you are a good performer

then go ahead, if you are not a good one then its okay, they will still give you a chance and more training. [Stanley:

Personal Communication, January 22, 2006].

Others insisted that their work experiences and exposure to global work culture has cultivated more confident and

ambitious personalities. Possession of financial independence, may that be to support their family, fund their own

education or afford their brand-oriented conspicuous consumption has provided these men and women agency and

opportunity for self-worth in the market-economy culture that cultivates this generation. This new generation of

Indian workers, in sync with their post-liberalization times, appear to be re-evaluating the traditional concepts of

production and consumption. Contrary to their parents and their counterparts coming of age in Nehruvian ideologies

of socialism, this younger generation appear to embrace the laws and modes of production and consumption of

globalized capitalism.

A survey was conducted by the Indian magazine THE WEEK on the “life pressures and pleasures” of the young Indian

workaholics across seven metros and four submetros, in sectors like IT, BPO, hospitality, health, media,

entertainment, education and real estate and tourism. The survey comments,

“Their footfalls may be silent, but India’s young workaholics, sure footed and swift have arrived. They are the Karma

Cola generation, meticulous at their workplace, with an eye on instant gratification. They work-hard, play-hard

attitude, a penchant for independent living, a constant craving for a better car and mobile phone, a holiday abroad

and a learning towards start ups. This “entitlement generation” will forgo a measured scaling of the corporate ladder

for having it all served up ‘right now”. Their mantra - an ability to work whenever and wherever they want, with job

variations. Eight to 12 hour workdays are seriously retro. And they seamlessly adapt to new work ethics prescribed by

the globalization wave”27.

BPO gives opportunities to students that would have struggled to find successful career opportunities because of lack

of monetary and financial support for further education, or were unsuccessful in traditional career paths like medicine

and engineering. For women working in the industry, call centre and IT work means monetary independence, and

traditional gender roles as dutiful mothers, daughters and sisters have been replaced by the image of the

independent workingwomen. In a country where arranged marriage is common, many women are choosing to pursue

professional ambitions rather than family and marital commitments. As financial contributors to the family, some

women may posses more power in the family dynamics while others may still be restricted by the social equations of

society, possibly disturbing the family’s authority structure.

Rochelle: commented that at first she was wary of working in the call-centres because of the bad reputation it had for

late-night work shifts and work culture, but that she now enjoys and appreciates the work she does; that while it is

monotonous it is challenging her all the time. Like others, she asserted that she was more confident of herself, both

in her attitude and also because of her financial independence. She handed over her entire monthly salary to her

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parents, leaving a fraction for her own personal expenses. This covered their household expenses and supported her

brothers’ education, explaining that she felt” a sense of self-worth because of her ability to support her family”. On

the other hand if she were to not take this job, she claimed she would be “staying home, sitting around, watching

TV”. She also uses a fraction of her income to save up for her future, for further education or financial confidence

after marriage. Her friends insisted to me that Rochelle had dramatically changed for the better after she took on her

job in the BPO- pointing out that she dressed more fashionably and was more outspoken. [Rochelle: Personal

Communication, December 10, 2006].

Rahul: [When questioned, have you changed personally in your lifestyle or attitude since living in Bangalore?, he

answers]

“Definitely, while I worked in my mothers fashion design boutique I felt my self bored and my routine monotonous.

So I wanted to change my field, my parents didn’t appreciate it at first cause they wanted me to be my own boss, but

within the last two years while working here I have gained so much confidence in myself. I have been given the

opportunity to get on my own feet. I have the confidence to speak and just do whatever it takes. Now I am planning

on starting my own start-up company with one of my colleagues in about 4 months. [Rahul: Personal Communication,

July 17, 2006].

Jacquelyn: adds,

“[This job] has helped me grow as a person, working in a call centre has made me much more responsible, I have

learnt to interact with people and be more outspoken. I used to not talk to people as much, out side of my friends

and family. Tomorrow, today you have to have good communication skills. All the youth are developing like that. The

reason I started this job, was first for pocket money, to buy my clothes, to go out clubbing, but the second reason

was for the experience. You learn so much, you meet people from other countries and there is a lot of exposure. If I

didn’t have this job, well I’d probably have to work for some small time shop, selling soft-toys or something, Through

this, you know I’m learning how to sell things, marketing experience.[Jacquelyn: Personal Communication,

December, 15, 2005].

While acknowledging that this young working sector employed in the outsourcing industry accounts for only a fraction

of the Indian population as a whole, they represent a generation coming of age in post-liberalization and the seeds

they sow and the profits and losses they will reap in the following decades will enormously impact the Indian

economy and culture. As India opens its doors to globalization, these young workers producing and consuming in the

global India, will hold the handle to those doors. Their own construction and play of identity, society, values,

economy, cast and culture in relation to the global culture and economy will for better or worse directly impact how

India’s future is shaped.

Bangalore: The City that was, The City that is – ITES

Walking down Bangalore’s main commercial street, MG road is a mind trip and I am a little confused as to where I

am. The city’s old pseudonym, Garden City and Pensioner’s paradise seems to be more appropriately replaced by

Silicon Valley and IT City. It is a parallel India to that which you see on the other side of the tracks, everyone is

young, metro and cool and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone over the age of 40. It’s February and the nights

are chilly in Bangalore, guys are dressed in sweaters and polo T-shirts, a few look like they just stepped out of a J.

Crew magazine. Women clutch onto cell-phones and their Blackberries and guys take long careless drags on their

Davidoff cigarettes. I pass by endless retailers selling shoes, gadgets, knockoff designer wear, both outside on the

streets, and inside four-story malls. As I get shooed off the road by a woman riding a scooter, what confounds me

is the blasting techno music that blares out of these shops and the different fast-food smells that infuse the air. The

women and men walking on the streets are of various racial skin tones and while they indicate routes to homes in

various areas on India and even further away in other parts of the world, the ease with which they assimilate into

the crowd makes it apparent that their work or studying homes are now here in Bangalore. Cell phone companies,

Pizzerias, coffee shops, banking and financial centers have mushroomed all over the place. Like my self, wide-eyed

and confused ghoras baffle about whether they just flew into the middle of the India’s romanticized Karnataka

state, or rather a commercial sub-street of Times Square, New York. Bars and pubs catering to the 24/7 hour work

culture, advertise Happy Hour between 12 noon and 7 pm. Coffee shops are bustling with youngsters sipping on

one of the three dozen latte espresso drink on the menu. If you need a short term place to stay, all that is required

is boarding yourself in one of the many Serviced Apartments or Paying Guest apartments that have begun to take

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root over areas that once homed bungalow styled residential communities. In the past week while trying to find my

footing in the middle of mini-cars, motor bikes, scooters and auto rickshaws polluting and congesting the once

fabled “garden city”, I find the most fascinating aspect of the outsourcing phenomenon is the transient youth

population that flocks to the city and consumer culture that it had inadvertently cultivated. Educated and ambitious

youth are flocking in droves to the city of Bangalore for the promise it holds as housing some of the best

professional universities in the country and for the opportunities boasted by the recently re-labelled Silicon Valley

of India. Youth of India can now achieve the American Dream right here in there own homeland, however

ambiguous the meaning of that dream may be. While unemployed White, middle class, men in the USA lament

about the outsourcing of their white-collar, elite and professional work to India, these ‘still wet-behind the ears’

Indian youth, straight out of college are excited about the economic boom introduced by multi national companies.

