For other uses, see Bangalore (disambiguation). Bangalore Location of Bangalore Location 12.97° N 77.56° E State Karnataka District Bangalore urban Mayor Mumtaz Begum Altitude 920 metres Area 1280 km² Population (2005) 6,532,577 Density 5,103/km² Codes   • Postal   • Telephone   • Vehicle   560 0xx +080 KA-01 to KA-05 Time zone IST (UTC +5:30) Bangalore (Kannada: ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು) (pronounced /'bɛŋgəɫurʊ/ in Kannada and /'bæŋgəlʊɹ/ in English) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is India's 3rd largest city [1] and India's 5th largest metropolitan area [2], with a 2001 population of about 6.5 million . Plans have been announced to change the city's official name to Bengalooru in 2006. [3] After India gained independence in 1947, Bangalore evolved into a manufacturing hub for heavy industries such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Indian Space Research Organization. Within the last decade, the establishment and success of high technology firms in Bangalore have led to the growth of Information Technology (IT) in India. IT firms in Bangalore employ about 30% of India's pool of 1 million IT professionals. The city is also the Training Center for the Indian Air Force, the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) and Central Military Police, the latter two being arms of the Indian Army. Bangalore is the scientific hub of India and it has the world renowned and the oldest Research University, Indian Institute of Science. The other research institutes are the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, the Raman Research Institute, the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, the National Center for Biological Science and the Indian Statistical Institute. Contents 1 Origin of name 2 History 2.1 Plague-Crisis of 1898 2.2 1900s 2.3 Garden City 2.4 Current infrastructure crisis 3 Climate 4 Culture and education 5 Economy 5.1 Manufacturing industries 5.2 Space technology 5.3 "Silicon Valley" 5.4 Biotechnology 6 Urban life 6.1 Airport issues 7 Slum population 8 Bangalore Division 9 See also 10 External links 11 References Origin of name The name Bangalore, is an anglicized version of the Kannada word Bengaluru (IPA /'bɛŋgəɫurʊ/),The earliest reference to the name Benguluru was found in a 9th century Ganga inscription on herostone. This inscription was found in Begur and Benguluru is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought. Most scholars believe that the name has a floral origin and is derived from the tree Benga, also known as the Indian Kino (Pterocarpus marsupium roxb.). A popular anecdote, but one contradicted by historical evidence, tells that Hoysala king Veera Ballala, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across a poor, old woman who served boiled beans. One popular version states, that the grateful king named the place benda kaluru (literally, town of boiled beans), which eventually got corrupted into Bengaluru. The Imperial Gazeteer of British India, states that word of this incident eventually spread and the town that sprang up around the village was eventually called Bengaluru. That town, now called Halé Bengaluru (Old Bangalore) exists to the north of present-day Bangalore, besides Kodigehalli village. It was Kempe Gowda I, who named present-day Bangalore as Bengaluru, since his mother and his wife hailed from Halé Bengaluru. The earliest mention of Bengaluru, is on an inscription from a 9th century commemorative stone, honouring soldiers who fought in battle at Begur village, 14 km south-west of Bangalore. According to this inscription, Begur was then ruled by the Ganga dynasty, which pre-existed the Hoysalas. This negates the claim that Veera Ballala founded the city. On December 11 2005, chief minister Dharam Singh announced that the state government accepted Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy's suggestion to rename Bangalore to its Kannada name, Bengaluru. The new name will be effective from November 1, 2006. History Main article Pottery dating back to 4000 BCE and silver coins of Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius and Claudius have been excavated in and around present-day Bangalore district, but have not revealed much about its then inhabitants. The inscription stone found near Begur reveals, that the district was part of the Ganga kingdom ruled from Gangavadi until 1004 and was known as 'Benga-val-oru', the City of Guards in Telugu. The Cholas of Tamil Nadu captured the city in 1015 AD and collected taxes through the local chieftans until 1116. The district came under the rule of the Hoysalas until the establishment of the Vijayanagara empire in 1336. Kempe Gowda I (1510 - 1570), whose ancestor had immigrated from Kancheepuram to the neighborhood of Bangalore due to a personal feud with the chief of Kancheepuram established the city of Bangalore under the Vijayanagar empire. The document describing the city as he conceptualised it, written in Telugu the commonly spoken language of this region, is still preserved. This language is still spoken in the villages of Bangalore, Yelahanka, Devanahalli, Doddaballapur, Hoskote, Anekal