BANGALORE, India -- At a recent roadshow for India's Karnataka state, one proud exhibit was a slide of the cover of Newsweek's issue of Nov. 9, 1998, showing a list of the world's "hottest tech cites." The magazine had chosen 10, of which only two were in Asia -- Singapore and Bangalore, Karnataka's capital.
Visit this southern Indian city -- as I did earlier this year -- and from first impressions you would hardly imagine you were in a technopolis at all, let alone one on the cutting edge.
Bangalore's tiny airport has the ambience of an overcrowded railway station. Its roads are narrow, potholed and clogged with traffic. Later, you discover that water and power supplies are erratic -- and Internet connections temperamental.