- Personal Notes- February 15th, 2006.

Tamil Brahmin immigrants from the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Catholic populations from the

Portuguese settlement of Mangalore, Muslim traders of the Sultans of Mysore, Buddhist refugees from Tibet, and then

as the cantonment of the Raj, Bangalore has always been home to many settlers, traders, occupiers and refugees.

Bangalore has always attracted these cross winds to its temperate climate; creating what writer Ramachandra Guha

calls a “culture of capaciousness”28.With only a third of the population having roots within the state of Karnataka,

Bangalore is a microcosm of Indian cosmopolitanism. Bangalore has historically always been many things at one time,

a military town, an educational centre, and a public sector hub, vacation retreat for the Raj, the pensioner’s paradise,

a pub city and more recently welcoming IT and Biotech City to its repertoire.

Since independence, Bangalore has moved strategically through a process of industrialization to where it stands now

as a symbol of the “information city”. During the British Raj, Bangalore developed as a centre for colonial rule in

South India. The establishment of the Bangalore Cantonment brought in large numbers of migrant Tamil, Telugu and

North Indian workers to help service the development of infrastructure in the cantonment29. James Hietzman in his

1999 paper, Becoming Silicon Valley, outlines the economic history of the city, wherein the state funded

industrialization and public service sector dominated, until post-liberalization in the early 1990’s when the

multinational corporation and the private sector became predominantly visible and stronger30. During all these

transitions, Bangalore has always maintained its position as a centre for scientific innovation, with its focus on

research in aeronautics, electronics, chemical industries, manufacturing and engineering industries. “The already

established scientific milieu, research tradition and skilled manpower from the educational institutions are cites as the

factors of advantage for the city which facilitated its shift from a centre of public sector research and production to

global economy”31.

Since the early 1980’s when MNC’s such as Texas Instruments started recognizing Bangalore as an attractive

destination to set up operations, the city has grown with momentum, boasting itself as the fastest growing city in Asia

and India’s biggest earner in terms of IT exports. Initially attracted to the cheap skilled labour available and tax

holidays offered to investors, and later to the unprecedented quality of talent available in the IT and BT sector, MNC’s

have continued to flock to Bangalore. These quantitative and qualitative advantages were further encouraged by the

state government sponsored Electronic City and the planned development of the government-private joint venture, IT

Parks Limited. In addition to India’s own brain children Wipro, Infosys, and 24/7, International IT names like Dell,

IBM, Sun, Oracle, Microsoft, Motorola, Compaq and HP have set up shop in Bangalore’s IT Parks, IT corridors and

Electronic City that sprawls over the city.32. It is now the home to over 1000 software firms, employing over 100,000

workers that accounts for 4.7% of the total working population, creating a staggeringly high export revenue of $1590

million in 2000-01, which was 3% of the entire export of India33. Boosted by national and multinational company

investment of $437 million in the IT City, Bangalore boasted in 2005 an economic output of 11.7%, a growth per

annum greater than the entire country34 and a growth rate of 7%, the highest in Asia.35. These statistics are

indications of the significance of the outsourcing industry to the economy of Bangalore and India and the socio-

cultural impacts of these economic factors that are even more dynamic and extensive. As an older resident of

Bangalore insisted, financially Bangalore is flourishing and, business is booming. [Personal Communication: B.

Ravindranath from Malleswaran – July 16, 2006].

The outsourcing industry is a highly demanding sector of the city and state, in the form of infrastructure and real

estate. Poor infrastructure seems to be the major complaint coming from both corporates and residents of Bangalore,

long commute times, decreasing safety, pollution of air and water and those impacts on health the residents. Office

space is demanded for the setting up of IT campuses and IT corridors and retail space is demanded by the consumer

culture cultivated by the BPO boom. In this aspect the city, through its Karnataka BPO policy readily meets this

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demands through its investor friendly environment policies, such as the ‘Single-Window Clearance’ mechanism. Thus,

real estate industry in the city needs to be studied closely to unravel its impact on the city and its society.

Bangalore Real Estate- A Space for Consumerism and a Consumer of Space

Of the many impacts that the outsourcing phenomenon has had on Bangalore, the most dramatic has been in the real

estate sector – a building boom that is directly linked to the city’s economic growth from the late 1990s. The job

creation of the outsourcing industry and the positive outlook on economic growth in the city has thus resulted in the

real estate economy booming in leaps and bounces showing a national growth of 30% within 2005, creating spaces

for work, life, study and entertainment. In the HDFC Report for Asian Real Estate Society International Conference,

the speaker notes that for the outsourcing industry, “with human resources being the key elements in this industry,

the hiring and housing of people, both at their work place and home assume great importance and therefore the need

to create space for people to work and live, which in turn triggers the development of other related infrastructure.

The predominant trend has been to set up world-class business centres, offer campus-style establishments, bearing a

distinctive corporate stamp, being termed as the ‘temples of modern India’”36.

The impetus in real estate growth has been further encouraged through the government of India allowing 100% FDI

investment to motivate infrastructure growth, such an example in Bangalore is the Vancouver-based Royal Indian Raj

International Corporation (RIRIC) that is investing a staggering $2.9 billion in a single real-estate project named

Royal Garden City over a period of 10 years37. “In Bangalore, between 1994 and 2001, nearly 92,000 sq meters of

work place and 200,000 sq. meters of living space have been added and land prices have spurted by at least 60% in

the past 18 months38. Developments of townships encompassing 500-1000 residential dwelling units with quality

infrastructure, back up service and office space have developed in Bangalore39”. Bangalore, unlike other cities like

Mumbai or Chennai sea coast does not have any geographical limits to its expansion, except for the green belt that is

part of Bangalore’s initial city plan circumvallates the city, providing the lung space and agricultural land. However,

these green belts are fast diminishing as the demand for land to build IT and BT Parks, infrastructure projects like the

new international airport, metro project or even new highways increases rapidly.

