Bengaluru, October 23, 2025 – Karnataka's IT sector notched a triumphant milestone today, with software and services exports soaring to ₹5 lakh crore for the fiscal year 2024-25, underscoring the state's unyielding dominance as India's Silicon Valley amid global digital demand. Yet, the euphoria was tempered by stark warnings from industry titans, who flagged a looming 15% talent exodus from Bengaluru's key hubs like HSR Layout, attributing the crisis to chronic infrastructure delays that have turned the tech epicenter into a traffic-choked quagmire of unfinished flyovers, metro snarls, and perennial flooding.
The export figures, unveiled by the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) in a virtual briefing, mark a robust 22% year-on-year leap from the ₹4.11 lakh crore recorded in 2023-24. In USD terms, the haul equates to approximately $60 billion, propelling Karnataka's share to over 40% of India's total IT remittances and fueling a ₹25,000 crore ripple in ancillary sectors like logistics and real estate. "This is a testament to our engineers' ingenuity and Bengaluru's magnetic pull on global innovation," exulted Minister for Large and Medium Industries MB Patil, crediting the growth to AI-driven outsourcing booms from U.S. and European clients, alongside policy perks like the Karnataka IT Policy 2024-29 that dangles ₹1,000 crore in startup incentives.
Yet, beneath the numbers lies a brewing storm. NASSCOM, the apex IT industry body, released a concurrent survey of 500 firms revealing that unresolved delays in HSR Layout – Bengaluru's bustling nerve center hosting over 200 tech parks and 3 lakh professionals – could trigger a 15% attrition spike by mid-2026. "Talent is voting with their feet," declared NASSCOM president Debjani Ghosh in an exclusive interview. "We've seen a 12% uptick in job switches to Hyderabad and Pune already this quarter, driven by HSR's nightmare: 45-day metro closures on Outer Ring Road service lanes, the Ejipura Flyover languishing since 2020, and flash floods that paralyzed the area just two weeks ago." The poll, spanning giants like Infosys and Wipro to mid-tier players, pegged commute times in HSR at an average 90 minutes daily – up 30% from pre-pandemic levels – with 68% of respondents citing "livability erosion" as the top quit factor.
HSR Layout, envisioned as a gleaming IT suburb in the 1990s, now epitomizes Bengaluru's civic paradox. Recent monsoons exposed glaring lapses: On October 9, intense rains submerged key arteries, stranding buses and autos in gridlock and forcing techies to wade through knee-deep sludge to offices. The Namma Metro's Yellow Line extension, 14 years in the making and crawling at a glacial 7 km per year, has triggered temporary roadblocks near HSR, with the Outer Ring Road service lane shuttered until mid-November for viaduct work. Add to that the double-decker flyover at the Central Silk Board junction – delayed by design tweaks and night-hour curbs – and the result is a pressure cooker: A 2025 BBMP report estimates ₹500 crore in annual productivity losses from traffic alone in the 560-acre layout.
Voices from the trenches amplify the alarm. "My team lost three senior devs last month – one to remote work in Coimbatore, citing HSR's 'unlivable chaos,'" shared Accenture VP Priya Rao at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) roundtable. Echoing her, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw – fresh off her October 21 parley with Deputy CM DK Shivakumar – tweeted: "Exports hit ₹5L cr? Bravo. But without fixing HSR's infra black hole, we'll bleed talent like a sieve. Wake up, BBMP!" The post garnered 50,000 likes, underscoring a groundswell of frustration among the 1.5 million IT workforce.
The state government, under fire, pledged swift action. Shivakumar, during a site visit to the beleaguered Ejipura Flyover yesterday, announced a ₹2,500 crore "HSR Revival Package" – including expedited metro commissioning by Q2 2026 and stormwater drain upgrades to combat flooding. "We've sanctioned ₹1,200 crore for ORR widening; delays are legacy sins, but we're atoning with alacrity," he asserted, flanked by BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar. Patil added that a "talent retention task force" with NASSCOM input would roll out flexi-work subsidies and housing rebates for HSR residents.
Economists, however, urge deeper surgery. "Karnataka's IT engine hums at $150 billion services exports this year, but infra bottlenecks cap growth at 15% versus potential 25%," noted IIM-Bangalore's Prof. Rajnish K Singh in a policy brief. With rivals like Telangana luring firms via seamless Hyderabad corridors, the 15% exodus projection – equating to 45,000 jobs – could shave ₹50,000 crore off future exports if unheeded.
As Bengaluru's skyline pierces the post-Diwali smog, today's milestone masks a stark crossroads: Celebrate the ₹5 lakh crore windfall, or invest in the roads, rails, and resilience that keep the talent – and the tech tide – flowing. For HSR's harried hackers and coders, the code is clear: Fix the bugs, or face a system crash.
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