Namma Bengaluru!

It is fairly routine these days to hear of people stamping Bengaluru as the next 'innovation' hub of the world.No less. I first heard it from my friend Bob Hoekstra, erstwhile chief of Philips in India and an avid admirer of the city.So much so, Bob has gone the extra mile in setting up an innovation centre in India and lives a good part of his life in Bengaluru.I was initially surprised, but see the sense in it now.
Every once in a lifetime there comes a time when things fall into place and as Malcolm Gladwell would say, we are at the 'Tipping Point'. Bengaluru's tipping point has arrived and is well recognized.
One of the contributors to its status as the next Silicon Valley, is its highly educated immigrant population and here it has echoed California's Silicon Valley. What drove innovation in the valley? The immigrants of course!Many Indian!
One could argue that Mumbai has just as many immigrants or more. Maybe true, but the qualitative difference is in the education levels of immigrants in Bengaluru. Few other cities come even within sniffing distance.Innovation needs education of the qualitative kind.
The immigrant is an interesting animal. He does not fear failure because he/she is fairly anonymous in a city which is not theirs. This fosters risk taking which is a vital ingredient for innovation and entrepreneurship. Indians fear failure and a person who fails is anathema to our society. An alien city provides the cover of a protective cloak to try, fail and rise again.
Are there challenges? Sure there are........corruption, resistance from earlier settlers to a changing way of life and so on and the former will have to be tackled and the latter respected.
Bengaluru is a melting pot of success and if you are not here you might just be missing history in the making!