Post-Modern Identities and Post-Modern Spaces

While walking down Indiranagar’s nerve-line 100 ft Road, marvelling at the metamorphosis of the town from a

sleepy suburb once home to the government elite to its today’s image as the home of the corporate elite, it is hard

not to trip over the disjointed and littered sidewalks. Making ones way through the walkways, unearthed to make

way for the laying of fibre optic cables servicing IT sectors, and debris, from demolished residential homes gives

one a feeling of manoeuvring through urban jungle. The once largely residential neighbourhood is now spotted with

retail stores like Levi’s and Reebok, restaurants and coffee shops, lifestyle boutiques and spas, and small time tech

offices with tinted mirrored windows. A Levi’s advertising billboard masquerading as social message indicates the

direction to the nearest Levi’s outlets in the area; while a “Don’t drink and Drive” advisory sign sponsored by

Sasken entrepreneurs is overshadowed by the signage of its sponsor. Multi-storied Serviced Apartments, with their

bleached white facades and security guards, tower like fortresses over old-school family residences and loiterers.

An ever present floating population of migrants provides the demand for short-term accommodation like Serviced

Apartments and Paying Guests facilities that Indiranagar can’t give enough of. At a convenient proximity to the

tech campuses and offices, Indiranagar and its classy new neighbourhood image (inclusive of fancy restaurants,

coffee shops, supermarkets and lifestyle spaces), provides an ideal location for expatriate workers of the IT

industry and anyone else who affords and aspired these luxuries. 100 ft road abruptly ends at an intersection

flanked by the infamous flyover that suspends incomplete over the residences; as this six year hold up inches its

way, it’s more of a bane than a help to the residences and the motorist of the area. From here to Koromangala and

Whitefield, IT campuses and Call Centre Offices for companies like Dell and Microsoft stretch mile upon mile; their

elusive tinted windows of glass and steel structure, rapidly consume the undeveloped woods. It seems like an

entire section of the city is at the dispose of the outsourcing industry, serving an ideal place for its workers, to

work, rest and play. - [Personal Notes- June 18, 2006]

Besides public service ventures such as the development of the new airport, Metro system and road constructions,

housing communities, commercial districts, hotels and leisure spaces are mushrooming away from the city centres to

the peripheral south and south east. Channelling outwards from the Central Municipal District (CMD), Bangalore is

creating new peripheral cores. These new cores or retail, entertainment and residential activity are being created in

the periphery to “get closer to the population which aspires to a global lifestyle and has the paying capacity”40. This

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decentralization of work place, retail facilities and new high income residential zones and the creation of ‘secondary

peaks of commercial value, where in areas such as Indiranagar and Whitefield, once sleepy old suburbs and leafy

woods, show off high end Serviced Apartments, lifestyle cafes and designer boutiques. The peripheral cores create a

fragmentation of the urban space, a polarization of the East and the West, the North and the South. Paraphrasing a

10 year resident of Bangalore, “Bangalore is a city in metamorphosis and unlike other major Indian metropolis like

Kolkata or Mumbai, it lacks a sort of cohesiveness or identity of who is really a Bangalorean, and where is

Bangalore?” When asked how he spatially conceptualizes the city he describes the older western sphere of Bangalore,

with its traditional big bazaars, temples, mosques and public transport hubs reminiscent of the “smell of Jasmine

flowers and South Indian coffee” and the Eastern periphery redolent of Cappacciono’s and Pizza [Mr. Acharya,

Personal Communication, June 21, 2006]. So as Bangalore becomes more cosmopolitan but more fragmented, the

hope is that a new post-modern identity, disarticulate yet more colourful may arise out of these multiple-loci.

According to statistics from the Foreign Registration office, the expatriate population in Bangalore is expected to grow

from a population of about 2000 in the 1990’s to an expected numbers of 21,000 within the next two years. The

Bangalore monthly magazine ‘080’ quotes “the reasons for their growing influx [of expatriates] are not hard to

pinpoint. MNC’s like GE, Apple, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Novell have been transferring large chunks of research and

development activities to Bangalore, along with managers and research from across the globe”41. Similarly, others

come as accent trainers for BPO Call Centres or recent graduates seeking emerging economy experience working for

companies like Infosys and Microsoft. A portion of these expatriates are native Indian’s themselves. Calling it the

“Reverse Brain Drain”, cities like Bangalore and Mumbai are seeing a growth in the number of Indian diaspora

graduating from the Ivy Leagues, returning to their desi shores. Along side the NRI’s possessing Green-cards, a large

majority of the expatriates settling down in the city are young second generation Indians in their mid 20’s and early

30’s as interns and managers “to live and experience India”. While the salaries earned in Rupees are significantly

lower compared to the dollar wages their counterparts earn in the West, they sum up the experience saying “the level

of energy and dynamism that is visible here today far exceeds anything you can find in the developed countries of the

West. It feels like an economic renaissance and we are part of it”42.

While many of the expatriates from the West bring their own cultures to Bangalore by setting up restaurants, bars

and lifestyle boutiques; local retailers and entertainment venues are also being set up to cater to these global

clientele. Mr Shumone Chatterjee, Country Manager, Levi Strauss India Pvt Ltd, commenting on the Levi’s square, the

second largest Levi’s outlet in the world explains how “company plans to make the store a tourist destination in the

city”. He asserts, “a lot of people from across the country and across the world come [to Bangalore], it has a sizeable

expatriate population - exchange students, professionals and tourists) buying into lifestyle categories and prefer to

shop in world-class store environments… [Because of this] Bangalore has a tremendous buying potential and is a city

that is becoming extremely fashion conscious"43. Five star hotels with spas and salons, Spanish tapas bars, TGI

Friday’s, Belgium beer festivals and foreign film festivals are numerous in the city. The high price tags that are

attached to these venues and services indicate a clientele that is willing to doll out the dollars and euros necessary for

this high life. An one 22 year old American informant working for Infosys commented, I love my life here because I

could never live such an extravagant life like I have here, also I really appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit that is so

tangible in this emerging young economy [Winnie: Personal Communication, July 23, 2006].

Mall Mania

On the question of Bangalore’s land and economy, a few lines must be said on the mall mania that has taken over

Bangalore and other metropolitan cities in India. Walk down any main road in Bangalore’s central shopping district

and you will be greeted with the flashy colours, milling crowds and consistently loud noise of a MALL. A report on real

estate trends by Merrill Lynch said that the number of malls in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune

was expected to grow to about 250 by 2010 as against 40 now. In terms of total area, there was 12.40 million square

feet of mall space available in these cities, the report said quoting a survey by Knight Frank India44. Referring to the

demand and supply of shopping malls and arcades, the speaker for the Asian Real Estate Society International

Conference notes that “the phenomena of the shopping malls in India as a reaction to the Zippies “the “liberalization

children.” Zippes are typically the young city or suburban residents in the age group of 18-25, with a sip in their

stride, oozing with attitude, ambition and aspiration with no qualms about making or spending money. While

“outsourcing has changed the face of commercial real estate in India, its greatest impact has been the demographic

shift characterized by rising disposable incomes and increased consumerism that these malls are thriving on”45. As

agents of outsourcing, these working professionals are creating a demand for consumer spaces in the city. The Times

of India article “Hanging out at the local friendly mall” suggests that for some, the mall has replaced the leisure

destination of museums, parks and other public places that are either free or very low cost. At very low cost people

get to enjoy a well-maintained, well-lit, air-conditioned monument where every visitor is treated with the same

12

respect”46. Built to house the biggest local and international brand names (really, nobody else can afford the

exorbitant rents for mall space!), air-conditioned and ample parking space, malls are a complete entertainment

package with shopping, food, cinema and recreation all available under one flashy roof.

