Bengaluru, March 31, 2018: In a high-powered discussion on the future of Bengaluru, India's information technology (IT) hub, there was agreement that the city was struggling to meet infrastructure demands.
On the panel at the India Today Karnataka Panchayat were Priyank Kharge, minister of state for IT and tourism, TV Mohandas Pai, chairman, Manipal Global Education, Srivatsa Krishna, secretary, IT department, Karnataka and Sridhar Pabbishetty, CEO, Namma Bengaluru Foundation.
Kicking off the discussion Kharge listed his government's achievements to make Bengaluru the heart of the IT sector not just in the region but globally.
"This [Congress] government has done more for the IT sector than any previous governments. We've helped 400 start-ups scale up. We're working towards making the city an innovation and incubation hub," he said.
Mohandas Pai, however, had a different take on Bengaluru's future. Though he agreed that the city was still a magnet when it came to drawing IT companies and manpower, the city was on the verge of becoming an urban disaster.
"The quality of life has dipped...Bengaluru sucks," Pai said. He went on to list the city's woeful infrastructure and said the Congress government had ignored the city for the first three years of its tenure.
Sridhar Pabbishetty echoed Pai when he said that Bengaluru has a long way to go especially when its storm drains are open sewers.