British Prime Minister Theresa May’s maiden visit to silicon city Bengaluru on Tuesday is expected to boost the brand ‘Bengaluru’ which has taken a beating recently. However, the British Prime Minister is not visiting any Information Technology company which will have a cascading effect on Indian IT sector.
The State Government perceives the visit of May to Bengaluru as a fillip to its brand image. Brand Bengaluru has been deeply hurt because of the recent Cauvery violence, protests over construction of a steel bridge, infrastructure woes, poor rating in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) report and many more to this list.
Karnataka’s Information Technology Minister Priyank Kharge feels the visit of British Prime Minister to Bengaluru would boost the image and also focuses on more British investments to the city. He said “This is the first time after taking over May is exploring beyond the geographical boundaries of EU and the first in the series of foreign tours that are being undertaken by her”.
On May’s preference for Bengaluru over Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmadabad, sources said Bengaluru had been chosen for strategic investment reasons, including its talent pool with regard to new age technology.
Bengaluru already has many British companies which include Rolls Royce and Glaxo Smith Kline. It is significant that after the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel last year, May is visiting Bengaluru as part of her select itinerary.
60-year-old May is on her first bilateral visit outside EU after assuming office in July is expected to take part in five events in Bengaluru on Tuesday. An Indo-British Small and Medium Enterprises delegation will meet May after her luncheon meet with the CEOs. She is also visiting Stonehill International School located on the outskirts of the city.
Over the last 20 years, British PMs, including John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, have visited the campuses of either Infosys or Wipro and interacted with software professionals working in the city. However May is not visiting any software industry but going to Dynamatics Technologies, which is an aerospace and hydraulic pumps manufacturer that runs three factories in the UK and helps generate jobs for the local community there. It ranks among the world’s largest suppliers of hydraulic pumps and also has built a model of generating local jobs in the UK, while off shoring work to India.
IT experts feel May’s skipping of IT companies in Bengaluru is deliberate and part of her conservative Government’s policy to reduce migrants into UK a promise that helped Brexit happen.
Her decision to skip IT sector in Bengaluru comes after her Government tighten the visa rules which is going to hurt Indian IT professionals. The $110 billion Indian software sector will face the wrath of the stricter visa rules but National Association of Software and Services Companies has already warned the move of restricting working professionals would backfire and restrict the growth and productivity of the economy of the UK.