Bangalore's Boomtown Blues

By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News, Bangalore

Nitesh Shetty may be Bangalore's youngest property billionaire.

Aged 30, he has 4,000 apartments under construction in the city, with plans to expand his operations into Calcutta, Mumbai and New Delhi.

And he has just sealed a $100m deal with Citigroup to build Bangalore's latest luxury hotel, the Ritz Carlton.

Having dropped out of university to pursue a career as a tennis pro, he began his career by selling billboard space in Bangalore, after getting a 10,000 rupee ($226, £115) loan from his mother.

At 23, he borrowed 500,000 rupees ($11,000) to turn a house in central Bangalore into an office block.

The home was owned by an old widow, and he gave her a 50% stake in the venture.

He then persuaded the bank to rent the ground floor - which covered his interest payments - and he never looked back.

Mr Shetty told the BBC there was no shortage of foreign investors eager to take a stake in India's real estate boom.

He has named all his luxury apartment complexes after famous US locations, such as Times Square, Key Biscayne, and Forest Hills (the US Wimbledon), and has hired the Australian cricketing legend Shane Warne to promote his properties.

Hi-tech boom

In the 1990s, when the Indian government decided to liberalise the economy and encourage the IT services industry, Bangalore established special zones such as Electronic City - a hub of hi-tech firms.

But its highly educated, literate workforce prompted the government to locate its defence and space research here in the 1960s.

Today the Bangalore boom is based on its attractiveness as the centre of India's IT industry, which is enjoying unprecedented growth as foreign multinationals rush to outsource their back-office functions to India.

The city's population has grown from 1.6m in 1970 to 2.8m in 1990 and 6.5m today, making it India's fastest growing city, and planners expect it to reach 10m by 2015.

India's IT sector employs 1.3 million people directly, and 3 million indirectly - and 40% of the IT sector is concentrated in Bangalore.

Bangalore also has the highest average income in India, and the jobs are plentiful, with Infosys expected to hire thousands this year.

Out on the town

The spirit of affluence pervades Bangalore.

Civil servants... are not good at managing big projects on time and on budget says K Jairaj
City commissioner

There are six new shopping malls, and luxury car showrooms like BMW are springing up everywhere.

The young, well-paid worker likes to go out on the town, and restaurants and bars are doing a roaring trade, with 500 new bars in the city alone and dozens of cafes.

With a new bar opening every week, owners cannot get enough staff.

That's good news for the head barman at the newly opened Le Rock pub, who has been hired at double his previous salary.

And there has been a boom for taxi firms as the IT companies all pay them to transport their workers to and from their offices, given the hopeless inadequacy of the public transport system.

Not that the new-found wealth always filters through.

Raj Singh came from Tamil Nadu 15 years ago to work as a taxi driver.

He still sends half his salary to his mother back home, and visits her two weekends a month, travelling for 15 hours on three buses.

But if his wages are higher, so is his rent. He cannot afford to live in Bangalore, and it costs half his salary even to rent a room in a village 30 miles away.

And many of the thousands of construction workers who have to build the new apartments and offices live in squalor in makeshift roadside tents that sit uneasily among the city's glamour.

Weekend breaks

The hi-tech industry has also introduced a new phenomenon in Indian life for those who are on-the-up - the weekend break.

Affluent IT workers like to get away from the city.

Previously, everyone spent six days a week in the office, but the high-paid IT workers only do five.

With their high-stress jobs, they are increasingly interested in getting away from it all.

And into the breach has stepped Santosh, a trekking guide.

His web-based travel agency, Getoffurass.com, specialises in finding weekend hideaways in the jungle, and is doing a roaring trade.

Santosh told the BBC that the biggest change was that now he was leading Indians, not Westerners, in treks across the Himalayas.

Infrastructure woes

Bangalore's public infrastructure has lagged woefully behind the pace of private sector investment.

Every Bangalore IT company has to have a private generator and uninterruptible power supply to cope with the daily power failures of the grid.

Despite 15 years of lobbying, the 5km stretch of road linking Electronic City to the city centre is still crammed with bullock carts, trucks, cars and two-wheelers despite a private-public partnership to fund a new expressway.

And its international airport has an antiquated terminal far too small for the hordes of international businessmen flooding into the city - and the frenzied search for luggage as people gather five-deep around the single luggage carousel sometimes prompts emotional - and occasionally physical - outbursts.

Bangalore's city commissioner, K Jairaj, told the BBC that untrammelled growth could not go on indefinitely, with five million vehicles already clogging the roads and property prices going through the roof.

The government's policy is to decentralise development - building new towns on green field sites surrounding the city.

Mr Jairaj also said that, in order to generate more jobs, the government wanted to encourage more labour-intensive sectors like car manufacturing to locate in Bangalore, and would not resist plans to disperse IT jobs to more cities in India.

But he said his greatest problem was the weakness of his own civil servants, who were not good at managing big projects "on time and on budget."

