How a company started from an apartment made Bangalore the ‘Silicon Valley of India’?
Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka, is popular for its large technology companies. Due to the way these companies work and the employees coming from different regions, a different kind of culture has developed here.
Thanks to technology, business and commerce in the city of Bangalore has grown faster than any other city in India. Engineers and IT professionals working in various companies have a special place here.
All the leading international technology companies are keen to hire these professionals at the best salaries.
However, 50 years ago, the future of the city of Bangalore was not so bright. In terms of technology, it was another city like other backward cities of India.
Soon this city attracted the attention of the whole world and emerged as the ‘Silicon Valley of India’, this story is very interesting and this story is incomplete without mentioning the name ‘Infosys’.
Inception of Infosys
One such well-known company established in Bangalore is Infosys and its contribution in turning Bangalore into the Silicon Valley of India is noteworthy.
Infosys founder Narayan Murthy told the BBC’s Witness History programme, “From day one, we believed in frugality because we didn’t have a lot of money.”
“So the five to six people we worked with all lived in a one-room apartment.”
Founded in the 1980s, Infosys is now one of India’s largest technology companies.
Recalling the early days of the company, Narayan Murthy says, “We all used to spend time together in the evenings. It used to be a different kind of happiness. Some of us would cook, some would cut vegetables, some would wash the dishes. We were like a team. We all had a lot of fun together.
He says that today a company like Infosys is worth eight trillion dollars. It shows that the hard work we have done has been rewarded.
Narayan Murthy’s idea which took a lot of effort to bring to fruition
Narayan Murthy was born in the year 1946 in an area of the Indian state of Karnataka, not far from Bangalore.
Talking about his family, he said that there were 11 people in our family. It was a lower middle class family. It was not easy to support so many people on the salary of a high school teacher.
India gained independence from British rule in 1947, just one year after Narayan Murthy’s birth.
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, focused on and invested heavily in the country’s defense technology sector.
Bangalore already had a reputation for producing skilled engineers and being geographically in the center of the country had an added advantage.
The city benefited from Prime Minister Nehru’s initiative to develop the technology sector as it was located far from the border with India’s neighbor Pakistan, with which India’s relations have always been strained.
“Dude, it’s not a computer, it’s a printer.”
India did not become a technology superpower until the 1970s.
Narayan Murthy explains that the tools and machines we saw at that time were very large in size. There used to be a machine of approximately two feet by three feet.
One day one of my classmate told me that he will take me to show the computer. He said this to me on the second day of reaching the place where I had gone to study.
He said that this classmate of mine showed me a machine that was making a lot of noise. Pages upon pages were being printed there. He told me it was a computer and by then I was very impressed with it.
That evening I told my friends that I had seen a computer for the first time. They all laughed. He told me that the machine you saw was not a computer but a printer.
Narayan Murthy did not yet know much about computers, but he must have understood that computers were now ‘going to be our future’.
How did the change come about?
At that time, India’s technology industry was largely controlled by the left-wing Indian government, but when 27-28-year-old Narayan Murthy visited Europe, he realized that the system had to change.
He says that I reached Paris from Amritsar. In Europe I saw four hundred prosperity. The roads were clean. High-speed trains were running at their best. Since then, my faith in left-wing ideas and socialism began to decrease.
“At that point I came to the conclusion that the only way to lift the country out of poverty is to encourage business to create more wealth and employment,” says Narayan Murthy.
Thus Narayan Murthy decided to start his own business.
“I decided to found Infosys in the year 1981 and what happened after that is recorded in the pages of history,” he says.
When Infosys was founded, Narayan Murthy employed six engineers. Two years after its establishment in 1983, his company shifted its headquarters to Bangalore.
Initially, most of Infosys’ clients were American apparel companies, including Reebok.
Millions of computers in America and only a few thousand in India
Infosys developed order management software that allowed an American company to send orders to a garment factory in the forest of Taiwan to make garments.
This software made ordering and paying for products and services much faster and easier.
However, Infosys still seemed unable to make a big name in the technology sector. To make this organization big, he had to start a big fight against India’s bureaucratic system.
“The company started from a bedroom in my apartment,” says Narayan, recalling that time. At that time the company did not have any computers.
“To import a computer, one had to go to the capital Delhi 30 times and it took an average of two to three years.”
This was the situation in India from 1982 to 1984. Taking Infosys forward was a difficult task due to various obstacles. Even after ten years, the income of this company remained at a moderate level.
At that time the company did not grow much due to various government initiatives. In the year 1988, when millions of computers were working in America, the number was only a few thousand in the whole of India.
Bangalore: Journey from a backward city to becoming the ‘Computer Capital’ of India
But in the year 1991, everything suddenly changed. A BBC documentary aired in 1997 showed that Bangalore was very backward till a few years ago, but now the face of the city has completely changed. It has now become the ‘Computer Capital’ of India.
The Indian government adopted a liberal economic policy in 1991, as a result of which other technology companies, including Infosys, were freed from government controls and restrictions.
Thus, these technology companies started developing at a fast pace and entered the global economic system. Soon they started playing a big role in the internet world.
Satellite communication and video conferencing technology have brought companies in different parts of the world as close as if they were face to face.
One such technologist, who worked at Infosys in the mid-nineties, explains how his value soared so suddenly.
“The kind of work I used to do here could easily be done at 30 times less cost,” he said.
Bangalore climbs the ladder of development
Within a few years, Indian technology companies took the lead and at the same time the city of Bangalore came to the attention of the whole world.
Engineers working in this city are highly regarded by technologists around the world.
Infosys officials say that ‘young people in India do not migrate to Western countries in the hope of better salaries, but Western companies look for Indian professionals for all their important positions.’
Infosys was listed on the US stock market on 11 March 1999. Due to which it became one of the leading technology companies in the world. As a result, India’s role in the global economy became stronger.
“The day the company was listed on the Nasdaq, it was the first Indian company to be listed,” says Narayan Murthy. That day I was sitting in one of the offices of the Nasdaq Exchange in Manhattan, New York.
Borrowing a few words from Neil Armstrong, I said that this is one small step for Nasdaq but one giant leap for Infosys and India. I think it was a great day.
The technology revolution
After that there was a technological revolution in Bangalore, but after this change in the city, is the situation similar to the Europe that Narayan Murthy saw on his visit?
“The life of our citizens has become much more comfortable,” he says. Now there are many good hospitals, good educational institutions but are they enough?
“No, it’s still a work in progress, but in the last 30 years we’ve seen big changes that give us hope.” So when I wake up in the morning, I tell myself that we have to work harder because we know that eventually we will see a better India.
Today, Infosys develops software for the world’s largest companies and provides technology consulting to businesses in more than 50 countries.
Narayan Murthy retired from Infosys in 2014 and currently spends most of his time reading books on physics and computer science.