City of shadows : slums and informal work in Bangalore / Supriya RoyChowdhury.

"As India's Silicon Valley, at the core of Bangalore's core economic dynamism is the export of Information Technology and related industries, surrounded by multinational banking, finance, venture capital, start-ups, real estate, and the concomitant appearance of luxury concepts in services. A new, tech savvy, cosmopolitan and ultra-consumerist middle class has gained from, as well as contributed to, these channels of economic dynamism. Spill-over effects have resulted in expansion of opportunities of employment and earnings, particularly in the lower rungs of services for hitherto disadvantaged groups but there is also a growing presence of an urban underclass, excluded from the city's growth channels. This book looks at such channels of both exclusion and inclusion. The informal structure of work and earnings - stemming from the character of the city's political economy - hold the key to understanding the issue of urban vulnerabilities. This work raises questions, grounded in field-based findings, about the currently pursued model of industrial development and mainstream understanding of urban poverty"-- Provided by publisher