Page 60 - EducationWorld Oct 2021

Special Report

IT CAPITAL’S SHOCKING

DIGITAL EDUCATION DIVIDE

Curiously, Bangalore aka Bengaluru, the glitz and glamour city widely
acknowledged as India’s Silicon Valley, seems to care little about
education especially of the poor majority bypassed by the garden
city’s transformative IT revolution. During the past 18 months of the
Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, a majority of the city’s children have
had no access to online education

Zahid H. Javali

T HE ADMIN CAPITAL OF THE south- 189 lakes, 1,000 pubs and restaurants and 200 engineering

colleges which provide a steady inflow of high quality gradu-
ern state of Karnataka (pop.68 mil-
ates into the city’s IT and ICT (information communication
lion), Bangalore aka Bengaluru,
technology) companies.
which miraculously transformed
from a laid-back pensioner’s para-
London & Partners — the mayor of London’s interna-
dise into an information technology
(IT) hub following an IT industry
fastest-growing mature tech ecosystem in the world, followed
by London, Munich, Berlin and Paris. According to L&P, the
boom of the 1990s, has since main- tional trade and investment agency — ranks Bengaluru as the
tained its status as India’s Silicon inflow of foreign investment has grown by a multiple of 5x
Valley. Despite competition from neighbouring cities Hy- since 2016 to $7.2 billion (Rs.54,000 crore) in 2020. Further-
derabad and Chennai and the garden city’s deteriorating more the city, known for its year-round agreeable weather,
civic and public infrastructure, Bengaluru is undisputedly has incubated the growth of 44 percent (19) of India’s unicorn
India’s IT capital. companies valued at over $1 billion.
During the past three decades it has developed into the With the IT industry directly employing 1.5 million of
world’s fourth largest IT cluster after Silicon Valley (Califor- the city’s 12 million residents, and associated industries
nia), Boston, and London and hosts the India headquarters and businesses another 1.5 million, Bangalore’s IT and ICT
of several multibillion dollar US-based IT multinationals companies earn 40 percent of the country’s aggregate an-
including Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Dell, Google and IBM. nual computer software exports revenue, estimated at a
Moreover, India’s IT transnationals — Infosys, Wipro, Byjus staggering $195 billion (Rs.14 lakh crore). Consequently,
and Flipkart — have also established their headquarters in this IT city’s annual GDP per capita (ppp) estimated (by
this still green multicultural city of two great public parks, the Brookings Institute, India, recently renamed Centre for

60 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2021