In the past two decades Gurgaon and Bangalore have seen a major surge in IT & ITES business. Bangalore has been christened as the ‘Silicon valley of India’ while Gurgaon is deservingly considered the ‘BPO Capital’ of India.
Gurgaon symbolises ‘India Rising’. It is one of India's fastest-growing districts, having expanded more than 70% during the past decade.
Thirty million plus square feet of commercial space, a more than ten-fold increase from 2001! That’s an indication of the pace at which Gurgaon is moving.
Today, when we look around we see presence of highly respected corporates, swanky malls, world-class hospitals and schools, high-end real estate projects, all juxtaposed with each other.
One finds people not only from different states of India but nationals from all over the globe. All signs of a growth story going so right and so very strong. However Gurgaon’s rapid growth has been organic in nature. There is a vast disparity between the commercial development of Gurgaon and its socio-infrastructural development.
Majority of the commercial development can be attributed to the corporate sector. The private sector can invest, start businesses, but the environment that businesses thrive on is largely the administrative responsibility of civic agencies. Same is true of the quality of life outside work environment as well.
{{/usCountry}}Majority of the commercial development can be attributed to the corporate sector. The private sector can invest, start businesses, but the environment that businesses thrive on is largely the administrative responsibility of civic agencies. Same is true of the quality of life outside work environment as well.
{{/usCountry}}To continue attracting investments, Gurgaon needs to provide the right ecosystem to global investors and businesses to run their ventures competitively. Till now the private sector has shown phenomenal grit and prudence to operate in a not so optimal environment.
The cost of doing business in Gurgaon has been continuously going up because the companies have to invest in backup power generation to running private transport services to get their employees to work amongst other things!
Gurgaon contributes half of the revenue of Haryana. Some proportion of this definitely needs to be put into improving the quality of infrastructure to nourish the industry here and to provide a decent quality of life to its citizens.
One needs good roads, local public transport, uninterrupted power, proper drainage and sewer systems, sanitation, policing and security, colleges and institutes of higher learning etc. All this has to be planned and executed with a vision, which seems to be a bit lacking at the moment. Another area to focus on will be to make the city more ‘livable’. A long-term vision needs to be conceived for Gurgaon and then all our synergies need to be focused on working towards a common goal of making Gurgaon a truly global city ready for the future.
(The writer is managing director of Hughes Systique Corporation)