The Corporation and the Panchayat. Negotiations of knowledge in an Indian Technology Park

South East of Bangalore, Karnataka, India. This is the location of the
technological and industrial district known as Indian Silicon Valley, identifying
the area around Electronics City. A new suburb of Bangalore, E-City has been
dramatically developing in the last twenty years, experiencing an expansion
so fast and intense to call for a redefinition of the legal and administrative
competences required by its management. E-City has been chosen by the
majority of international corporations as a location of their Indian branches.
E-City is also the location of the Research & Development Department of the
US based corporation where I developed my fieldwork. The paper describes
the reasons, both scientific and economic ones, that led the corporation to
delocalize its R&D in India, and the long-term effects that such decision is
bearing on the entire territorial, human and urban development. E-City
administration, shared among the traditional institution of Panchayat and
the association of industry managers, has entered into a conflicting phase
with the City Council of Bangalore, about crucial matters like primary
resources management and distribution. The paper stresses how the
processes of knowledge production, management and transfer cannot be
understood within predefined disciplinary bounds, being strongly affected by
local socio-economic constraints that make them useful, effective or
im/possible.