Not surprisingly, Bangalore with its dense young Zippie population was the first to embrace the concept of seamless

malls to India through the Pantaloons Retail’s ‘Bangalore Central’, the six story structure that stands in the middle of

MG road, 1,20,000 square feet of retail display replaces the quaint Hotel Victoria that once stood there 47. For

Kishore Biyani, managing director, Pantaloon Retail, Bangalore Central represents “the spirit that symbolises affluent

India”48. As long as the city is young and its disposable income high, malls will continue to be the entertainment

mantra for new-age Bangalore. Bangalore also has plans for specialized malls such as the Book mall, Furniture mall

and Wedding mall in its plans to add to the plethora of malls already mushrooming around the city. The high demand

for such consumer spaces in the forms of exclusive branded, air-conditioned and well maintained shopping areas is

symbolic of the changes happening to Bangalore. As Vidya B R a local Bangalorean explains, “the malls are propelling

the consumer consciousness. It’s a place to hang out, and peoples ideas of hanging out have changed; it is the way

they spend time, money, and express attitude. [Personal Communication: July 16, 2006].

A trip to Forum mall in Koramangala on a Sunday evening is the true experience of the Mall Madness that is

becoming Bangalore. After finally manoeuvring the dusty one-way roads of Bangalore, through the endless

concrete lots congested with IT Parks, Campuses and Call Centres you come upon the steel, glass, gloss and bright

lights of the Forum mall. Shopper’s Stop and Westside department store, Reebok, DIESEL, Tommy Hilfiger, Mc

Donald’s and the Multiplex PVR Cinema are just some of the symbols expressing middle-class India’s open-arm

aspiration for western economy consumerism and liberalization. Outside the mall, young guys and girls casually

drink lattes and mochachillo’s at the coffee shop. Middle aged aunties with oil and jasmine in the hair and middle

class uncles with their grandkids enjoy a Sunday night out with the family; bright eyed and in awe of the spectacle

displayed by Bangalore’s youth and their disposable incomes. We all drink coffee, chai and smoke hookah,

indulging in some serious people watching. To be here, is to be seen, to see and to see oneself in the act of being

seen. This must be the only purpose of being here, because empty hands and jobless loitering shows no evidence

of actual ‘shopping’; who can really afford these exorbitant prices anyway? All you see around is the desire to

emulate that global cool of being hip, young and carefree, however the reality of the other India is just a glance

away; down the road, hovering under the still in-progress massive flyover; the slums, congestion and dirty waters.

One is quickly distracted from this embarrassing dilapidation once you enter the massive glass shiny screen doors,

welcoming you in to the cool clean air conditioned comfort of the ‘Mall’. Out of sight, Out of mind. - [Personal

Notes-June 18, 2006]

Beyond the consumer needs that the mall provides, the mall is also a space to momentarily forget the other Indian of

poverty, pot-holed roads and child labour. As Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a cultural critic explains “These people who go

up the gleaming escalators and wander round the brightly lit shops are going in for the same escapism as you find in

Bollywood movies; these malls are a science-fiction fantasy.”49 The mall creates another imagined reality, and

through its consumption the imagined becomes real. Through the conspicuous consumption of the brands, the

utilization of the space, one becomes the fantasy and working in the virtual reality of the IT/BPO industry, these

imagined realities become more valid and meaningful. Rahul a 20 year old ITES trainer for Lexmark offers an

explanation to the rising brand-consciousness and mall-mania in Bangalore; This IT industry gives young people a

window, or a peep hole to the west through our daily work and interacting with bosses and clients from the west, a

window that we only saw through movies and television as kids. But now we are leading the dreams we has always

aspired for as children. And the brand consciousness and the mall concept that has been introduced to Bangalore is

so successful because this generation again gets a peep into the west through these brands. I mean this city is

growing, we never had such a booming night life, pub culture, malls, and a curfew! The younger generation working

in the IT and BPO sector or other industries that support that industry are cashing in on the mullah of the west.

[Personal Communication: Rahul, July 16th, 2006]

In urban IT cities like Bangalore, Gurgaon and Pune, an urban culture that caters to the young knowledge

professional earning an average salary of about Rs20,000 is being cultivated. These leisure activities include hanging

out at the mall, movies, beer gardens with cheep alcohol, music concerts, drag races and farm house parties in the

suburbs. A visit to the monthly Levi’s sponsored rock music festival ‘Jam in Bangalore’ at the Palace grounds will show

where some of the young of Bangalore choose to hang out.

It’s a Sunday night and its another lazy day in Bangalore. After catching a coffee at the Fossils café- a remodelled

13

colonial style home (a form of renovation becoming popular in the city), we go to check out what all the fuss is

about at the Palace Grounds. For weeks, posters around the city have been advertising the Free Levi’s sponsored

Rock concert at the venue. Walking in your faced with a wall of young 20- something guys engaged to the music

performance on state. Some bop their heads while others get into a more serious head banging performance. The

place is enveloped by the smell of weed. Turning towards the stage I face the performers, the lead singer is young

Indian guy with glasses, wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and white sneakers. He’s redefining the Rock look. Many of the

guys in the audience look similar and not refraining from stereotypes-this guy has to be a techie. Out of character

for this stereotype, he screams in a classic angry Death-Metal Rock tone- “I’m Breaking the law, someone’s going

to have to pay tonight”. Hard to believe, but his audience seems to be impressed. The ‘Intel’ billboard advertising

discounted desktops is indicative of the expected audience here. A flier gets passed around; the classifieds section

has a number of ads seeking drummers for new aged rock bands in genre’s such as Ultra-sick and Post-doom Death

