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Bangalore: A Case of Inadequate Spending

Kala Seetharam Sridhar and A. Venugopala Reddy

in State of Urban Services in India's Cities: Spending and Financing

This chapter considers the case of Bangalore, which is located about 840 to 940 metres above the sea level. The city is also the fifth largest metropolitan area in India. It is noted that these ... More

This chapter considers the case of Bangalore, which is located about 840 to 940 metres above the sea level. The city is also the fifth largest metropolitan area in India. It is noted that these topographical characteristics seem to contribute to increasing the cost of certain public services, such as water supply. Before discussing the city's expenditure and service delivery on these types of public services, the socio-economic characteristics of Bangalore are provided. A summary of the revenues of the Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is included. Finally, a detailed examination of the city's expenditure on locally provided public services is provided. This examination reveals that the expenditure on sewerage, water supply, and labour-intensive services is below the national average.Less

The Software Cluster in Bangalore

V. N. Balasubramanyam and Ahalya Balasubramanyam

in Regions, Globalization, and the Knowledge-Based Economy

The software cluster in Bangalore, South India, represents in a microcosm several of the developments associated with globalization identified in Ch. 1. It is a knowledge‐oriented or ... More

The software cluster in Bangalore, South India, represents in a microcosm several of the developments associated with globalization identified in Ch. 1. It is a knowledge‐oriented or human‐capital‐intensive industry that has attracted multinational firms to Bangalore, both as producers and consumers of software, turning the city into an international gateway for trained labour. The state has actively assisted the growth of the industry. This chapter addresses the reasons for the success of the software cluster. The main sections provide a brief description of the size and structure of the software cluster in Bangalore, discuss the Bangalore cluster in the light of received explanations of clusters from geographers and regional economists, and analyse the cluster in the context of the economics of agglomeration and developments associated with globalization.Less

Strengthening Urban Services: The Way Forward

Kala Seetharam Sridhar and A. Venugopala Reddy

in State of Urban Services in India's Cities: Spending and Financing

This chapter summarizes the different findings the four case studies on Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Kolkata, discussed in previous chapters. The discussion begins with a summary of the findings ... More

This chapter summarizes the different findings the four case studies on Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Kolkata, discussed in previous chapters. The discussion begins with a summary of the findings on finance, and then moves on to a summary of the findings on expenditure, public service delivery, and the relationship between the two. Based on the findings presented in this chapter, this study implies that the local government units in India have been benefiting from land sales and leasing in order to fund their infrastructure needs. However, the study is able to determine that their expenditures fall below the nationally accepted norms, thus providing a lower standard of these public services. This chapter concludes that spending and municipal revenues are at the core of the problem.Less

Provisional Communities: 1990–9

M.K. Raghavendra

in Bipolar Identity: Region, Nation and the Kannada Language Film

This chapter examines Kannada films from the 1990s. It discusses how from the late 1980s onwards, Kannada cinema becomes depleted because of a lack of signifiers — the cinema does not ‘mean’ in the ... More

This chapter examines Kannada films from the 1990s. It discusses how from the late 1980s onwards, Kannada cinema becomes depleted because of a lack of signifiers — the cinema does not ‘mean’ in the way it had done hitherto. The region is absent as an imagined community in these Kannada films and this perhaps accounts for them being unable to ‘mean’. It considers one aspect of Kannada cinema that has distressed its avid followers — the vulgarity that appears to overwhelm it in the early 1990s. It also looks at the treatment of women in these films, specifically the notion of feminine promiscuity. It discusses the attitude of Kannada cinema towards Bangalore and how a large number of films are either ‘framed’ as stories being related by filmmakers or involve the process of filmmaking in some way.Less

The Curse of Bangalore: 2000–8

M.K. Raghavendra

in Bipolar Identity: Region, Nation and the Kannada Language Film

This chapter examines Kannada cinema in the first decade of the twenty-first century. It begins by reviewing the author’s findings with regard to the shape taken by Kannada narrative from the 1930s ... More

This chapter examines Kannada cinema in the first decade of the twenty-first century. It begins by reviewing the author’s findings with regard to the shape taken by Kannada narrative from the 1930s onwards, up till the new millennium. It then discusses how Bangalore played a greater role in the Kannada film after 2000, including how the motif of the migrant in Bangalore became stronger in the new millennium. It analyses two remakes in Kannada of films made in another language: Sanjeevi’s Swetha Naga, about a researcher in zoology who is skeptical about the mythology around the cobra who ventures into a forest; and P. Vasu’s Apthamitra, a ghost story about a road construction engineer who acquires a palace rumoured to be haunted.Less

