As the IT capital of the country, Bengaluru has no dearth of talent and resources. However, as creating more ‘Bengalurus’ in the state seemed to be the flavour of the day for IT experts at the three-day long Invest Karnataka event being held in the city, advisory firm Tholon's founder and former Accenture Chairman and Managing Director, Avinash Vashistha talked to Shadma Shaikh about the challenges of expanding IT sector in tier two and three cities and innovation coming in from these cities:
There has been a lot of discussions today and earlier about expanding ITsector in smaller cities. Apart from employee resistance, what are the major challenges in doing so?
When you shift employee base from a bigger city like Bengaluru to a smaller city, like, say, Mangalore for example, a manager level employee faces genuine issues. Finding international schools for their kids, good healthcare facilities, promising higher educational institutes and all sorts of challenges! The question is why anyone would want to go to tier two cities! There are issues for connectivity. There are no regular flights from the city.
To focus on building a pipeline of talent in tier two cities, there should be a focus on infrastructural development in these cities. Tier two citiescan play on their strengths, for example, the time taken for commute in these cities is really less. Also, bandwidth availability should be promoted in the tier two cities. With the cost of living advantage, employees living in the tier two cities today actually can live there at the cost that is at least two third of living in bigger cities.
In your experience, have you seen innovation coming in from these cities?
Definitely! If you compare the ratio of tier two cities to the tier one ones, there is a huge gap. There is a lot of untapped talent in these cities that needs to be recognized. The digital innovation that is happening right now is the best approach to discover that talent and reach it.
Today, even a small digital company can disrupt a large company's business. Innovation should be promoted in these cities. It need not necessarily come from bigger cities. The government should provide incentives for innovation more so in tier two cities than in tier one cities.
Would you say Karnataka has a better talent pool in its tier two and three cities as compared to the other states?
Yes. This is the state that has grown as the R&D center, historically. There's Bengaluru for sure. But then there's Mangalore, which I believe has huge entrepreneurial talent. There's a lot of talent in Mysuru, too. Bengaluru being the IT hub has a huge influence on its neighboring cities. I think, Karnataka as a state is very well positioned.