and Hosur districts. After the fall of the Vijayanagara empire, Bangalore changed hands several times. It was captured by the Maratha chief Shahaji Bhonsle, father of Shivaji, then working for the Adil Shahi sultans of Bijapur in 1638. During the seige of Bangalore, Shivaji's elder brother Shambaji was treacherously killed by Shahaji's rivals, led by the Ghorpade of Mudhol, for which Shivaji was to later exact a terrible revenge. After conquering the Sultanate of Bijapur, the Mughals then conquered Bangalore, which was then ruled by Shivaji's brother Vyankoji Bhonsale as a jagir (fief) of Bijapur in 1686; Vyankoji retreated further south. The Mughals in turn leased Bangalore to the subsidiary Kingdom of Mysore's ruler Chikkadeva Rayya Wodeyar in 1689. In 1759, the Wodeyar's Commander-in-Chief Haider Ali made himself the de facto ruler of the Mysore Kingdom, including Bangalore, but maintained the Wodeyars as a figurehead. When Hyder died, his son Tipu deposed the Wodeyar, proclaimed himself Sultan and renamed the kingdom as the Sultanate of Khodadad (Khodadad or Khudadad means "given by God"). However, Tipu's ambitions precipated him into wars with all his neighbors and the British under the then Viceroy and Governor-General Lord Cornwallis defeated him in 1799 and restored the kingdom to the child Mummudi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, whom they found had been reduced to a beggar in a slum in Srirangapatinam. Plague-Crisis of 1898 Bangalore was hit by a plague epidemic in 1898. The epidemic took a huge toll and many temples were built during this time, dedicated to the goddess "Mariamma". The crisis caused by this epidemic catalyzed the improvement and sanitation of Bangalore and, in turn, improvements in sanitation and health facilities helped in modernizing Bangalore. Karnataka High Court. Telephone lines were laid to help coordinate anti-plague operations. Regulations for building new houses with proper facilities of sanitation came into effect. A health officer was appointed in 1898, the city was divided into four wards for better coordination and the Victoria Hospital was inaugurated in 1900 by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy and Governor-General of British India. 1900s In 1906, Bangalore became the first city in Asia to have electricity, supplied by the hydroelectric plant situated in Shivanasamudra. The plague of 1898 also led to the expansion of Bangalore. Basavanagudi (named after the Basaveshwara Temple or the Bull Temple in the village of Sunkenahalli) and Malleshwaram (named after the Kadu Malleshwara Temple in the old Mallapura village) were created during this time. Kalasipalyam (near the old fort) and Gandhinagar? were created between 1921-1931. Kumara Park came into existence in 1947 and Jayanagar in 1948. Bangalore is a former military cantonment that was expanded after 1881 and its streets are named according to military conventions: Artillery Road, Brigade Road, Infantry Road and Cavalry Road. The South Parade (presently Mahatma Gandhi Road) was to the south of the Parade Ground. Within the cantonment area lived a Resident to the Kings of Mysore and his quarters was called the Residency and hence the Residency Road. In around 1883, three developments were added to the cantonment, namely, Richmond Town, Benson Town and Cleveland Town. Today the metropolitan area extends from the Peenya Industrial Area in the west to Indiranagar and Whitefield, India in the east; from Yelahanka Town in the north, to J.P. Nagar in the south. Garden City Prior to developments in the last few decades, Bangalore was a well laid out city with many spacious gardens, which provided it the moniker, the Garden City. It therefore served traditionally as a retreat for people from the surrounding South Indian regions. Pensioners from Madras, Coimbatore, Cochin and, to a lesser extent, [[Hyderabad owned vacation homes in Bangalore and they used Bangalore as a place for retirement, relaxation and rejuvenation, thus giving rise to the other nickname 'Pensioner's Paradise'. Current infrastructure crisis However, development plans for Bangalore in the post-Independence period failed to provide for the infrastructural stresses a modern city would have. This lack of planning, coupled with government corruption, has led to its current infrastructure crisis: the city has been overwhelmed by the growth in population and in haphazard constructions and development of neighborhoods; streets have deteriorated and are inadequate for the traffic, and the city's drainage was not able to cope with the recent heavy rains in October 2005. Demands by the I.T. sector, crucial to the city's economy, for improvement in the city's infrastructure have been met with jingoistic calls for the I.T. sector to employ more Kannadigas. Climate Rainfall and temperature Windspeed, humidity, sunshine and evaporation Bangalore is situated in the Deccan Plateau, with an average elevation of 920 m above sea level. Due to its elevation Bangalore enjoys a pleasant and equable climate throughout the year. The highest temperature recorded is 38.9 °C (102.0 °F) on May 22,1935 and the lowest is 7.8 °C (46.06 °F) in 1884. Winter temperatures rarely drop below 12 °C (54 °F) and summer temperatures seldom exceed 38 °C (100 °F). [4] [5] Bangalore receives about 900 mm of rain annually, the wettest months being September, October and May in that order. The summer heat is moderated by fairly frequent thunderstorms and occasional squalls cause power outages and local flooding. The heaviest rainfall recorded in a 24 hour period is 179.7 mm recorded on October 1, 1997. Most of the rainfall occurs during late afternoon/evening or night and rain before noon is infrequent. October of 2005 has been recorded as one of the wettest months in Bangalore with heavy rains causing some limited flooding and closure of a number of organisations for over a day.