The importance of being Bengaluru

Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with Bengaluru feels it is a city with a certain je ne sais quoi -- an ineffable something that sets the city apart.

Is it because it is a city that sits on one of the most ancient land masses in the world? When you climb up Lal Bagh Rock in Bengaluru, you are standing on a 3.6 billion years-old rock.

Is it because since time immemorial, it has been the dwelling of strivers and fighters? A “hero stone” or veera gallu found recently dates back to 750 CE and commemorates the bravery of Hebbal Kittayya.

Or is it because today, it is the city known for another form of silicon -- the element used in microchips -- and has one of the world’s most concentrated populations of techies, leading to the sobriquet ‘Silicon City’?

In a few decades, Bengaluru has transformed from a ‘Pensioner’s Paradise’ to a bustling metropolis home to 400 Fortune-500 companies, 8,500 start-ups, 38%
of India’s IT exports, and housing 30% of India’s IT professionals.

And as the Asian and AI Era dawns, the Greater Bengaluru -- Bengaluru city and its catchment area of semi-urban and satellite towns -- can become the representative
of an entire era just as San Francisco and the Bay Area did for the IT Era.

The city’s public infrastructure can be transformed -- underground tunnels and steel bridges to solve current traffic snarls and meet requirements over the coming decades; rejuvenation of lakes and greens from which a new Garden City will emerge; education and health facilities that will help attract the best talent from across the world.

Industry must work to extend Bengaluru’s economic might to multiple sectors: from an IT and business services powerhouse to the engine of innovation and manufacturing across industries.

To do so, Bengaluru must expand its focus outward and inward, outwards to its rural hinterlands and satellite towns and inwards to its people’s psyche and attitudes.

Imagine the development of integrated innovation and manufacturing clusters that offer R&D, ancillary, and living facilities focused on specific industrial sectors -- aerospace, electric cars, electronics, and semiconductors. These clusters will bring in world-class vocational training, creating a world-class pool of blue-collar workers while lifting lakhs out of poverty into the middle class.

Imagine upgrading satellite cities connected through high-speed links offering Bengaluru’s business services, IT and start-ups high-quality, lower-cost space to expand, as is already happening with the potential twinning of Mysuru with Bengaluru.

Bengaluru is already rich in people resources with its young, professionally educated, multi-ethnic, upwardly mobile population. It is a melting pot of talent primed to lead in the dawning age of Asia and AI. Bengaluru integrates various mindsets and lifestyles to create a “Bengaluru state of mind” that is ambitious and open to change.

One critical input that will impel Bengaluru’s talent pool to lead the age of Asia and AI is the attitudinal shift that will create a community of shared aspirations and goals -- a change from seeking incremental growth to striving for disruptive change, a shift from building me-too start-ups to blazing new trails. An expertly crafted campaign can engender such a shift -- a communication campaign targeting Bengaluru citizens, enlisting influencers from the fields of business, science, technology, spirituality, cinema, music and the other arts not just from the city but also across India and the world, that proclaims the potential of Bengaluru as a ‘Supercity’ and a global innovation hub.

Bengaluru will also need a global campaign that attracts capital, companies, and talent worldwide, targeted at decision-makers, leading professionals, and students at leading educational institutes.

The two campaigns -- the one targeting the citizens of Bengaluru to create an aspirational mindset and the other targeting global capital and talent -- could be the two arms of a ‘Brand Bengaluru’ campaign.

Every one of us who loves Bengaluru and is in a position to do something must strive to fulfil this magnificent city’s potential. Basava, Karnataka’s beloved philosopher, wrote:

The rich will make temples for Siva/what shall I, a poor man, do/My legs are pillars/the body the shrine/the head the cupola of gold/Listen, O Lord, things standing shall fall/that which moves shall stay.

The best monument that Bengaluru can build for itself is to move with the times and be the best it can be for its people, India, and the world.

And while the idea of being the world’s leading city in the age of Asia and AI is enormous, the challenge is big.

(The writer is Chairman and Managing Director, Kirloskar Systems Limited)