Harsh Goenka sparks debate with tweet on what ‘bright IITians’ did to Bengaluru

RPG Group chief Harsh Goenka has sparked a fiery debate among netizens with an X post on the cost of Bengaluru’s “progress”.

Sharing a photo of Infosys co-founders Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani, he lamented that thanks to “a few bright IITians”, the city had transformed from a “serene haven” into a choked metropolis. Murthy and Nilekani, both IIT alumni, co-founded Infosys in 1981. Bengaluru’s transformation into a global IT hub is largely credited to the company.

“Once upon a time, Bengaluru was a serene haven—morning walks in Cubbon Park, leisurely drives in Premier Padmini, and lazy afternoons spent in quaint bookstores. Then, a few bright IITians got some seed money from their better halves, and now…we spend more time stuck on Outer Ring Road than enjoying the ‘Garden City’ breeze. Progress, they call it!" Goenka said in his post on Friday (March 7).

Not ‘sustainable’ progress

As Goenka’s post went viral, it also divided the Internet. While several users agreed that Bengaluru’s infrastructure could not keep up with its growth, others said the two tech pioneers could not be blamed for that.

“It is progress. Just not a sustainable one,” wrote one user.

Another rued that even though billions have been earned, no products have been invented, no patents have been won, no royalties have been earned, only “sweat shops” have come up. “…40 years wasted…we should have had at least 10 global products,” wrote the user, saying that if India does not focus on research, it is doomed, because the “current state of LLMs [large language models] can replace up to mid-level engineers easily”.

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Another user noted, “Bangalore is one city that had potential...The last 2 decades literally saw the city grow...Even today the roads and infra of the old city i.e. the garden city are better than the ‘developed’ city...Can blame NRN Murthy for throttling innovation in tech...But can’t blame him for pathetic infra of Bangalore...”

The user blamed the politician-builder lobby for encroaching upon lakes and not building roads and infrastructure. “Exploited the city...,” the user summed up.

The other side of the story

However, many others disagreed with Goenka.

“Sir, I think, it was the IT revolution they created in the country, that saw millions and millions of people making their dream careers, in India, no one had ever thought. In a way, they changed the course of the country. Persons from humble background, too can create miracles,” wrote one user in defence of the Infosys founders.

“Their enterprise has spawned lakhs of jobs for middle class qualified people and many have benefited by global exposure and settlement in the US!” wrote another.

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“We can’t have butter on both sides of the bread and eat it conveniently too, Goenka Saheb. I have never seen Bengaluru, not even when it was called Bangalore. The most likely oversight by the town planners of the MCB [municipal corporation of Bengaluru] might have been their decision to permit IT and many other companies to come up either inside the city limits or just adjacent to it. That must be biting the city dwellers now,” another user suggested.

“Every city and even small towns face this problem. Growth comes with a price. Think and suggest ways to improve the rural economy that can arrest migration,” another user added.