Conclusion

M.K. Raghavendra

in Bipolar Identity: Region, Nation and the Kannada Language Film

This chapter suggests that linguistic reorganization was unsuccessful in creating a single Kannada nation out of the different Kannada-speaking areas brought together. The vestiges of Mysore still ... More

This chapter suggests that linguistic reorganization was unsuccessful in creating a single Kannada nation out of the different Kannada-speaking areas brought together. The vestiges of Mysore still appear to dominate the ‘Kannada community’ and the asymmetry in the constitution of the ‘Kannada identity’ was perhaps accentuated by Bangalore being made the capital of the Kannada state instead of a more appropriate city — like Davanagere or Hubli — which was more centrally located in the Kannada-speaking territory. Despite the discouraging situation with regard to the strength of the region in the local consciousness, the regional identity still resists subsumption by the nation. If such resistance had not been offered, Kannada cinema, like Hindi cinema, might perhaps have been celebrating wealth and consumption-based lifestyles instead of dealing with those living on the margins as it has been doing in the past few years.Less

India and the Limits of Digital Diffusion

James W. Cortada

in The Digital Flood: The Diffusion of Information Technology Across the U.S., Europe, and Asia

India is the latest major adopter of computers. In the past twenty years it has become a hotbed of the international outsourcing and software development businesses. It is the most dramatic example ... More

India is the latest major adopter of computers. In the past twenty years it has become a hotbed of the international outsourcing and software development businesses. It is the most dramatic example of an economic export strategy based on services, not manufacturing. The Indian IT industry has experienced some of the most dramatic growth rates ever seen in the world. Yet it is an economy that has not embraced and used computers to the extent its export success would suggest. Why that is the case is a central issue discussed in this chapter. It reviews Indian experiences with the supply and demand sides of computing from the start of the 1950s to the present.Less

· Introduction

John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan

in The Life of Hinduism

Beginning in Bangalore, this chapter describes the progress in India and the role of religion in it. It describes Hinduism and the five strands that constitute Hindu dharma in its many facets: ... More

Beginning in Bangalore, this chapter describes the progress in India and the role of religion in it. It describes Hinduism and the five strands that constitute Hindu dharma in its many facets: doctrine, practice, society, story and performance, and bhakti. The book aims to unravel the fabric a bit, focusing on just one strand: practice.Less

Places Open and Shut

Harm De Blij

in The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization's Rough Landscape

The power of place manifests itself in continua of opportunity and risk, advantage and privation. On the global map it is revealed in patterns of health and sickness, ... More

The power of place manifests itself in continua of opportunity and risk, advantage and privation. On the global map it is revealed in patterns of health and sickness, wealth and poverty. On the ground it is demarcated by barriers and barricades, patrols and controls. Reflecting on the impress of place on the fortunes and misfortunes of the planet’s nearly seven billion human inhabitants, it is worth noting that, for all their vaunted mobility, only about 200 million live outside the country of their birth, or less than 3 percent of the total. Some academics (as well as politicians) refer to the present as the “age of migration.” The figures indicate otherwise. The overwhelming majority of us die under the governmental, linguistic, religious, medical, environmental, and other circumstances into which we were born. The constraints on transnational and intercultural migration remain powerful and, in some respects, are increasing rather than softening, roughening rather than flattening the global playing field. Place, most emphatically place of birth but also the constricted space in which the majority of lives are lived, remains the most potent factor shaping the destinies of billions. As a result, those destinies are closely tied to the fortunes and misfortunes of the state that imparts “nationality” on citizens born within its borders. One of these involves relative location. There are numerous reasons why approximately 70 percent of the poorest-of-the-poor are citizens of African states, but one of these reasons may not be immediately obvious—until one takes a close look at the continent’s regional geography. Africa has more landlocked countries than any other continent or geographic realm in the world, and almost as many (14) as the rest of the world put together (and still another one may join this group if voters in a future referendum in Southern Sudan opt for independence). Unless a landlocked country has a combination of good management and a relatively rich resource base, as Botswana does but Zimbabwe does not, it is far more susceptible to any regional malaise than a coastal state. As economic geographers have long pointed out, a coastal state trades with the world; a landlocked state trades with, or through, its neighbors. Less

Round pegs and square holes: mismatches between poverty and housing policy in urban India

Sunil Kumar

in World poverty: New policies to defeat an old enemy

The poverty of the masses in India has been of concern for generations. This chapter documents the mismatch between actual housing policies and the kind of policies needed to assist the poor in ... More

The poverty of the masses in India has been of concern for generations. This chapter documents the mismatch between actual housing policies and the kind of policies needed to assist the poor in India. The poor are excluded from formal housing processes and are made insecure by the mechanisms that are supposed to serve them. The chapter draws on research in Bangalore and Surat to illustrate the broader policies required of the existing development agencies such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). In addition to action on material deprivation, a housing policy that provides a range of tenure options and closely replicates informal mechanisms of delivery is what is needed. The difficulty lies in the ability of the institutions of the state to follow such mechanisms, primarily because they are intricately located within multiple social and political relationships.Less

