Rakesh Reddy Kandula

Archive for November 19th, 2007

Bangalore- The Silicon Valley of India

Bangalore is said to be “The silicon valley of India”, the IT hub , cosmopolitan city and what not. Statistics reveal that there are about half a million software engineers in bangalore. The real estate prices are sky-rocketed, cost of living has increased, there are big big malls coming up at every corner……but this is all just one side of the coin. Does bangalore really qualify to be the silicon valley of India? Can the infrastructure over here support for it? A simple example reveals the real situation…..these daysÂ a broadband internet connection has become the basic need and that too in a city like bangalore with so many software professionals, atleast it must be treated as a basic need. But the fact is that one must be really lucky to get a connection here. The irony is that there are still many places in bangalore where there are no broadband providers (maybe bsnl is an exception to this…but one needs to have a phone connection to get bsnl broadband) and ppl still have to use the internet connection thru cable network like sify, hathway, etc.

NowÂ getting a bsnl broadband connection is not going to be tht easy as initially we need to wait for a landline connection and then only if there are ports available in that area (for which the probability is really really low) we can get a connection…and wherever the private players are there, the ports are already full . With so many software ppl here why can’t the companies upgrade their infrastructure. My woes started like this-

I stay on airport road, supposed to be a decent place in bangalore. Initially I applied for an airtel connection and I was told they would get back to me with the feasibility report within 3 days. And they did come back to me promptly and said we cannot provide the connection. Then I turned to tata indicom (though I know their service is hopeless, I was left with no other option). TheseÂ guys also promised to get back in 3 days and gave me a reference number. And after 3 daysÂ when I called them, Â the call centre guy just raised a new complaint and gave me a new complaint number and asked me to wait for 3 more days. Then after 3 more days I got another complaint number and this way atlast I was left out with a ref num and 3 complaint numbers but no progress in the connection. Then atlast I had to go for a realiance data card. Now after a month I got a mail from tata indicom saying that we cannot provide you the service in that area right now.

So, this is wht the state of infrastructure is in bangalore.Â I don’t think it is really greedy to expectÂ aÂ broadband connection. Ok…lets leave getting a broadband connection… but expecting to get a normal lan cable (cat5 cable) should not be a problem. But you know even that is not an easy thing in bangalore. My friend got a new reliance broadband connection yesterday. We wanted to use a linksys router so that both of us can work in parallel. So, we set out to buy an ethernet cable. But to our surprise, we had to go almost 5 km to find a shop that sells it. That too we could find that shop after parking our bike and walking for almost a kilometer near the place. Some of the ppl did not even understand wht we were asking for.Â So, this is the plight of silicon valley of india.

Is it only about a broadband connection or an ethernet cable?? No…thts not the end, ask anyone staying in bangalore abt the traffic situation here, abt the pollution, the cost of living, the real estate prices, the house rents, auto fares….the list will go on. This place used to be a quiet pensioner’s paradise but right now its no where nearer to a paradise.

I think some serious thought has to be given to the situation in bangalore or elseÂ the days are not far where it might just becomeÂ the garbage valley of india.

Add comment November 19th, 2007

Overall experience in barcamp5

This was my first ever barcamp. Initially I didn’t even knew what it was all about. I came to know about this through a friend of mine who had already attend this in delhi.

My overall experience was good. What I felt was that this would be more useful for people with startups or those who are planning for one. It would definitely help them build their links and also talk about their own startups. I am not sure if the main barcamps always have entrepreneurship as one of their main areas of focus. It might be that this time as it was in IIMB maybe the focus was more towards entrepreneurship.

On the whole I like the idea of barcamps and would definitely look forward to attend more. If possible maybe I would even attend the headstart event in IISC Bangalore in jan.

Add comment November 19th, 2007

Barcamp5 Updates: Startups

By the time I entered the room the discussion had already started. The presenter was advising the ppl over there about not having a start-up (tht was anyway his gimmick to attract everyone’s attention :D ).

Anyways the guy later explained the reason for making such a statement. He already had two startups n because of his bad financial planning he had to abort both of his projects. Right now he is doing finance course related to entreprenuership in IIMB. The discussion then turned towards the financial aspects of startups. Discussion turned towards angel funding in india. Some of the names that came up were band of angels, N S Raghavan (N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) ), etc.

People were talking about innovation in getting the funding as well like going for a barter system, playing with credit, etc. One of the guys over there suggested reading a book called bootstrappingbible a pdf document available from changethis.com. Also its here only for the first time I heard about mapunity.in a startup that is incubated in IIMB. These mapunity guys are trying to survive on their own without any VC funding.

Anyways on the whole, I got to know some new things after attending this session.

By the way, I had downloaded the bootstrappingbible document. Will write about it in another post once I complete reading it.

Add comment November 19th, 2007

Barcamp5 Updates: Headstart

This session was talking about helping startups to grow. Basically they were introducing kickstart , a start-up for start-ups .They are going to have an event in IISC Bangalore from Jan 18th to 20th, 2008. The event is called headstart which is going to be a technology and product showcase event. This event is mainly for startups and some VC’s are also invited in the event.