Saturday, July 17, 2004
The increasing cosmopolitanism of Bangalore
I had made a post in March about the fledgling migraton of foreigners into Bangalore -- a very welcome trend I had been observing every time I visited Bangalore. I had also made the point that this increasing cosmopolitanism seemed to preclude Americans for some reasons, since most of the people I kept running into were Europeans, not Americans. In this profile of an outsourced American working for Infosys in Bangalore, Joshua Bornstein, Amy Waldman makes similar points.
He has become a member of a cosmopolitan village that has formed as multinational companies flock here, and Indian companies try to become multinationals. The city is full of foreigners - 10,000 to 12,000 are registered here with the government's office of foreign registration. At some bars, the crowds are so mixed they look as if they could be in London. The foreigners are staffing multinational companies and filling five-star hotels to overflowing. Those here for longer stints are living in exclusive housing complexes, and international schools are springing up for their children.
Few Americans are among them, even though previous generations of young American graduates have pursued literary careers in Paris or tried to take capitalism and democracy to Russia and Eastern Europe. India would seem a logical next choice, given an economy that grew by 8.2 percent last year, a software and services sector that grew by 28 percent last year and the way outsourcing is rewriting the rules of the American and the global economy.
Yes, its a soft profile, but still worth reading to get an idea of the sort of changes that are taking places in at least three cities I have visited in the recent past -- Bombay, Bangalore and Hyderabad. I presume Delhi belongs in the same category too, though I cannot be sure.
He has become a member of a cosmopolitan village that has formed as multinational companies flock here, and Indian companies try to become multinationals. The city is full of foreigners - 10,000 to 12,000 are registered here with the government's office of foreign registration. At some bars, the crowds are so mixed they look as if they could be in London. The foreigners are staffing multinational companies and filling five-star hotels to overflowing. Those here for longer stints are living in exclusive housing complexes, and international schools are springing up for their children.
Few Americans are among them, even though previous generations of young American graduates have pursued literary careers in Paris or tried to take capitalism and democracy to Russia and Eastern Europe. India would seem a logical next choice, given an economy that grew by 8.2 percent last year, a software and services sector that grew by 28 percent last year and the way outsourcing is rewriting the rules of the American and the global economy.
Yes, its a soft profile, but still worth reading to get an idea of the sort of changes that are taking places in at least three cities I have visited in the recent past -- Bombay, Bangalore and Hyderabad. I presume Delhi belongs in the same category too, though I cannot be sure.
