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BANGALORE (Reuters) - There's a punchline going around in India's high-tech capital: Bangalore may be Bangalored.
"Bangalored," a word invented in the United States to describe those whose jobs were lost because their work was outsourced to low-cost India, could well apply to the city, whose rivals are wooing investors as it chokes on its own growth.
An infrastructure crunch threatens Bangalore's prospects and those problems were compounded in October when a influential politician raised doubts about government support for industry in the form of cheap land and subsidies.
Monsoon flooding added to the city's overcast mood.
As red carpets soaked up water at Bangalore's annual industry conference, places ranging from the desert state of Rajasthan to beach haven Goa pitched stalls, wooing investors, not tourists.
"Suddenly with all the noise, the investor says: 'I am going to check out the other cities'," said V. Ravichandar, a business consultant and former member of a government infrastructure panel. "You can't rest on old glory."
A talented pool of workers, especially for microchip design, is still a big advantage for Bangalore, a city of 6.5 million people which has more than 1,500 technology firms.
But experts say lower-end software coding or back-office work could easily go to other Indian cities.
Ajit Isaac, head of Adecco PeopleOne, the Indian arm of Swiss Adecco, the world's largest staffing group, said he had seen three investors in the past quarter choose other cities over Bangalore.
Bangalore's woes could hurt India as a whole, he added.
"It is a showpiece. Once you let it go down, the magnet of attracting investment could become weaker," Isaac said. Continued ...
Reuters.com - Rival tech towns may outrun India's Bangalore
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2005-11-04T135304Z_01_ROB449914_RTRIDST_0_PICKS-INDIA-BANGALORE-DC.XML
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