Metal. Hard-core Rock music seems to be the flavour. My friends are now chatting to some folks about the grad-

racing phenomena fad in Bangalore. Supposedly, later at night once the 11 pm ban shuts down Bangalore’s official

night life at the pubs and clubs, another form of nightlife begins around 3.00 am. There’s the quarter-mile race

down MG road and the longer intercity race between Bangalore and Mysore, the bids are high as Rs10000 for the

sponsor and Rs.15000 for the racer. For young kids working 14 hours a day at the BPO’s and IT campuses, their

release comes in the form of high speeds. The newspaper occasionally reports a case of drag racing gone sour with

accidents and drunken driving, but it usually stays underground. The rumour is that these elusive drag races are on

the lock down since the incident where a policeman got run over during a race. There’s a farm house party that I’ve

been invited to tonight, about two dozen people catching a hired bus ride to the suburbs of Koromangala, (an

alternative to not being allowed to party past 11pm). They will stay overnight, because it’s unsafe to drive back to

the city on the quiet deserted roads of the suburbs. A DJ has been hired to keep the night alive, with music and

drugs being promised, “just a get away from the madness of the city” says my friend, until the police shut down the

place somewhere around 2 a.m. These are the typical weekends in Bangalore and something is always happening

somewhere, and a good time is to be enjoyed somewhere elusive if you want it bad enough. For a city that was

once a ‘Ghost Town’, ‘Pensioner’s Paradise’ and ‘Garden City’, Bangalore is fast becoming a young-persons party

paradise. But with the 11.30 curfew on night life, this puts a considerable wet-blanket to most of these young kids

desire to party the night away. - Personal Notes- May 7, 2006

This is a typical weekend in Bangalore amongst some folks, usually amongst the young college going or BPO crowd;

working odd hours during the week and putting in 60 hours with overtime at the offices. The weekend is a mad frenzy

to catch-up on lost time. Besides the partying and the numerous coffee outings, much of their time is spent running

errands and spending time with friends and maybe even parents. As one 26 year old man working for Goldman and

Sacks reported, “I earn about 28,000 rupees a month and I gave about two-thirds of that to my family, leaving the

rest for my personal expenses and my gadgets and gizmos. My parents complain that I don’t spend enough time with

them, but I work hard for them, and the weekend is just a time to relax and chill out with friends, go mad, drink,

smoke and have a good time before Monday rolls in”. The survey conducted by the Indian magazine THE WEEK found

that every fourth employed Indian worker works more than 16 hours a day, and that while most of them agreed that

“their life revolves around work, but its OK if the money is good”. Many of them use their time off to do outdoor

activities and join in social work activities, commenting that “with the Rs 8 lakh- 10 lakh salary an year, indulgences

like a vacation to the mountains is a must, along with electronic gadgets and eating out”27. Thus Bangalore having

one of the most concentrated outsourcing industries and human resourced in the country, the city becomes a

backdrop for this ‘work-hard, play hard’ ethic. Companies such as Infosys and 24/7 often sponsor social activities,

outdoor sport activities and entertainment events for their young human resources. Salsa lessons, ‘Bangalore by

Night’ bike rides, Rock climbing and other adventure sports, picnics and bowling night at Amoeba Sports lounge are

some of the activities organized by companies. May it be underground drag racing, rock bands jamming in abandoned

garages, salsa classes, brand shopping or coffee addictions, Bangalore is soon becoming a backdrop for this ‘work-

hard, play hard’ ethic of the ‘knowledge professionals’. The city and its leisure spaces are quickly becoming important

in the cultivation of a 24 hour city, their play spaces are a manifestation and an extension of the virtual work lives

that they occupy at work.

Public Space

Bangalore, once popular for its parks and leisure spaces that are now sadly dilapidating and being pushed out to

make room for more steel and glass high-rises, and flyovers accommodated for a changing city, and the public spaces

of the middle-class Bangalore are becoming increasingly marginalized from state government financial support. Public

spaces like Cubbon Park, Lalbagh Gardens, Ulsoor Lake and Russel Market and Commercial street still remain as

symbols of Bangalore’s old world charm and offer the public space and green open spaces for the city, however within

14

the past 50 years very few public spaces such as these have been created. Moreover, increasing vehicle traffic in the

CBD area has lead to narrowing of the sidewalks and the widening of the road, causing an erosion of the strong

cantonment character; the shrinking of the sidewalks and pedestrian space is thus making the city centre less

accessible to the public.

What has become increasingly visible in the urban character of Bangalore “are eclectic spaces such as pubs, open-

café’s and food courts. The young and globalized citizens of Bangalore crave a space to ‘hangout’, to shop, to meet

friends, to recreate and to see and be seen”50. Credence to this is given by the existence of over a dozen coffee shops

and five malls within a one squire mile radius of the Brigade and Mahatma Ghandi road of the central Bangalore

district. As Rahul claims, that is where all the action is, although the official city centre is Vidhana Saudha. Malls like

Garuda mall and Bangalore Central are created in isolation from the street and the janata’s shopping areas like

Commercial Street and Pete. The open-air European styled café also create exclusive spaces; “but unlike European

café’s these spaces have sharp spatial segregation (by means of level differences of hedges) from the sidewalk

making their exclusivity obvious. Also, they are highly controlled…the transparent malls and restaurants allow visual

access while denying physical access to the lower income masses. These spaces accentuate the division between the

haves and the have-not’s, intimidating the poor and effectively keeping them out of even the sidewalk space”51.

These new coffee shops and malls have replaced and created new public spaces, in the form of consumer oriented

spaces complimenting the global consumer savvy personas being emulated by the ‘knowledge professionals’ youth

sector to spend their disposable incomes. The public space has is simultaneously become deterritorialized of the local

and reterritorialized to the cosmopolitan global.

Let’s Play Host: Bangalore’s Tourism Industry Riding on its BPO Wave

Historically, Bangalore has never been a major attraction on the tourist itinerary. It was little more than a base camp

for tourists keen on visiting Kerala or doing the Ooty-Mudumalai-Bandipur circuit or the coastal Karnataka stretch.

Today hoteliers are thronging the city and vying for precious land to build five-star complexes and resorts. Travel

agencies are working overtime to book visitors in and out of Bangalore on international direct flights - stretching an

already strained airport to its infrastructural limits. So what has caused the turnover in Bangalore’s image and made

it a prominent place to visit? It’s called business tourism – a vociferous demand for travel created by the local and

expatriate community employed in the city by the IT and BPO sector.

IPEX defines business tourism as “the provision of facilities and services to the millions of delegates who annually

attend meetings, congresses, exhibitions, business events, incentive travel and corporate hospitality"52. With the way

the city’s economy has shaped given the IT, BT and BPO boom, it’s not surprising that Bangalore has become the

country’s ace business tourism destination. The growing MNC population, mushrooming call centres and presence of

corporate big-wigs has increased the demand for luxury hotel rooms by more than ten fold in the last 5 years. Data

has it that Bangalore attracts the highest number of business travellers in the country – 51% as against 25% to

Mumbai and 36% to Delhi53. But the city’s hotel industry has not been able to keep pace with this rise in demand

resulting in a shortage of 700-800 rooms being felt in the four and five-star category.

