SPI | Media Kit | Feature Articles Archives | Mysore: Investor’s New Destination

From princely palaces to picturesque parks to swanky stores, from quaint neighbourhoods to buzzing thoroughfares, Mysore has seen it all. The changing skyline of the city has grown oblivious of its medieval cultural but is getting on with the upbeat modern times.

It has become a second home for the growing IT, software, engineering and hospitality industry and is all set to take off as the new destination for investment in the industrial sector in Karnataka.

Mysore was the place chosen by the early rulers of the state, it was the centre of administration and continues to be the heritage capital. The city boasts of many magnificent palaces. The state government has taken effort to promote Mysore as an alternate investment destination. One of the advantages Mysore is the proximity to Bangalore. KIADB has developed several industrial estates in and around Mysore, like Belagola, Belawadi, Hebbal, Hootagalli, Nanjangud etc.

Automotive Axles, TVS Ltd, BEML, Reid and Taylor, Nestle, Kirloskar Electric Ltd have their manufacturing facilities in Mysore. In the recent past due to an inevitable situation of overgrowth in Bangalore – industrially and otherwise – Mysore among other towns in Karnataka has been identified as a major city for sweeping industrial investment away from Bangalore.

Mysore also boasts of world renowned institutions like CFTRI, Defence Food Research Laboratory, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing & Central Institute of Plastic Engineering & Technological Research Institute. It also has good educational facilities.

There are currently around 100 large and medium-scale and many more small-scale industries operating in and around Mysore city. The products include automobile spares, pharmaceuticals, electrical goods, engineering and machine components, textiles, chemicals, processed foods, IT products.

Currently the industries that are doing well are IT units, hospitality and automobile ancillary units that are tied up with automobile and engineering majors.

Mysore has a history of being associated with traditional industrial practices, using this as the foundation; it has transformed itself over the years into a destination for modern industries in the manufacturing, service and Information Technology (IT) sectors. Infosys Technologies, Software Paradigm India Pvt. Ltd, Kirloskar Electric Company Ltd, Auto Motive Axles Ltd are some of them.

Interestingly, the IT industry, exploiting the wealth of human resources, has moved to Mysore in a big way. Software Paradigms (India) Pvt. Ltd (SPI), a Mysore-based export-oriented IT unit has over 300 employees in its development centre today. Established in August 1997, SPI has become one of the noted players in the offshore IT space, with achievements such as CMMI-SW Level 5 assessment by KPMG and adoption of Six Sigma practices. It mainly provides business solutions to IT challenges of global corporations, serves as the offshore centre of Software Paradigms International, located in Atlanta, USA.

Specialising in retail, financial services and health care, SPI provides services in new application development, legacy application management, migrations and re-platforming services, data-centric services and BPO. SPI is an ‘Advanced Business Partner’ with IBM.

The company has also been identified as a ‘flagship partner’ for 2005 and will be showcased at IBM Partnerworld. The Government of Karnataka and STPI have acknowledged SPI’s contribution to the IT sector by awarding it with the Certificate of Excellence in IT Exports for 2003-2004. “You must be wondering as to why we have established our offshore centre in Mysore, often referred to as a laid-back city.

The simple reason lies in the fact that basic availability of human resources coupled with a cleaner and greener environment devoid of the overflow effect scores over everything,” says Siddhartha Mookerji, CEO, Software Paradigms International, Atlanta.

SPI started its BPO unit (Specialized Process Innovation Pvt. Ltd.) in 2003 to do the back end work for the support functions, this unit also provides back end customer care and administrative services to US based clients from health care and financial services sectors. “Although government bodies don’t have a sufficient presence, but initiatives from private sectors will bring about a change in the brand image of Mysore. But something must be done about the air-strip, it cannot continue to be a grazing field for cattle,” added Mookerji.

Automotive Axles jointly promoted by the Kalyani Group and the Rockwell Group USA, in the early 80’s (now Meritor Automatic Inc) is located in the Hootagalli Industrial Area, primarily caters to the commercial vehicle industry.

Automotive Axles is the sole manufacturer of complete axle assemblies for high tonnage Commercial Vehicles. It’s customers include Ashok Leyland, Telco, BEML, Volvo, Bajaj Tempo, Eicher among others. The design and marketing of the axle assemblies is handled by Meritor HVS India Ltd, a subsidiary of Arvin Meritor Inc of USA. Today the whole world is looking for outsourcing to India. Rising steel prices is one of the hurdles raced by auto industry. The trend of good financial performance which started in 2002 continues today. Its’ presence in the multi axle segment has helped register good growth.

Indus Valley Ayurvedic Centre, which is situated on 41 acres of land at the foot of Chamundi Hill, started its operations in 1999. It has been attracting people from all over Asia and Europe for various ayurvedic treatments. It is the first ayurveda centre in the world to get the ISO 9001-2000 certification for ayurvedic rejuvenation and cures. “There has been a paradigm shift in the economy of Mysore, with the huge amount of disposable income available. Investors are coming out of the Bangalore mould and looking for less-known places filled with resources,” opines Vinitha Rashinkar, marketing manager.

The engineering sector too has created a strong base in the last few years. Kirloskar Electric Company. Mysore is a unit of the 50 year old Kirloskar Electric Company Ltd, one of the oldest players in the electrical industry in India. Established in 1979, this plant has completed 25 years of operations at Mysore. This plant is an exclusive electronics unit, engaged in manufacturing industrial electronics, switchgear and transformer products. This unit is a multi product set-up with major activities involving design and development, manufacturing and marketing and service of all its products.

“The state government is finally shifting its focus from Bangalore to Mysore and what better news can it be for the entrepreneurs. Bangalore has already established itself as the IT hub and Mysore is emerging as a centre of engineering industry in Karanataka,” emphasizes G.S.Patil, Kirloskar Electric Company Ltd.

The deterrents—bad roads and underdeveloped infrastructure has grabbed the attention of the state government, although the talks for developing an isolated airstrip to a full-fledged airport with international standards seems to go on forever. The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Mysore Zone have been trying to hold talks with the government agencies to speed up the airport project and other necessities for a sound infrastructure.

The historic city of Mysore is all set to don its new avatar as investors make a beeline with their cash boxes jingling. It’s time that stake holders take effective measures to spur Mysore as another centre for industrial growth.