(Image source from: Bangalore emerges as one of worlds top tech clusters})

A recent publication by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US (MIT) has ranked Bangalore, India's IT capital, as the eighth booming technology innovation cluster in the world.

Silicon Valley, Boston, Israel, Beijing, and three government-supported ventures — Tech City in London, Paris-Saclay in France, and Skolkovo Innovation City, near Moscow bagged the top seven slots.

Technological innovation clusters are places that usually have strong web of interconnected technology companies, customers, and suppliers.

Silicon Valley topped the list owing to parameters like strong and secured IP protection, lenient immigration laws, conducive entrepreneurial culture, and favorable weather — the key aspects behind any burgeoning innovation cluster.

Bangalore emerged eighth in the list owing to its advantageous weather. The magazine revealed that  Bangalore received $300 million in venture funding in 2012.

Mukund Mohan, chief executive officer of Microsoft Ventures in India, deems that Bangalore has the perfect mix of talent, ambitious entrepreneurs and a  booming ecosystem that boosts innovation.

"It has great support from a growing list of venture investors, early-seed investors and smart capital. The city has the right depth of technical talent to scale an organization. The city has many grassroots networking organizations for startups. All these bring together a dynamic, consistent and ever-learning startup ecosystem that makes it easy for new entrepreneurs to take the plunge," he said.

Ravi Gururaj, chairman of Nasscom's product council, said, "Most people tend to think of products when they think of innovation. But there is also innovation in business processes and models — that's the kind of innovation Bangalore has done for the global software industry. Now, we have a high-potential product innovation ecosystem emerging, with a lot of folks feeding off each other, and the emergence of investors and successful entrepreneurs.”

Bangalore's close tie-up with Silicon Valley is a contributing factor to its booming innovation culture. An MIT Technology Review article quoted AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Information, as saying: "Where global technology centres have successfully developed — as in Bangalore — it's been because people 'marinated' in Silicon Valley and then returned home to start companies."

AW: Suchorita Dutta