These objectives are studied with respect to auto components, electronics, and machine
tool manufacturing SMEs in Bangalore urban and rural districts of Karnataka state in
India. Karnataka was the pioneer in the field of industrialization and an industrially
progressive state in the country. Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka state, is one of
the 46 ‘global hubs of technological innovation’ and the highest ranked global hub in
Asia (UNDP 2001). Among the districts of Karnataka, Bangalore urban and Bangalore
rural districts had the highest proportions of small scale industry (SSI) enterprises
engaged in R&D and innovations. Similarly, among the two-digit level industries (as per
National Industrial Classification 1987) machinery and equipments (35–6) and transport
equipments & parts (37) industries had the highest proportions of SSI enterprises engaged
in R&D and innovations (Bala Subrahmanya et al. 2001). The former comprises
electronics and machine tools industries and the latter includes auto component industry,
among others. The Bangalore region is industrially more developed with a relatively high
concentration of engineering and electronics industries in the country today (Bala
Subrahmanya 2005). Therefore, we felt that the three identified sectors in Bangalore
urban and rural districts would be appropriate and adequate to study the aforesaid
objectives.