[6] Culture and education Statue of the founder Indian Institute of Science, J N Tata Bangalore is the largest city in the state of Karnataka and is a cosmopolitan city. Kannada, the state language of Karnataka. Many people are fluent in more than one language. Kannadigas form over 45% of Bangalore's six million population. Other major languages spoken include Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Bangalore is home to the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM, Bangalore), the National Law School of India University, Bangalore Medical College, St. John's Medical College and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences. All of these institutions are renowned for their academic excllence - the National Law School is consistently ranked as the top law school in the country, and both St. John's and Bangalore Medical College are consistently ranked among the top ten medical schools in India. There are several excellent secondary schools in Bangalore. The historic Bishop Cotton Boys' School and it's sister institute, the Bishop Cotton Girls' School, are colonial boarding schools on St. Mark's Road. The "high-status" Mallya Aditi International School, one of the most discerning and selective schools in southern India, is also a prominent school in Bangalore. Economy The Vidhana Soudha is the seat of Karnataka's Legislative assembly One of the important factors spurring Bangalore's growth was that the Central Government invested heavily in public sector industries in Bangalore, partially due to the fact that it is geographically disconnected from India's rivals Pakistan and China. This led to the concentration of technical and scientific manpower in Bangalore, and is a factor in leading the "IT revolution" in Bangalore. Newsweek proclaimed Bangalore to be one of the 12 "Capitals of Style", along with Paris, London and Los Angeles. Manufacturing industries Long before Bangalore was called the Silicon Valley of India, the city made its name as headquarters to some of the largest national heavy industries of India. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) headquarters was based in Bangalore, and was for the most part dedicated to R&D activities for indigenous fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Today, HAL develops and maintains an impressive fleet of fighter aircraft and trainers for the Indian Airforce including Sukhoi 30 Flankers and Jaguars. Airshows showcasing inventories from HAL and international corporations such as Sukhoi, Lockheed Martin, Mirage, and BAE Systems are held at the Yelahanka Airforce base near Bangalore once every two years. The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) is also headquartered in Bangalore and is dedicated to the development of aerospace technologies. NAL has a staff strength of over 1,300 employees and often works in conjunction with HAL. Space technology In June 1972, the Government of India set up the Space Commission and Department of Space (DOS). India's premier space research organization, the ISRO was created under the DOS and headquartered in Bangalore. The main objective of ISRO includes development of satellites and launch vehicles. Aryabhata, India's first satellite, was developed and successfully launched by ISRO. Since then, the organization has successfully launched numerous other satellites such as Bhaskara, Rohini, APPLE, and the INSAT series, and successfully deployed PSLVs and GSLVs. ISRO also heads India's ambitious moon program. Bangalore is also a major manufacturing base and houses such public sector manufacturing giants as Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited (BHEL), Bharat Electronics Limited, Indian Telephone Industries(ITI), Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) as well as large private sector manufacturers like Volvo India, Toyota. "Silicon Valley" International Tech Park, Whitefield, Bangalore International Tech Park Bangalore by night Infosys Technologies headquarters Bangalore is called the "Silicon Valley of India" due to the large number of information technology companies located there. Many multinational corporations, especially computer hardware and software giants, have operations in Bangalore. Electronics City, located in the southern outskirts of Bangalore, is an industrial park spread over 330 acres (1.3 km²). Whitefield, located in the northeastern outskirts of the city is another technology hot spot. The