Bangalore’s Changing Landscape

NYT has an article about the changing landscape of the IT companies in Bangalore.

These buildings have names from the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, while the rooms within are named after the ancient books of learning, the Vedas. Every morning the Indian flag is ceremonially hoisted on a central flagpole, an unusual practice for businesses here. At lunchtime, the chirping of birds mixes with the chatter of workers in the open spaces. Young men in jeans and polo shirts and women in colorful salwar kameez (an Indian tunic and trouser suit) linger along the stone-paved avenues.

When ITC Infotech set out three years ago to plan its campus, it bucked such trends. Its parent, ITC, a 100-year-old cigarette maker with interests in hotels, apparel and food products, offered its defunct tobacco manufacturing complex in central Bangalore. But one architect after another suggested the same plan: bulldoze the 36 tobacco warehouses and replace them with glass-and-steel high-rises.

One jarring note is the unusual number of smokers on the campus. Unlike other outsourcing firms, where smoking is frowned upon, at this subsidiary of India's biggest cigarette maker the practice is not discouraged. The distinctive marks of the company's ideas have paid off for ITC Infotech in unexpected ways.

I guess all IT firms have earmarked areas for smoking. I don’t quite get the point about IT companies discouraging smoking. If I were the copywriter for the ITC Infotech Recruitment Ad, my caption would be something like this - “Smoking Software Engineers – Please Join us to live life King/Queen Size”.