Bengaluru Has a Startup for Every Problem and a Traffic Jam for Every Solution

India’s Silicon Valley Is Building the Tech That Will Fix the City That Building the Tech Has Broken

Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat

Bengaluru: The City That Startups Built and Traffic Destroyed and Startups Are Now Fixing

BENGALURU — Bengaluru is India’s technology capital, home to the Indian operations of most major global technology companies and the headquarters of Infosys, Wipro, and a startup ecosystem that produces more unicorns per capita than any other Indian city. It is also the city with the worst traffic in Asia by multiple rankings, a water crisis that has been five years away from being critical for approximately fifteen years, and a civic infrastructure that has not expanded at the pace of the population it serves.

The startups that have made Bengaluru famous are producing applications, mobility solutions, and urban tech products designed to solve Bengaluru’s problems. There is a startup mapping pothole locations in Bengaluru. There is a startup optimizing bus routes in Bengaluru. There is a startup solving Bengaluru’s water distribution inefficiencies. There are multiple startups offering ride-sharing solutions for Bengaluru’s traffic. The traffic remains the worst in Asia. The potholes remain numerous. The water situation continues to be monitored.

The Urbanization Math

Bengaluru’s population has grown from approximately five million in 2000 to over twelve million today, with the metropolitan area approaching fifteen million. The infrastructure built for five million has been partially upgraded for twelve million. The startup ecosystem that generates billions in revenue has generated less direct investment in the physical infrastructure of the city than the economic growth would suggest as a proportion of GDP. The app that maps potholes does not fill potholes. Powerful tech tools change what we can measure more easily than what we can fix; the digitization of awareness does not automatically produce the physical solutions awareness reveals. Bengaluru knows about all of its problems in real time. The solutions require concrete, which is different from software, and elected officials, who are different from product managers. The city is excellent. The traffic is terrible. Both are permanent features.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/mit-says-llms-are-powerful/

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