Chapter 12: Working within Bengaluru’s knowledge economy- for whose benefit? Graduate insights from India’s Silicon Valley

Abstract

Bangalore (from here on Bengaluru) also known as India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ is home to thousands of IT companies and has been for decades. The city, arguably as a result of its exceptional graduate workforce, has established a reputation for providing high-skilled software engineering, data mining and testing for clients globally, across industries. This chapter explores the lives of Indian software engineers, developers, data scientists and applied scientists at the early stages of their careers, working in Bengaluru at leading Multinational companies and startups. It discusses the nature of the work graduates have found themselves undertaking, the perceived level of intellectual stimulation or development this requires, and whether they see it as routine and mundane, or outweighed by more cutting-edge work. The chapter therefore contributes to long standing debates on whether the knowledge economy is or is not democratically distributed. By looking at graduates’ perspectives and educational experiences, the chapter aims to contribute – albeit through subjective standpoints – towards ongoing debates around whether the situation of the knowledge economy in Bengaluru is to its advantage. Specifically, whether there is research and development activity taking place in the city or whether graduates are merely outsourcing code and faced with fragmented task completion.