Mysore

Elizabeth Hamilton

in The Feringhees: Sir Robert and Sir William — Two Europeans in India: Volume 2: The Straight Race

A picture is painted in this chapter of life at the Bangalore Residency in the well-run Hindu state of Mysore with all its pageantry and colourful festivals. The maharajah is seen to be an ... More

A picture is painted in this chapter of life at the Bangalore Residency in the well-run Hindu state of Mysore with all its pageantry and colourful festivals. The maharajah is seen to be an enlightened ruler who takes note of the feelings of his representative council and is devout, capable, and popular. Also Sir Mirza Ismail, his dewan—a Muslim of great ability who becomes a lifelong friend—like Barton, understands the importance of hydro-electric schemes. Sectarian troubles allegedly stirred up by Brahmins affect the universities and there are hartals in November 1922 but these are quickly dealt with. The maharajah steps up his programme of reforms.Less

The Third Market Environment: Uncertain State of New Technologies

in Market Menagerie: Health and Development in Late Industrial States

This chapter examines the third market environment for the pharmaceutical industry in India and the uncertain state of new health technologies. It provides interviews with leading biotechnology firms ... More

This chapter examines the third market environment for the pharmaceutical industry in India and the uncertain state of new health technologies. It provides interviews with leading biotechnology firms in the southern cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad and describes the companies' organizational models, technology challenges and new business potential. This chapter also argues that lack of market assurance limited local companies to niches with well-defined proof of concept and a few exploratory plant and other therapies.Less

Introduction

Lakshmi Srinivas

in House Full: Indian Cinema and the Active Audience

Chapter 1 introduces the field of Indian cinema, its public culture characterized by diversity and the diversity of its audiences. It also introduces Bangalore city, the field setting for the study. ... More

Chapter 1 introduces the field of Indian cinema, its public culture characterized by diversity and the diversity of its audiences. It also introduces Bangalore city, the field setting for the study. The chapter argues that Indian cinema and filmgoing culture as a non-European cinematic tradition provides a strategic site for a 'field-view' and in-depth ethnography that can address much of what has been overlooked in film studies. Where cinema exists as spectacle and cultural performance and draws on the aesthetics of festival, ethnographic study shows that purely filmic or textual analysis misses the complexities of cinema on the ground. The chapter critiques the Eurocentrism of film studies, describes the difficulties of conducting audience research and the challenges of ethnographic fieldwork as it calls for understandings of cinema and its experience that are grounded in the immediate contexts and institutional settings as well as the broader participatory culture in which cinema exists, is made and recast. It proposes new analytical approaches that are located in cinema’s social world and in settings in which films are made, appropriated and elaborated.Less

Bangalore: The Silicon Valley of Asia?

AnnaLee Saxenian (ed.)

in Economic Policy Reforms and the Indian Economy

This chapter addresses the growth of the Indian software industry, and provides some contrasts between Bangalore—the center of software in India—and Silicon Valley. India's software industry has ... More

This chapter addresses the growth of the Indian software industry, and provides some contrasts between Bangalore—the center of software in India—and Silicon Valley. India's software industry has grown so rapidly that it evokes frequent comparisons between Bangalore and Silicon Valley. The policy reforms of the 1980s facilitated the emergence of an export-oriented software industry in India. The industry of Indian software as a whole remains significantly less productive than its global competitors. Information technology (IT) presents possible efficiencies in a wide range of private-sector activities, from distribution and marketing to banking to agriculture. The industry association, National Association of Software and Service Companies, has accelerated the policy reform process through its aggressive lobbying while helping to define a minimally interventionist model of industrial promotion. It is noted that Bangalore is not Silicon Valley, and IT is not going to solve all of India's problems.Less

Introduction

Carol Upadhya

in Reengineering India: Work, Capital, and Class in an Offshore Economy

The Introduction outlines the main themes of the book within the context of larger social transformations in India after economic reforms. After a brief introduction to the city of Bangalore, the ... More

The Introduction outlines the main themes of the book within the context of larger social transformations in India after economic reforms. After a brief introduction to the city of Bangalore, the Indian software industry, the IT workforce, and the sociological literature on post-liberalization India, the chapter sketches the larger theoretical questions addressed in the book. Reviewing key debates on capitalism and the question of value, and drawing on anthropological literature on globalization, labour, and class, it outlines the conceptual approach employed to understand the intersections of work, culture, and subjectivity in IT workspaces. Finally, the chapter details the scope of the study, discusses the research methods employed, and provides an overview of the following chapters.Less