An Electronics City Guide

Electronics City is a vast industrial complex in India, spanning more than 1.3 square kilometers in land area. Located in Konappana Agrahara and Doddathogur villages, Electronics City is just a few minutes drive from Bangalore. The complex is comprised of more than one hundred different companies, many of which are undisputed giants in the IT industry. Among the companies that have offices in the Electronics City are Wipro, Hewlett Packard, Patni Computer Systems, CGI, and Yokogawa Electric.

Electronics City was the dream project of R.K. Baliga, who served as the first Chairman of Karnataka Electronics as well as the Managing Director of its Keonics division. Baliga planned Electronics City with the idea of making Bangalore India's own Silicon Valley after the famous industrial area in the United States. Baliga was unfortunately unable to see his plans come to full bloom, having passed away before the city's completion.

After the passing of Baliga, much of the impetus in developing Electronics City into the outsourcing capital of the world that it is today lay in the liberalization efforts spearheaded by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in the 1990s. It was from this period that Electronics City as we know it took its first bold steps into industrial superiority, and the rest...as they say...is history.

The late 1990s brought about the passing over of Electronics city to ELCIA or the Electronics City Industries Association by the Keonics group.Representatives from all divisions were then assigned to implement local governance and management policies.

Electronics City is currently comprised of three phases, the aptly named Phase I, Phase II and Phase III. With the development of Phase II of the complex, Electronics City experienced a considerable increase in the number of companies breaking ground in the area. Unfortunately, this also caused a corresponding worsening in the traffic conditions leading to Bangalore. In order to ease the traffic, construction work on an elevated road was started in late 2004. The project of the Indian government, the road was an indication that big plans were still in the making for Electronics City.

Many people feel that the construction of this road can only result in good things, especially since more and more companies have expressed interest in opening up offices in the complex. With the establishment of offices and facilities by such heavyweights as Sasken, Convergys, Audi, BMW, Honda, General Motors and many others, Electronics City is definitely in a position to benefit from newer and bigger development projects.

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