, Columnist
How Much Longer Can India's IT Sector Hide?
Headline-grabbing layoffs could bring unwanted attention to the freewheeling industry.
Infosys and others have thrived in a regulatory blind spot.
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Walk into a coffee shop in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru (formerly and more commonly known as Bangalore) and you’re likely to find it full of young people drawing up business plans or meeting with funders. You’d be forgiven for thinking the city -- once a leafy and cool retirees' paradise, now a gridlocked concrete jungle -- and the information technology industry that propelled it to worldwide fame are thriving.
The picture isn't quite so cloudless, however. For one thing, the pipeline of venture capital that's recently super-charged the city's app economy is drying up. More worryingly, the pillars of its IT industry are looking increasingly shaky.