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Kranky Geek Bengaluru

Our first WebRTC developer event in India, hosted by Google is Saturday, March 19th

Chris KoehnckeChris Koehncke

We are pleased to announce that we’ll be hosting a Kranky Geek WebRTC event in Bengaluru, India on Saturday, March 19th at the MLR Convention Center. Hosted by Google with support from additional sponsors, this half day fast paced event promises to be our best yet.

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We’re keen to hear from local start-ups or interesting local speakers with a general call for speakers. Interested? Use this Google Form to submit your talk topic. We’ll be glad to hear from you.

Google has been eager to bring this  WebRTC event to Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India based upon interest that the local team has received. However, for many of us, despite our knowledge of India nationals we’ve met along the way, experiences with the food and we may talk about the outsourcing of technology to India, many of us don’t see the powerhouse of developers amassing in India. I’ll admit I’m guilty at my lack of knowledge and despite my own worldwide travels, never have travelled there myself. As I investigate though, I am finding many innovative companies creating new communication applications and technologies.

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It’s not hard to see why Google is keenly interested. India will likely have more developers than the United States by 2018 (according to a recent Evans Data Report). While India, at the time of the report, had 2.75 million developers as opposed to the 3.6m in the US. However, India is expected to have 5.2m by 2018 surpassing the US who will have grown to 4.5m. In short, India is likely to be the largest developer community in the world. You put that many developers in place, something is bound to happen.

San Francisco is a darling, perhaps only in their eyes, with rental for a 1 bedroom apartment in the tech district of SOMA going for $3,359 as opposed to Bengaluru where USD$500-800 scores you a top location. Indeed, the cost of living in Bengaluru is a whopping 75% less than San Francisco. Not surprising, I am finding many companies now who have a handful of people on the ground here while the bulk of their staff are located in India.

Bengaluru is attracting money and ranks 5th in the world list of VC funding, no surprise that San Francisco scored number #1 having raised $13 billion in 2014 while Bengaluru attracted $2.6 billion. However, if you equalize that for  the cost of people/living. Bengaluru starts to look like an equal to San Francisco.

[ecko_contrast]Developers in India are 3-times more likely to be female than developers in the United States, a real nod to diversity in action.[/ecko_contrast]

I’ve been quite ignorant about India but in compiling data for this article, I found that a real powerhouse for technology development exists, that not only is large today but on its’ way to becoming even larger. Now everything is not cherries n’ nuts, India still has many challenges.

India is not the easiest place to transact business. The World Bank ranks it #130 in “ease of doing business”, even China is easier #84 (the US sits at #7). This is obviously a major stumbling point for foreign firms. Bengaluru also suffers from air pollution (current AQI is 154), while I breathe in nice fresh air here with San Francisco’s typical 42 AQI. Clearly, our health counts for something and I’ll happily pay for my expensive SOMA apartment complete with unlimited fresh air.

So with a bit of balance, we’re excited about our first Kranky Geek event in Bengaluru and if you’re interest in speaking or participating, please let us know, fill out the Google form and we’ll be sure to contact you.

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