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Terror suspect visited Infosys, Wipro

January 06, 2007, Rediff.com

The suspected Pakistan-trained militant, who was arrested from Bangalore outskirts, had visited Infosys and Wipro to find out the security arrangements there for a possible terror strike as per instructions of top insurgents in Pakistan with alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba links, his questioning revealed.

Police recovered 1 AK-56 rifle, 200 rounds of ammunition, 5 hand grenades, 2 magazines of AK-56 and 1 charger for satellite phone from his rented house at Ranipet in Bellary district, City Police Commissioner Neelam Achyut Rao said.

Rao said the 34-year-old terrorist Bilal Ahmed Kota alias Imran Jalal alias Salim, was asked by his "bosses" (top insurgents in Pakistan with alleged LeT links) to visit the offices of Wipro and Infosys and Bangalore airport to find out the security arragements at these places, and to report back.

Bangalore brokers turn developers in real estate explosion

Ranju Sarkar, HT

In the twists and turns of the nation’s real estate boom, bigger city builders are going national, while local brokers are turning into developers.

Bangalore broker Feroze Estate & Properties has become a developer. ‘‘Every builder today was once upon a time a trader or a real estate broker. I am developing my own property and will retain it,’’ says Feroze Abdulla, who has just leased 150,000 square feet to the Reliance group at Prestige Feroze in the technology capital’s plush Cunningham Road, where property prices have risen three-fold in three years.

Delhi-based Parsvnath also started as a real estate broker, and is an idol for many agents. ‘‘Broking is more of liaison. There is no great value addition except bringing the two parties together. In real estate, you need a lot of technical knowhow, say, on how you provide noise installation on floors or tackle the leakage problem,” says an industry expert. Hospitality player Panoramic Universal is now a real estate aspirant. ‘‘These are two different sectors. I can understand when a real estate guy gets into retail – there’s synergy. But moving from hospitality to real estate could be dicey,’’ said Susil Dungarwal of Bangalore-based Prestige group. But such comment from entrenched players does not deter firms like Panoramic, which is planning to raise $12 million through a global depository receipt (GDR) issue, after announcing its foray into real estate and getting listed on the National Stock Exchange in addition to BSE.

"We are not in the valuation game. The money is being raised for the hospitality business. The announcement on real estate was made to inform the stock exchange. We need to get the board approval and amend the MoU, before we get into real estate," says Panoramic’s chief financial officer (CFO) Utpal Parekh.

Not everyone is worried about such furious expansion. ‘‘This is not similar to the IT/dotcom story, where the valuation method was unreal. Real estate is an asset-based business, where the promoter puts in his money to grow the business. It is a mixed bag. You have to examine each case individually,’’ said Jaidev Mody, director, Peninsula Land, a Ashok Piramal Group firm, which recently raised Rs 160 crore for local investors.

Techie Adhip Lahiri’s murder cracked; 2 held

Times News Network
Picture: Md Asad

Culprits Wanted To Lead Lavish Life; Police Discount Professional Rivalry

Bangalore:
Motive: Murder for gain
Victim: Adhip Lahiri, a software professional
Accused: J Raju and Venkatesh, former employees of IT companies
Clue: Killers used Lahiri’s credit card to buy a cellphone and SIM card

The Adhip Lahiri murder case has been solved and two former employees of ITPB have been arrested. Adhip Lahiri was found murdered on December 22. He was killed the previous night in his car and the killers had dumped the body near a water tank in Garudacharpalya.

The accused are J Raju, who worked as a transport supervisor and Venkatesh, a security guard. Both of them worked at ITPB premises, Whitefield, in the past. The police have discounted the theory of professional jealousy as alleged by Lahiri’s family. Police commissioner Achutha Rao on Saturday said Lahiri’s killers were working for two different IT companies. Thirty-two-year-old Lahiri, worked for i-2G software and as an outsourced project person for Infeneon at ITPB.

The killers were caught based on the transactions they had made on a credit card belonging to Lahiri. They had snatched credit and debit cards along with a laptop and a cellphone from Lahiri before killing him. The killers used the credit card to buy a cellphone and SIM card. This helped the police to trap them.

The police, who had kept a close watch on the transactions made on Lahiri’s cards, learnt about this purchase. Acting swiftly, they monitored the calls made and received on the cellphone. The police team, led by joint commissioner Gopal B Hosur, laid the trap. Achuta Rao said: “After work on December 21, Lahiri, a native of Kolkata, left ITPB at around 9 pm in his car. The killers followed him in another car from the ITPB gate. Lahiri was not their specific target and he was picked up randomly. Initially, they wanted to rob him and they had no intention of killing him. The duo wanted to lead a luxurious life by targeting techies.”

“After following him up to some distance, the killers created a scene of accident near Sri Sathya Sai general hospital on Varthur road and forced Lahiri to stop his car and get down in an isolated place. They sprayed pepper powder on Lahiri’s face and shoved him on the back seat. They overpowered him, tied his hands and legs and gaged him using a scotch tape. The killers left their car near the hospital and drove Lahiri’s car after robbing credit cards, cellphone and other valuables. They forced Lahiri to reveal the PIN numbers of the cards.”

