India has been one of the major hotspots for multi-nationals to setup base for their back-office work. Bangalore has been a favorite destination for these multi-nationals. But these days the there is a very grim picture coming to out where in Bangalore's lack of infrastructure is making multi-nationals looking further into other cities within India. This article published on the BBC tells a very grim story.
IT companies are looking towards Hyderabad and Kolkatta for spreading their wings further. And in the process of attracting more MNCs to India, the Government of India has identified Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the entire length and breadth of the country. These SEZ are a point of concern since they eat into quite a bit of fertile agricultural land of the farmers. Some farmers are protesting like the ones in Nandigram, West Bengal. But other farmers are simply making huge amounts of money by selling their lands. Suddenly all farmers in the outskirts of all major cities like Hyderabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad have struck it very rich. Land prices in these areas have escalated beyond imagination. You can spy a couple of brand new vechicles like scorpio, tata inidica etc on roads that are not wide enough to hold these vehicles and are majorily kuccha in nature. Posh houses, cars and luxuries have made in-roads in areas lacking in basic nfrastructure like 24 hour water and electricity supply. If the basic infrastructure is not taken care of then each of these 'cities' including Chandigarh will head in the same direction that Bangalore is heading towards.
Wont the MNC's over a period of time simply become fed up with all the red tapism and beurocracy that exists in the Indian sub-continent and simply go elsewhere????? (Just to point out a simple example....India is closer to some countries that it bids for to export foodgrains to. But it looses the bid everytime.... to Chile... all the way around the world.... and the reason... that despite the huge difference in distance to be covered while exporting the total cost of exporting from Chile is much cheaper than exporting from India......)
So should we not really think about improving the basic infrastructure of the cities before trying to attract more multi-national organisations to setup their base here. Water, electricity, roads, hotels, telephones, internet connectivity..... the list of infrastructural improvements that has to be done to justify and encash on foreign investement seems to be endless. Correspondingly, India has to increase its base of skilled labor force too to cater to the demands and requirements of the multi-national companies.
Time to think hard and act faster... dont you think? Can we really afford to miss the oppurtunity to give useful employment to the un-employed millions in India?
IT companies are looking towards Hyderabad and Kolkatta for spreading their wings further. And in the process of attracting more MNCs to India, the Government of India has identified Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the entire length and breadth of the country. These SEZ are a point of concern since they eat into quite a bit of fertile agricultural land of the farmers. Some farmers are protesting like the ones in Nandigram, West Bengal. But other farmers are simply making huge amounts of money by selling their lands. Suddenly all farmers in the outskirts of all major cities like Hyderabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad have struck it very rich. Land prices in these areas have escalated beyond imagination. You can spy a couple of brand new vechicles like scorpio, tata inidica etc on roads that are not wide enough to hold these vehicles and are majorily kuccha in nature. Posh houses, cars and luxuries have made in-roads in areas lacking in basic nfrastructure like 24 hour water and electricity supply. If the basic infrastructure is not taken care of then each of these 'cities' including Chandigarh will head in the same direction that Bangalore is heading towards.
Wont the MNC's over a period of time simply become fed up with all the red tapism and beurocracy that exists in the Indian sub-continent and simply go elsewhere????? (Just to point out a simple example....India is closer to some countries that it bids for to export foodgrains to. But it looses the bid everytime.... to Chile... all the way around the world.... and the reason... that despite the huge difference in distance to be covered while exporting the total cost of exporting from Chile is much cheaper than exporting from India......)
So should we not really think about improving the basic infrastructure of the cities before trying to attract more multi-national organisations to setup their base here. Water, electricity, roads, hotels, telephones, internet connectivity..... the list of infrastructural improvements that has to be done to justify and encash on foreign investement seems to be endless. Correspondingly, India has to increase its base of skilled labor force too to cater to the demands and requirements of the multi-national companies.
Time to think hard and act faster... dont you think? Can we really afford to miss the oppurtunity to give useful employment to the un-employed millions in India?
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