BANGALORE: Jolted by the serial blasts, tech firms closed down early on Friday and tightened security measures on their campuses.

Wipro employees at Madiwala, where the first blast took place, were sent home early. “Our employees there are safe and as a precautionary measure we have sent them home early. We have beefed up security at all our campuses,” a spokesperson said.
Infosys, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and others swung into action too by intensifying checking on campuses.

“We have arranged transportation of employees to ensure their safety,” an Infosys spokesperson said.

The IT industry, which has long been on the terror radar, denied their foreign clients had got jittery. “We have informed our clients abroad and the incident will not have an impact on our business,” the Infosys spokesperson said.

“We have had worse blasts in the past which did not affect the IT business. These are low-impact blasts and, hence, clients abroad will get very perturbed,” said the chief executive officer of Human Capital Consulting BS Murthy.

“Citizens of Bangalore are concerned about the blast. The government needs to tighten security and create a sophisticated electronic surveillance system as in London,” a senior official of Infosys, T V Mohandas Pai, said.

Three blasts occurred on the road leading to Electronic City where most IT firms are located. A survey conducted by the Central Industrial Security Force in April 2006 revealed that the IT belt was vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Following the report, a proposal to install security gadgets worth Rs6 crore has been accepted by the industry.

Bangalore citizens are concerned about Friday’s blasts and the government should do more to tighten security, a top software industry official said.

“We need to invest more in police and intelligence gathering in the state,” Pai said.