government has plans to develop a Information technology corridor linking Whitefield and Electronics City. Over 200 Information Technology corporations have facilities in Bangalore. At the peak of the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, Koramangala - a suburb of Bangalore, was believed to have had the highest density of telecom software companies per square mile in the world. Infosys and Wipro, India's 2nd and 3rd largest software companies, are headquartered here and are now billion-dollar companies, expecting to reach 2 billion in 2005. In August of 2005, however, the Bangalore Forum for IT (BFIT), which consists of 18 major multinational IT firms including Texas Instruments, Philips, Novell, vMoksha, Synopsis, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola, threatened to boycott the Bangalore IT in convention. The proposed boycott was designed to send a loud signal to the city government that the infrastructure is in shambles and that it is becoming increasingly difficult for international standards to be maintained with the poor roads and traffic managment problems. Increasingly new IT centers are being built away from this city based upon long commute times, poor infrastructure, high land and labor costs, increasing environmental problems, and due to labor retention issues. Still, many young IT'ers see Bangalore as the Mecca of the Indian IT world, and are happy to endure bunking in cramped quarters and enduring long, smog-filled commutes, as the city is considered the stepping stone to plum positions abroad.And according to latest news from A.M.D. The worlds second largest chip manufacturing company,its setting up a new F.A.B city in bangalore, the city which is already known for its hi-tech environment and infrastructure.there are other competators in this race but their main drawback or lackness is the history of I.T. F.A.B means its the procss and manufacturing of making chips(semiconductors).The bangalore city already has around 3 lakh software engineers and over 200 information technology corporations.information provided by devraj ankalagi(bangalore) Biotechnology Biocon, headquartered in Bangalore, is one of India's largest biotechnology companies. Biotechnology is a growing field in the city. Bangalore accounts for at least 97 of the approximately 240 biotechnology companies in India. Interest in Bangalore as a base for biotechnology companies stems from Karnataka's comprehensive biotechnology policy, described by the Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology [7]. In 2003-2004, Karnataka attracted the maximum venture capital funding for biotechnology in the country - $8 million. Biocon, headquartered in Bangalore, is the nation's leading biotechnology company and ranks 16th in the world in revenues. Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) which is initiated by Biotechnology vision group, ICICI, Biocon which is located in ITPL is trying to shape revolutionary scientists in the field. Like the software industry which initially drew most of its talent from the local public sector engineering industries,the biotechnology industry had access to talent from the National Center of Biological Sciences(NCBS)and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Urban life Bangalore is known as the "Garden City of India", and there are many public parks, including the Lal Bagh and Cubbon Park which attract a lot of people, tourists and locals alike, especially over the weekends. The URBAN locals are generally referred to as Bangaloreans and the definition permeates class, religion and even language. Bangaloreans are mostly first or second generation migrant populations. Bangalore has significant proportions of groups that would otherwise be considered minorities in India, including Muslims, Christians and Anglo-Indians specifically in the cantonment area set up by the British. It is suspected that Bangalore will lose out to competition from other cities like Chennai and Hyderabad. Bangalore may be Bangalored is the phrase oft-used to described the above [8]. Bangalore's infrastructural woes have led to protests by students and IT workers in the city. In July 2004 Wipro's Azim Premji threatened to pull his company out of the city unless there was a drastic improvement in infrastructure over the next few years. There have been conflicts of interest between the goals of the state government, which caters to the interests of all Karnataka, as opposed to the goals of Bangalore. In 2005 the Central and State Governments allocated sizeable funding from their annual budgets towards the improvement of Bangalore's infrastructure. The new international airport and the planned metro system will be funded. The State Government also announced plans to improve the city's roadways and introduce new traffic management plans. Airport issues The HAL Airport has been an issue of contention between successive State and Central governments and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The city's roads were not designed to accommodate the massive traffic that now prevails in Bangalore. As the city expands and absorbs other towns into it, the necessity for proper planning and road infrastructure to commute through the city increases. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited owns and operates the current airport that is used for commercial civil aviation by the Government of Karnataka. Most airports are controlled by the Airports Authority of India. This led to a prolonged three way tussle for operational ownership between the HAL, the Government of Karnataka and the Indian Air Force, which tests many of its indigenous aircraft there. Eventually a full scale international airport is planned at Devanahalli, 30 kilometers from Bangalore. The project, initially conceived in 1991, was repeatedly delayed due to red tape and tussles between the private companies involved and the Central and State Governments. Clearance for the construction of the $288 million airport was eventually granted in June 2004. The major stakeholders of this project include Siemens-Zurich Airport-L&T consortium, Airports Authority of India and Karnataka State Investment and Industrial Development Corporation. Construction work on the airport began in March 2005. Direct international flights to Bangalore are currently limited. Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France serve Bangalore with nonstop flights from Frankfurt, London and Paris respectively. SriLankan Airlines, Air India, Indian Airlines, Gulf Air, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways also fly direct to many parts of Asia including Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangkok, Bahrain, Dubai, Sharjah and Muscat. Liberalization has also meant an increase in the number of domestic carriers within India. Several low-cost carriers now operate flights between Bangalore and other major Indian cities. The low-cost carrier with the greatest number of flights into and out of Bangalore is Air Deccan, which has located its hub in Bangalore. Other low-cost domestic carriers flying to Bangalore include SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines. Additional entrants into the market are expected, but could find expansion of routes into Bangalore difficult due to space constraints that should be alleviated upon construction of the new International airport. Slum population According to the Census of India 2001 results, 345,200 people or 8% of the population live in slums in Bangalore. The sex ratio of the slum population was 948 females/1000 males, as compared to the overall sex ratio of Bangalore of 915 females/1000 males. Slum Jagathu is a Bangalore based magazine for and by slum dwellers. Bangalore Division Bangalore Division comprises the districts of Bangalore (Urban and Rural), Chitradurga, Davangere, Kolar, Shimoga, and Tumkur. The administrative headquarters of the division is Bangalore. See also List of Bangalore-related topics edit Institutions Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Management, International Institute of Information Technology, Raman Research Institute, Indian Institute of Astrophysics,Indian Space Research Organisation, National Aerospace Laboratories, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, The University of Agricultural Sciences, National Centre for Software Technology, National Law School of India University, National Institute of Fashion Technology Landmarks Vidhana Soudha, Visvesvaraya Industrial And Technological Museum, Nehru Planetarium Interest groups Birdwatchers' Field Club of Bangalore, Karnataka Quiz Association, Bangalore Linux User Group Other topics Famous people from Bangalore, IT companies in Bangalore, Bangalore Rural District, List of Bangalore PIN, Bangalore metro List of cities in India Thirty largest cities in the world List of cities in the world List of cities known as Silicon Valleys Travel guide to Bangalore from Wikitravel External links Government Bangalore Development Authority Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Bangalore cyber police Links to various departments Writings My Own Private Bangalore: A photo essay by Krishnanand Kamat Worlding the City: The Futures of Bangalore References Prose contains specific citations in source text which may be viewed in edit mode. 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News } |then= |else=1 }} |2=Template error: argument title is required. |3=} |2= }} |2=2=, The Times of India |3= |2=, December 12, 2005 |3= |2=, pp. |3=} |2=, p. |3= }} |then=. URL accessed on [[]] }}. }} Encyclopedias Imperial Gazetteer of India, edition 6 (1933). Article: Bangalore Wikimedia Commons has media related to: ]] Indian metropolitan cities Ahmedabad • Bangalore • Chennai • Delhi • Hyderabad • Kolkata • Mumbai State and Union Territory capitals of India Agartala • Aizawl • Bangalore • Bhopal • Bhubaneswar • Chandigarh • Chennai (Madras) • Daman • Dehradun • Delhi • Dispur • Gandhinagar • Gangtok • Hyderabad • Imphal • Itanagar • Jaipur • Kavaratti • Kohima • Kolkata (Calcutta) • Lucknow • Mumbai (Bombay) • Panaji • Patna • Pondicherry • Port Blair • Raipur • Ranchi • Shillong • Shimla • Silvassa • Srinagar • Thiruvananthapuram de:Bangalore Search Term: "Bangalore" Categories: Bangalore | Cities and towns in Karnataka | Indian state-capitals