A widening gap between the demand and supply for luxury hotel rooms has led to the inevitable – skyrocketing

prices. The Indian Hotel Industry Survey for 2004-05 reveals that Bangalore has the highest Average Room Rate

(ARR) of Rs 6762 (a 65% rise from the previous year) with Delhi being a distant second with an ARR of Rs 549854. A

study released last year by a travel management firm in the UK claims that a business visit to Bangalore now costs

more than one to London, Paris or even New York. It states “Bangalore has become the home for call centres, so lots

of companies have moved in to set up operations. Hotels have been able to put up their prices on the back of the

increase in demand.55”

In addition to tariff rates, a near-full occupancy rate has been the other dominant trend giving an added boost to the

hotel industry. According to the Hotel Industry Survey, Bangalore registered an average occupancy rate of 79.8%,

less than a point behind Vishakhapatnam which topped with 80.6%. The survey’s guest analysis establishes the link

between the high occupancy rates and business tourism in the city. 71.7% of the guests in the five star and deluxe

category and 74.5% of the guests in the other star hotels category are business guests56. Recently, a well-known

hotel chain announced the opening of its latest five-star hotel in the city. At the occasion, Taposh Chakraborthy,

President of Chancery Hotels said that in the wake of the BPO boom and influx of business travellers, the hotel has

facilities suited to the clientele like 24-hour check-in and business facilities in all its 234 rooms57.

15

One of the biggest interest parties in this process has been the real-estate industry which has already been on a

consistent high for the past 3-4 years in the city. Recognising the shortage of luxury rooms within the central

business district and the ability of the clientele to foot any bill, real estate giants have been partnering international

hotel chains in new projects around the city. One such case last year was the Prestige Group announcing its tie-up

with hospitality major Hilton in a 200 crore hotel project. Speaking on targeted clientele of the new venture, Irfan

Razack, Managing Director of Prestige Estates Projects (P) Limited said “Bangalore has all types of visitors but we are

mainly targeting business travellers.58”

The migration of young ‘knowledge professionals’ from outside Karnataka and even India is further pressing on the

demand of residential quarters in the Bangalore area. The more affluent, higher-wage ended professions are being

attracted to the gated communities and housing enclaves in Whitefield, JP Nagar and Malleswaram. Integrated

residential ‘lifestyle’ enclaves like Brigade Metropolis, Palm Meadows and Brigade Gateway are designed to create

exclusive spaces, calm retreats and buffers from Bangalore’s bumper-to- bumper traffic, unpaved sidewalks and

swarming neighbourhoods. Many of the occupants are returning NRI’s and expatriates that have moved to Bangalore

working for the IT industry. While these localities cater to an older working sector more ready to settle, the younger

globe trotting mobile ‘knowledge professionals’ are also now finding residential spaces in the Serviced Apartments

and Paying Guest (PG) accommodations. Any newcomer to Bangalore will be overwhelmed by the number of housing

options available, advertised in the paper, online and by word. How affordable any of these are, is another question

altogether! Older residents even in ethnic colonies such as Sindhi colony are expanding their traditional one or two

story flats to add on third and fourth floors that make room for paying guests. It seems in Bangalore, that there is a

constant floating population seeking short and long-term accommodation either in terms of the cheaper paying guest

options in the city or larger, expensive residential homes in the suburbs.

The feature article in the 080 The Bangalore Monthly Update magazine describes, “Bangalore, with a burgeoning

demand for hotel rooms from Indian and foreign guests are partly making up for this shortage with hundreds of

serviced apartment mushrooming across the city. Even mom and pop-set ups are in great demand”59. They attribute

that 45% of room demand is accounted by the IT and ITES segment. To meet the demand 27 new hotels and over

2000 serviced apartments are commissioned to be developed. Housing finance companies and banks claim that 60-70

percent of the demand for apartments is accounted by the migrant population of Bangalore, while 40 percent of the

demand comes from local residents; moreover 75 percent of the demand is employed in the IT sector60. It is clear

that this burgeoning growth in the real estate industry and temporary residential places are spatial manifestations of

the impact of the outsourcing industry and the influence of the global culture to Bangalore.

Yes, it’s raining five-star rooms in Bangalore. Between the BPO and the hotel industry, it’s a happy marriage with the

former placing increasing demands for more rooms and the latter keen on fulfilling it. Both in turn place huge

demands on the government for improved infrastructure, easier access to prime land and faster approval mechanisms

for new projects. But, for a city that already feeling the strain of a burgeoning metropolis and a populace who are far

from having their basic necessities met, five star hotel rooms are a mockery of Bangalore’s priority development

needs.

Take water for instance. A recent study reveals that average water consumption in any five-star hotel is

approximately 1600 litres per room per day. Add to this water consumption for maintaining gardens, fountains,

hosting banquets and restaurant and bar needs and the figure can touch 67,000 litres per hotel per day61. Such

outrageously high levels of water consumption, despite hotels’ apparent “environmental consciousness measures” of

laundering towels once in two days and half-tank flushes, are very little consolation for a city where nearly 20% of its

population lives in slums that receive less than 20 litres per day62. Every year Bangalore, like all other Indian cities

has its summer romance with a water crisis. While the privileged resort to tankers, home-delivered barrels or piped

water; the less privileged are at the mercy of public taps where every drop is fought over or open sources like lakes

and rivers that are highly polluted. Against this scenario, five-star hotels are a bane for the city and will undoubtedly

heighten the water crisis and resulting water wars in its streets and gullies.

Land is the other vied for resource in the city. The BPO and IT industry has increased demand for land on many

fronts: to build its IT parks and mammoth call centre complexes, to build massive residential complexes for the

housing needs of its young well-earning professional population; and to build five-star hotels and resorts to host the

consistent flow of business visitors to the Silicon Valley. But obviously, land prices have been booming in the city

making real estate the most lucrative business in recent times. Fulfilling these demands given the city’s scarce land

resources has resulted in land-grabbing of a nature that has never been witnessed before. Within the city, wetlands

16

are being transformed into IT parks (take the case of Bagmane Tech Park in C V Raman Nagar); old and run-down

heritage buildings making way for malls or hotels and slums being cleared to build flyovers and underpasses to ease

traffic. In its outskirts, agricultural fields are making way for residential complexes (take Whitefield and Kanakpura)

and peripheral villages being displaced to make way for ring roads, highways and IT corridors (BMIC). The

government is paying scant attention to the housing needs of the poor or the need for lung space in a city that’s

choking on its own smoke. Land is being traded ruthlessly, leaving large portions of Bangalore population physically,

economically and socially displaced, stretching its boundaries further into the suburbs. As an older native resident of

Bangalore describes the impact of the new international airport that is proposed to be build in south east Bangalore,

“this new international airport that is attracting about 10-12 five star hotels. No body from Bangalore, the locals can

afford this property, so they will leave the radius of Bangalore used to be eight to ten kilometres but now its grown to

35 kms. [B. Personal Communication Ravindranath July 16, 2006].

