Not All Indians Happy with the Tech Boom

Mehul Srivastava’s article “Bangalore Backlash” sheds light on the fact that even though the job boom in India’s technology industry has brought new prosperity and spending power to many newly-employed Indians, many Indians who have not seen their lives change significantly through globalization are not happy with the changes India’s culture is experiencing.
Srivastava uses the example of dance clubs and bars in Bangalore that are now required to adhere to a 1967 law that forces them to close by 11:30pm. The reinforcement of this law comes from pressure by older residents who are not happy with the disturbances the tech boom has created in its traditionally calm and peaceful city.
As Robyn Meredith pointed out in “The Elephant and the Dragon”, because the tech boom in India has brought higher paychecks to Indian workers, it has also brought the ability for these workers to spend their paychecks on goods such as cell-phones, cars, motorcycles and houses that they were not able to afford previous to the tech boom. The offshoring movement, as Meredith states, “has been a catalyst for economic growth in India” (88). Not only has it stimulated the tech industry, but also has created growth in restaurants and car and motorcycle factories as companies realize the extent of many Indians’ new spending power.
However, even with this economic growth, many Indians who were left out and did not prosper from the tech boom are unhappy with the culture shift that is taking place in India. Meredith points out this cultural shift, explaining, “millions of young, well-educated Indians live in a world different from that of their parents, who struggled to make ends meet on far lower salaries” (118). It is this class of Indians, the parents and siblings who were left out and still experience poverty, that is complaining. These Indians are angry that the Bangalore government is spending much more effort and money on accommodating the newly prosperous tech workers than its poorer citizens that actually need the help. The government has been building more roads in Bangalore, despite the fact that most of its inhabitants cannot even afford cars to drive on them, in order to get their tech workers to places faster. Many citizens cannot afford housing in Bangalore and thus must resort to living in slums, the very slums described in “The Elephant and the Dragon”, yet instead of building more affordable housing, the government has been constructing apartments that only the wealthy can afford.
The older, poorer citizens of Bangalore believe that the tech industry “commands a disproportionate amount of influence” on the government and is thus spurring government projects that help the rich rather than the poor. On the other hand, the tech industry believes that its influential effects on the government have spurred positive growth in the city and have created thousands of jobs. As Amartya Sen states in “The Elephant and the Dragon”, “whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true”(126). India is grappling with this state of transition, from the poor, older generation, to the new prosperous techies, and only time will tell how it manages its new prosperity.

for the article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_46/b4108053865815.htm