Opinion | What India’s hi-tech capital can learn from China
Bangalore’s outsourcing businesses may be on the wane, but cities like Hangzhou may indicate its best course for the future
Since the start of the summer, psychologists in Bangalore have been particularly busy due to a swarm of the city’s IT professionals turning to them for advice.
The huge demand from anxious white-collar Indian workers even saw a boom in start-ups providing online counselling services.
Many Indian engineers have been caught off guard by the sweeping layoffs at the heart of India’s Silicon Valley this year – the IT industry not only supports the local economy but is central to the dream many young Indians have of transforming their lives.
According to India’s Frontline magazine, anecdotal evidence from Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and other cities suggests that a number of large IT service companies are shedding thousands of jobs as artificial intelligence, automation and deep learning technologies replace humans.
India, and Bangalore in particular, has previously benefited from IT outsourcing by US and other foreign companies because it can draw on a vast pool of skilled, English-speaking employees.
But it is now commonly accepted that this industry is at a transitional point as its momentum has faded in recent years.