Forging high-tech businesses in a nostalgic old capital called Mysore

Can you have your cake and eat it too? It seems so according to major industrialists, bureaucrats and politicians to transform Mysore into a new ‘angel investor’ capital fired business capital of India all set out to overtake Bangalore, of course, whilst at the same time escaping the ill fate of Bangalore due to unplanned reckless development.

And there is an organized political opposition to these ‘best laid plans of men and mice which often go awry’. The people of Mysore have made their stance clear that they find this lop sided economic development rather anti Kannada. They have united at the grassroots level and have thrown a spanner in the works of those who would deny jobs to ethnic kannadas.

To understand this, we might have to burrow into the hoary past. Initially Mysore was the undisputed capital of the province and not Bangalore. It happened to be the seat of the throne of Tipu Sultan, the undisputed monarch of the southern Indian provinces. However, he happened to be defeated and vanquished in the 4th Anglo – Mysore war by the British and according to the English commissar, the city of Mysore and even its palace was not found to suitable for creating a proxy British capital.

Nevertheless in less than 60-70 years Mysore was transformed by architects, engineers and educators into a lovely garden of learning and governance by the Wadiyars and the Divans.

Yet, with the capital being in Bangalore, Mysore was transformed into a tourist paradise, with its sole income coming from visitors from all parts of India and the globe, wishing to nostalgize the good old days of India’s other worldliness.

The day came when Bangalore became over saturated with over development to meet the housing demands of the IT professionals. This recklessness led to poor planning even when it came to sewage and hygiene in civil engineering. The Puttenhalli floods promptly come to mind, as regards this situation in particular.

The focus of businessmen shifted southwards since, because sky rocketing prices of real estate realties of different descriptions made it rather impossible to operate from and generate a mutual profit.

The net output of Bangalore in terms of software exports were 1 lakh Crore this year and has been 2,500 Crore for Mysore. The only tier-2 city that approaches Mysore is Bhubaneswar in Orissa. However this has created a major demographic shift due to which, the local populace is aggrieved and has xenophobic sentiments.

Nevertheless, the government has applied a soothing balm of financial investments for these ills. A huge budding sector of urbanization is underway and enables locals as well as ‘outsiders’ to win together. After all the locals are the legal possessors of the land, and due to private venture efforts, today investors with deep pockets from other parts of Karnataka and India are investing in land that will be extremely profitable for both of the parties.

There will always be competition between companies and rumors indicate that the kannadas might not be able to afford these plans. In addition they believe that Mysore’s splendid horizontal architecture like Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia; might turn into a jungle of shoddy glassy skyscrapers.

In assurance, the government has initiated schemes and a construction of a massive 6 lane highway between Bangalore and Mysore.

So, given these contradictory facts, how do we preserve the golden heritage of Mysore?

The first fact to keep in mind is that the people of Mysore would really love from the bottom of their hearts to possess the riches of the Bangaloreans. Yet, Mysore, given its Omni presently attractive wide footpaths, well planned layouts, gardens, roads and over 250 heritage structures and of course the reputation of being a royal city; would hate to a concrete jungle.

And come to think of it, that would be appalling.

Still, the companies who would wish to urbanize Mysore, private and governmental, want the same thing. In certain countries like Singapore, the new blends with the old seamlessly, so why not Mysore? Both parties agree on that point and strongly feel that had Bangaloreans the foresight that the people & corporates of Mysore possess, the quintessential building block of Bangalore’s economy, the concrete IT professional’s cube, would not come to pass.

Important organizations that echo this are the Confederation of Indian Industry, amongst many others. In fact, Kris Gopalakrishnan, immediate past president of CII and co-founder and non-executive chairman of Infosys Pvt. Ltd. expressed these same sentiments. R. Chandra Prakash, a retired Professor of Commerce, of the University of Mysore, who has worked on urban development issues, and Bhamy V. Shenoy, founder of Mysore Grahakara Parishat, both founders of activist groups are raising serious issues about this. However we need to keep two things in mind, the people that they represent may not be business savvy, and there may be vested competitor corporate interests behinds these opinionated arguments.

These opinions are true to a quite large extent even being rather contradictory sometimes, but here are some practical solutions.

The massive 2,500 Crore revenue generated can go into rejuvenating the core center of Mysore comprising of Amba Vilas Palace, Jaganmohan Palace, K.R. Circle, Dufferin Clock Tower, Town Hall and Deva raja market amongst many other beloved places which evoke nostalgia.

The problem here is that, according to Mr. Chandra Prakash, the planning committee, instead of pushing the business infrastructure to the periphery and preserving the center, has mis-mashed both into one hybrid area. This is disastrous. The tourism industry would be cut off like water from a faucet or tap.

N.S. Rangaraju, a retired Professor from the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, from the University of Mysore, who was also a member of the Heritage Sub-committee, believes that “nothing less than a straight legislation is necessary for the protection of Mysore’s Grand legacy as 3.5 million visitors from all over the world, fuel the tourist industry which keeps the wheels of the economy burning.”

C.G. Bethsurmath, The commissioner for archeology, museums and heritage, has said that these laws were in the final stages of getting approval. Mysore has many beautiful landscapes like Chamundi hills, and lovely lakes like Kukkarahalli, Lingambudhi, Karanji and Dalvoy — are today facing the challenge of extinction.

The future of Mysore may seem a gray scale of cloud and fuzziness, but remember, every cloud has a silver lining, and men and women of all walks of life in Mysore are united in making this great little city the royal seat of power it – in the yesteryears of Kings ship and nowadays of business giants.

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