InfoTech Bubbles

As we approaches the Bagmane Technology Park in CV Raman Nagar that houses corporate offices for multinational

companies such as HP, Target, I-Flex and Motorola, we are confounded by the colossal glass and steel structures

mushrooming horizontally for meter upon meter. On asking for permission to enter the peripheral premises of the

park, one will be obtrusively informed by the security that ‘no permit ID means no entry’. When further prompted

why the IT Park requires such strict security surveillance, a security guard will admonish one on the absurdity of

questioning the obvious necessity of security for an IT park. The moat like water body structure that rings around

the park separating this symbol of private entrepreneurship from the public sector factories across the lake, and the

barbed wire power fences that insulate it from the slum next door, reemphasises the image of a fortress. It’s a

Sunday morning and the workers bees of the outsourcing industry are on their day off in sync with the weekend in

the West; but the men and women of the maintenance and construction crew for the park are just beginning their

work day. Three women dwelling in the slums in the backyard of the IT Park are part of the maintenance crew for

the IT park; but they have to walk 2km, past the steel and glass structures, to the nearest water source to fetch

water for their personal use. While the lake that they reside besides smells of toxins and tainted green, the

modernist architectural glass structures that tower over their slums are tinted black and carpeted with lush green

grass. - Personal Notes- June 18, 2006

This is yet another image and representation of the skewed development that has taken shape in Bangalore through

the Outsourcing boom. A ‘bubble culture’ that proceed seamlessly from the immaculate lawns and pristine ivory

towers of the Disneyland like campuses to the places one works, lives and plays. Serviced living spaces in housing

enclaves and gated communities, airtight sterile malls and overpriced clubs and lounges with $10 dinks, one can

almost avoid the “areas of darkness and bitter dispatches; where the problems of infrastructure and poverty are

visceral. But you learn to ignore it, and learn an ability to turn it off” [Nate: Personal Communication June 28, 2006].

As Rolee Aranya argues in her paper about Bangalore, Spatial Disparity in the Globalizing City,

“The contrasts of affluence and poverty is even more apparent in the context of a city in the developing economy,

where the glass and steel structures are incongruent with the impoverished millions. The filtering down of the

economic benefits to the population which is not directly associated with the sector is a distant vision. The enclosed

apartment blocks, highly controlled access to offices, towering modern buildings are symbolic of the polarization

which already existed in the city but has further intensified. The ‘knowledge professionals’, majority of who are

migrants from other parts of the country form a parallel universe in the city where the lifestyles that they have access

to coexist with the existing urban fabric which had a cosmopolitan yet very southern Indian identity” [Aranya, p.22]63.

Will the Real Bangalore Please Stand Up

Lately it seems that wherever one turns, publications like the Economist and the TIMES are splashing headlines such

as ‘Can India Fly’ and ‘India Inc.’ Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India boasts as one of the fastest growing

consumer economies in the world and an economic output greater than the nation. In Bangalore, it seems that

wherever one turns, symbols of economic development such as the ‘temples of modern India’ like IT campuses,

flyovers and shopping malls are proliferating all around. As young techies dole out the cash for the coolest new Jeans

at the second largest Levi’s store in the world at Brigade Road, realtors and investors are lavishing on Bangalore

thousands of crores for either a new tech campuses or yet another residential enclave. Bangalore is at the crux of a

very important time in Indian history and symbolizes the desires and ambitions of the rising Indian middle class. By

moving seamlessly between the virtual ‘global’ reality and the lived realities of India, this generation is deconstructing

17

the imagined boundaries between ‘here’ and ‘there’, extending themselves into fluid spaces that encompass multiple

fragmented identities and time zones.

Similarly, when we look at urban development and how a city evolves socially, culturally and economically we hope

that the growth is holistic; but when we step away from the rosy romanticized picture painted by the state, the reality

of Bangalore’s skewed fragmented development is blatantly obvious. To take a look at the flip side, at the gaps

between the haves and the have not’s, the polluted waters, poor infrastructure and congested roadways, what is

revealed are the inorganic social and cultural processes of a city with a fragmented identity. In the hands of a

confused young ever-floating migrant population, corporates and realtors living in other shores, and the cloud nine

working force, Bangalore lacks a coherence of self and place. Who is a Bangalorean and where is Bangalore are

questions that are becoming increasingly blurred and ambiguous.

This study has attempted to provide the ground work for questions like these to be explored - what impact does the

bubble culture of the outsourcing workforce have on the local culture of Bangalore, what are the crossovers between

these two sectors of society-the global and the local. And most importantly a call and a demand for public instrument

and policy to regulate these socio-economic dynamics in the city, beyond an 11.30 pm. nightlife curfew that only

reveals the quandary administrators and policy-makers are facing in coming to terms with Bangalore’s changing

identity.

Nalika Gajaweera an intern with EQUATIONS, March-July 2006, wrote this Paper. She was on a Fulbright Scholarship

in Anthropology and worked under the Globalisation Impacts and Tourism Programme and Karnataka State

Networking Programme within EQUATIONS.

You may reproduce this paper/publication in whole or in part for educational, advocacy or not-for-profit purposes. We

would appreciate acknowledging EQUATIONS as the source and letting us know of the use.

Contact us

info@equitabletourism.org

+91-80-2545-7607 / 2545-7659

EQUATIONS, # 415, 2C-Cross, 4th Main, OMBR Layout, Banaswadi, Bangalore 560043, India

www.equitabletourism.org

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18

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• Emily Wakesworth, Bold Brazen and So Very Now. 080 The Bangalore Monthly Update, Feb 2006, Vol 4, Issue 6, #40

• Damador mall and Piyul Mukheerjee. Hanging out at the local friendly mall. The Times of India. Tuesday May 2, 2006.

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• The Sunday Times – Business, March 27 2006

• ‘Bangalore’s hotels world’s third most expensive says study’, The Deccan Herald, October 16th 2005.

• ‘Chancery opens new five star hotel’ , The Deccan Herald, 27th April 2006.

• ‘The Prestige vests with larger estate’, The Deccan Herald, June 17th 2005.

• Mithun Verma. Big Business Serviced Apartments. 080 The Bangalore Monthly Update, May 2006

• R Jayaprakash, Housing: IT Sector Drives Demand, Times of India: Times Property. May 2006.

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End Notes

1 The post 1993-liberalization children (a generation that came of age after Indian economic liberalization in 1993) were called

‘Zippies’ by the Indian weekly magazine Outlook, because they walk with ‘Zip in their stride’, as Rama Bijapurkar, a Bombay-based

marketing consultant says that " this generation has a hunger in the belly for achievement and all the good things money can buy.

They are also the first generation to realize the outsourcing phenomena.