“When the car reached Whitefield railway level-crossing, Lahiri tried to shout for help. The killers smothered him to death and took his body to Garudacharpalya through narrow lanes, avoiding police picket points on the main road. The duo threw Lahiri’s body near a water tank and sped away.”

“Later, they planned to sell the car outside Bangalore and drove towards Tumkur. However, on seeing heavy police presence on the roads, they abandoned the car near Yeshwantpur and took an autorickshaw to reach Varthur road near their car which they had borrowed from a friend. The killers used the stolen debit cards to withdraw cash from ATM counters and make some purchases in Bangalore and Kolar.”

In the early hours of December 22, Lahiri’s wife Aparna went to Airport road police station and lodged a complaint that her husband had not come home. Later, an unidentified body was found at a water tank near Garudacharpalya and Aparna identified the body as Lahiri’s. Though Aparna had tried to block the card transactions, the cards remained active for some reason and the killers made purchases worth Rs 1 lakh.

According to the police, Venkatesh, who worked as a guard at an IT firm, was removed from his job recently due to misbehaviour. The police have recovered the laptop robbed from Lahiri and also the items which they had purchased using credit cards.

Companies go on a recruitment spree at IIT Bangalore

Times News Network

Bangalore: As many as 25 companies hit the International Institute of Technology, Bangalore, to recruit the seventh batch of students this year. Despite lucrative offers, nine students declined offers, opting to pursue higher studies.

Another 64 students are pursuing the research option in industrial research laboratories like ABB Corporate Research, HP IMS, IBM Software Labs, Motorola Research, Microsoft Research, Nokia and Siemens Research.

IT majors like Amex, SAP, EMC, GE, Novell, BEA, Web Methods and Intel who have been the major recruiters continued their drive at IIIT-B recruiting 52 students.

Another interesting feature of the placement this year is that 26 students joined startup companies like Ziva, Tyfone and niche firms like Techvoyant, Kodiak Networks Fiberlink and Allgo.

Three students will spend their internship of six months at University of Kaiserslautern in Germany and one student, Megha Saini, is going to University of Trento at Italy.

Another student, Abhishek S, will be spending six months in UK working with a company and Kingston University.

Family suspects sinister motive in Techi's Murder

Times News Network

Bangalore: The Lahiris and Mukherjees are still in a state of shock following the robbery and murder of 32-year-old software engineer Adhip Lahiri.

The family feels it was not murder for gain and suspects a sinister motive as Adhip was gagged and bound with ropes and scotch tape. Adhip’s father Arun Chandra Lahiri, a retired deputy chief engineer with LIC, says his son was not the kind of person who was foolish to stop his car while driving through lonely stretches. His office was in ITBP and he lived near Manipal Hospital. He was to leave for Germany on Monday from Kolkata.

Adhip’s credit cards were also robbed at the time of the murder. On Sunday, when the family called the bank to block his credit cards they found that his HSBC card was already blocked. The bank said an attempt was made to use the card around 3 pm on Sunday. After a few unsuccessful attempts at guessing the PIN it may have got automatically blocked, they suspect.

On the fateful night, Adhip’s wife Aparna called him at 11.30 pm. The cell rang for some time. When she tried again later it was switched off. It was then that she panicked and called the police.
Picture 1: File photo of Adhip Lahiri and his wife Aparna
Picture 2: The car in which Adhip was driving back home on Thursday night

Chidambaram fractures toe in Bangalore incident

S. Rajendran, The Hindu

BANGALORE: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram fractured a toe after he tripped and fell off a granite step leading to Koshy's, a restaurant on St. Marks Road here, on Saturday. This followed an incident involving a photographer of The Times of India.

An official press release said Mr. Chidambaram and some members of his family (wife, son, daughter - in - law and grand-daughter) were dining out with some friends when the photographer of a newspaper approached them repeatedly and asked for permission to take photographs. Each time, his request was turned down as the family was on a private visit.

Police sources said there was a scuffle when the photographer of The Times of India attempted to take pictures as the family came out of the restaurant. An attempt was made to snatch his camera and in the melee the Minister tripped and fell.

The press release said that when the family came out, the photographer began clicking away. "Mr Chidambaram's son and his friend objected. In order to avoid the photographer, Mr. Chidambaram moved to the right, but missed a step, tripped and fell down. He suffered a fracture of the toe and a plaster cast has been put on the right foot."

The release said the photographer, and subsequently the Resident Editor of the newspaper apologised to Mr. Chidambaram and his family.

The Minister and his family members arrived here on a private visit two days ago and they were said to have planned a visit to Melkote in Mandya district.

Police sources said that being on a private outing, Mr. Chidambaram was in an attire different from his usual white dhoti and white shirt.

The family was perturbed on noticing the photographer waiting outside and there was a scuffle.

The Minister was thereafter taken to the Manipal Hospital on Airport Road. He has been advised rest for a fortnight.