Bangalore - India's Silicon Valley
Bangalore is often referred to as India's Silicon Valley. The country’s third most populous city lies in the highlands of the Deccan Plateau. It is often called the Garden City because of its tree-lined streets and pleasant climate. Bangalore, once known for its green pastures and fertile farmland, is not only the centre of information technology but also home to famous educational and research institutions. Almost half of India's IT industry, worth about 50 billion dollars, resides in Bangalore. Many top national and international corporations have their headquarters here.
Bangalore's rise to an IT hub began in the 1980s when firms started discovering its potential. Several engineering colleges opened up in the following decade. The first foreign company to open offices in Bangalore was Texas Instruments. Today about 250 software companies have their headquarters in Bangalore, including India's high tech giants like Infosys and Wipro. Four out of five of the world’s top IT service companies are based in India.
The city attracts thousands of software engineers and IT specialists from all over India. Foreign companies that work out of Bangalore have a tremendous advantage over those in other countries. They can hire highly qualified IT personnel at only a quarter of the wages that they would have to pay in the US or Europe. In addition, the English-speaking workforce has no language problems. Above all, firms do not have to deal with the bureaucratic difficulties that confront them in the western world.
Bangalore, however, is not solely focused on the IT industry. Other major industries include aircraft and aerospace manufacturing, electronics, biotechnology and machine making. In addition, the city has become India's outsourcing centre and the most popular outsourcing destination in the world. Companies from around the globe send their IT work to be done in India.
However, India and Bangalore do not only want to be known as an outsourcing region. More and more research and development is done here too.
New IT companies are popping up at a tremendous speed. Sometimes these start-up companies work with a small amount of their own capital, at other times they are financed by the west.
Recently, more and more Indian IT specialists have been returning to their home country after gaining experience in many years of work abroad. Now they want to start their own company in Bangalore. Many of them are innovative, bringing new products to the market.
But Bangalore and India’s IT industry are facing other problems. As the demand for highly skilled computer technicians is rising, so is their pay. Some American firms are coming back to the US simply because India is getting too expensive.
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Words
- above all = especially
- advantage = something that helps you to be more successful than others
- attract = pull towards something
- based = here: to have their seat here
- biotechnology = the use of living things such as cells, bacteria etc.. to make drugs and other substances
- capital = money
- confront = face, meet
- corporation= large company
- deal with = manage
- decade = ten years
- demand = need
- destination = place
- development = the process of working on something new
- discover = find for the first time
- engineering = designing and building roads, bridges , machines etc..
- experience = knowledge, skill, know-how
- face = deal with
- fertile = to be able to produce good crops
- foreign = from another country
- gain = get
- globe = world
- headquarters = the main building of a company, or from where a company is controlled
- hire = to get someone to work for you
- however = but
- hub = centre
- in addition = also
- including = also
- innovative = here: doing something that is new and different from what had been done before
- manufacturing = the making of products
- most populous = with many people living in a small area
- outsource = when a company has work done in other countries because it is cheaper
- pasture = land or field that is covered with grass on which cows and sheep can eat
- personnel = people who work in a company
- pleasant = nice, lovely
- pop up = start
- potential = to be able to develop into something very good
- recently = a short time ago
- referred to = called
- research = to study a topic and find out new facts about it
- reside = to be present in
- rise = go up, move up
- solely = only
- start-up = new small company, especially one that works in the computer business
- tree-lined = with trees on both sides
- tremendous = very big
- tremendous speed = very fast
- wages = money you get for the work you do
- workforce = people who work in a business or industry