2 Lefebvre, Henri, The Production of Space. Translated by Donald Nicholson Smith (Oxford Blackwell Publishers, 1991).

3 “For instance, Jean Baudrillard asserts, that we have moved from a phase in the development of capitalism where the commodity-

form was dominant to one where the sign-form prevails. Consumption, then, must not be understood in relation to use-values, as

19

material utility, but primarily in relation to sign-values, as signification. In this context, postmodernity places emphasis on hyperreal

spectacle and signification rather than ‘real experience’, and is thus, e.g. Firat & Venkatesh (1995), seen as liberatory for the

consumer and frees him or her to construct his or her own symbolic world. Firat & Venkatesh also indicate that their liberatory

perspective stands in opposition to Baudrillard’s pessimistic view which asserts that consumers lose their sense of identity and

purpose in such postmodern hyperreality. Instead they find that (1995, p. 251): “… postmodernism creates arenas of consumption

which are fluid and nontotalizing, which means that consumers are free to engage in multiple experiences without making

commitments to any … The consumer finds his/her liberatory potential in subverting the market rather than being seduced by it.””

Rasmus Soejmark in [http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=2230]

4Firat and Vankatesh 1995. Liberatory Postmodernism and the Reenchantment of Consumption. Journal of Consumer Research Inc.

Vol. 22. December 1995

5 Ibid

6 Scott Lash and John Urry (1987) in James Heitzman, Network City (2004,p.8).

7 Hema Ramakrishnan. Small Cities to call shots in BPO Growth in 06. Financial Times, January 24, 2006.

8 Between 1947 and 1990, India’s share of world trade declined from 2.4% to 0.9%, in Gurcharan Das 2000,p.68. Indian Unbound.

Penguin Press.

9 Gurcharan Das 2000, Indian Unbound. Penguin Press.

10 G.Harindranath Jonathan Liebenau, 1995. The impact of globalization on India’s Information Technology Industry. IT for

Development 6 (1995) 73-84.

11 AC Nielsen’s Online Consumer Confidence survey

12 Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, The Sun Now Rises in the East, Swagat Magazine, January 2006

13 Stephen Roach, Melbourne. Here Comes the Indian Consumer. Brigade Insight, Vol. 10 No. 1, February 2006

http://www.brigadegroup.com/insight/current_issue/page05.htm

14 Gurcharan Das 2000, Indian Unbound. Penguin Press.

15 Alladi Venkathesh , Ethnoconsumerism: A New Paradigm to Study Cultural and Cross-cultural Consumer Behavior,”J. A Costa and

G. Bamossy (eds), Markeing in Multicultural World, SAGE Publication, 1995, 26-27.

16 Manjeen Kriplani, India’s Youth (Int’l Edition)

17 Aarti Joshi 2003, Youth Consumerism

18 Suman Bery, The Sunshine Generation. India Today February 20, 2006.

19 NASSCOM. Key Highlights of Indian ITES-BPO Sector Performance, 11th May, 2006. www.nasscom.org.

20 ibid.

21 NASSCOM. IT Software and Services Market, 30th March, 2006. www.nasscom.org

22 Salary in Indian BPO’s. indobase.com [ http://www.indobase.com/bpo/why-india/indian-bpo-salaries.html]

23 Amartya Sen 2005, p 221. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity, Allen Lane, London.

24 Aroon Purie, India Today. May 1st 2006

25 Aroon Purie, India Today. May 1st 2006.

26 Kiran Karnik 2005. Leaping into the Future, http://kirankarnik.blogspot.com/2005/12/leaping-into-future.html

27 Right Here, Right Now. THE WEEK, May 7, 2006.

28 [Bangalore and Karnataka, Stark World 2005, 1st Ed. P.35]

29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore

30 James Hietzman/ Bangalore as Silicon Valley (EPW 1990)

31 [Parthasarathy, 2000 in Rolee Aranaya 2003,p. 19)

32 Bangalore and Karnataka, Stark World 2005, 1st Ed. P.35

33 Rolee Aranaya 2003, Globalization and Urban Restructuring of Bangalore, India. 39th ISOCARP Congress,2003,p. 2

34 Bangalore: Business World 13/6/2005

35 Paravathi Menon, The Two Bangalores, Frontline, Vol. 2 Iss. 22, October 22-November 04,2005.

36 HDFC 9th Annual Report for Asian Real Estate Society International Conference, August 9, 2004.

This appropriation of Nehru’s terminology for desribing the manufacturing industries is ironic.

37 Real Trends: The boom continues. Credai — Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India.

http://realestate.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1482456.cms

38 Residential Property Mart Robust Growth.

39 Prakash Mathur, August 2003. The impact of globalization on cities and city-related policies in India.

40 Rolee Aranya. Spatial Disparity in the Globalizing City: Case of the ‘Silicon Plateau’ emerging in Bangalore, India, 2003.

41 Bangalore’d in Bangalore-Cover Story, Team 080. 080 The Bangalore Monthly Update May 2006.

42 The Third Wave. Business India, April 23, 2006

43 Emily Wakesworth, Bold Brazen and So Very Now. 080 The Bangalore Monthly Update, Feb 2006, Vol 4, Issue 6, #40

20

44 Real Trends: The boom continues. Credai — Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India.

http://realestate.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1482456.cms

45 9th Annual Report for Asian Real Estate Society International Conference, August 9, 2004.

46 Damador mall and Piyul Mukheerjee. Hanging out at the local friendly mall. The Times of India. Tuesday May 2, 2006.

47 ‘Mad about Malls’, The Hindu Metro Plus, July 6th 2004.

48 Padma Pegu, Bangalore Central: Treading a different beat. Images Fashion Forum May 04. Vol. V No. 5.

http://www.imagesfashion.com/back/retail/retail_1_may04.html

49 The Sunday Times – Business, March 27 2006

50 Uday Kumar. "Public Space in Bangalore: Present and Future Projections". Digital Libraries and Archives. 2006. Virginia Tech. 27

Apr. 2004

51 Ibid.

52 http://www.imex-frankfurt.com. IMEX (the Worldwide Exhibition for Incentive Travel, Meetings and Events).

53 ‘Business travelers from abroad choke Bangalore hotels’,

54 Indian Hotel Industry Survey 2004-05, Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India

55 ‘Bangalore’s hotels world’s third most expensive says study’, The Deccan Herald, October 16th 2005.

56 Ibid 3

57 ‘Chancery opens new five star hotel’ , The Deccan Herald, 27th April 2006.

58 ‘The Prestige vests with larger estate’, The Deccan Herald, June 17th 2005.

59 Mithun Verma. Big Business Serviced Apartments. 080 The Bangalore Monthly Update, May 2006

60 R Jayaprakash, Housing: IT Sector Drives Demand, Times of India: Times Property. May 2006.

61 ’30 litres for some, 1600 for others: Inequities in Delhi’s water supply’ , Arun Kumar Singh

http://www.infochangeindia.org/agenda3_04.jsp

62 ‘Selling piped water or pipe dreams?’, http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/feb/gov-gbwasp.htm

63 Rolee Aranya. Spatial Disparity in the Globalizing City: Case of the ‘Silicon Plateau’ emerging in Bangalore, India, 2003.