Bangalore

For other uses of "Bangalore", see Bangalore (disambiguation).

Bangalore (Kannada: ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು) (pronounced /'beŋgaɭuːru/ in Kannada and /'bæŋgəlɔɹ/ in English) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka.

It is India's 3^rd largest city [1] and 5^th largest metropolitan area [2], with an estimated 2006 metropolitan population of about 6.5 million.

After India gained independence in 1947, Bangalore evolved into a manufacturing hub for public sector heavy industries. Within the last decade, the establishment and success of high technology firms in Bangalore has 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.

Bangalore has several Armed Forces related institutions within city limits. The city is also the scientific hub of India, and is the home of the Indian Institute of Science.

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.

Origin of name

Image:Soudha.jpgThe name Bangalore is an anglicized version of the city's name in Kannada — Bengaluru. The earliest reference to the name Bengaluru was found in a 9th century Ganga Dynasty stone inscription on a "veera kallu" (literally, hero stone - a rock edict extolling the virtues of a warrior). This inscription was found in Begur and Bengaluru is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought [3].

According to sources, "An inscription, dating back to 890 A.D., shows Bangalore is over 1,000 years old. But it stands neglected at the Parvathi Nageshwara Temple in Begur near the city...(w)ritten in hale Kannada (old Kannada) of the 9th Century, the epigraph refers to a Bengaluru war in 890 AD in which Buttanachetty, a servant of Nagatta, died. Though this has been recorded by historian R. Narasimhachar in his "Epigraphia of Carnatica" (Vol. 10 supplementary), no efforts have been made to preserve it."

Some scholars believe that the name has a floral origin and is derived from the tree Benga or "Ven-kai", also known as the Indian (or Malabar) Kino Tree (Pterocarpus marsupium) [4].

A popular anecdote (although one contradicted by historical evidence) recounts 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. The grateful king named the place benda kaluru (literally, town of boiled beans), which was eventually colloquialized to Bengaluru. The Imperial Gazetteer of British India states that word of this incident eventually spread and the town that sprang up around the village was eventually called Bengaluru [5]. 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 discovery of the Ganga Dynasty inscription however negated the claim that Veera Ballala founded the city.

History

Main article: History of Bangalore

Image:Tipu Sultans summer palace bangalore inside1.jpg An inscription stone found near Begur reveals that the district was part of the Ganga Dynasty until 1004 and was known as Benga-val-oru, the City of Guards in old Kannada. The Cholas of Tamil Nadu ruled over the city from 1015 to 1116. The district came under the rule of the Hoysala Empire until the establishment of the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336. Kempe Gowda I (1510 - 1570), chieftan of the town of Yalahanka, established the city of Bangalore as we know it today, under the Vijayanagara Empire.

After the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire, Bangalore's rule changed hands several times. It was captured by the Maratha chief Shahaji Bhonsle prior to a Mughal invasion. In 1686, the Mughals, after conquering the Sultanate of Bijapur, invaded Bangalore. After capturing the city, the Mughals leased Bangalore to Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar in 1689. Haider Ali, Commander-in-Chief of the Mysore Army, proclaimed himself the de-facto ruler of Mysore in 1759. After his death, the kingdom passed on to his son Tipu Sultan, who renamed it the Sultanate of Khodadad. Bangalore was eventually incorporated into the British East Indian Empire, after Tipu Sultan was defeated and killed in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799).

Bangalore was hit by a plague epidemic in 1898. Telephone lines were laid to help coordinate anti-plague operations. Regulations for building new houses with proper sanitation facilities came into effect. A health officer was appointed in 1898. In 1906, Bangalore became the first city in Asia to have electricity, supplied by the hydroelectric plant situated in Shivanasamudra. A former British military cantonment, Bangalore rapidly expanded after 1881. The names of many of its streets are derived from military nomenclature — Artillery Road, Brigade Road, Infantry Road and Cavalry Road. In 1883, Richmond Town, Benson Town and Cleveland Town were added to the cantonment. Basavanagudi and Malleshwaram were created during in the early 1900s. Kalasipalyam and Gandhinagar were created between 1921-1931. Kumara Park came into existence in 1947 and Jayanagar in 1948.

Bangalore was included in the dominion of Mysore State after Indian independence in August 1947. Mysore State was renamed Karnataka in 1950.

Geography

Main article: Bangalore Metropolitan Environment

Image:ViewFromNandi.jpgBangalore is situated in the southeast of the South Indian state of Karnataka. A landlocked city, Bangalore is located in the heart of the Mysore Plateau (a region of the larger Deccan Plateau) at an average elevation of 920 m (3,000 feet). It is positioned at 12.97° N 77.56° E and covers an area of 2,190 km² (1,360 mi²). Bangalore district borders with Kolar in the northeast, Tumkur in the northwest, Mandya in the southeast and Mysore and Tamil Nadu in the south. Bangalore has two unique topological terrains — North Bangalore taluk and the South Bangalore taluk. The North Bangalore taluk is a relatively more level plateau. Low lying areas in this taluk are marked by small water bodies. The Bangalore south taluk has an uneven landscape with intermingling hills and valleys.

The topology of Bangalore is flat, except for a ridge in the middle running NNE-SSW. The highest point in Bangalore, Doddabettahalli (962 meters), is on this ridge [6]. There are no major rivers running through the city. Bangalore has a handful of freshwater lakes and water tanks, the largest of which are Madivala tank, Hebbal lake, Ulsoor lake and Sankey tank. Groundwater occurs in silty to sandy layers of the alluvial sediments. The cheif source of recharge is seasonal rainfall.

Bangalore has a mature topography with hills such as the Nandi Hills located in the periphery of the city. The Peninsular Gneissic Complex (PGC) is the most dominant rock unit in the area and includes granites, gneisses and migmatites. The soils of Bangalore consist of red laterite and red fine loamy to clayey soils [7].

Bangalore has not been affected by major seismic activity due it being located in a seismically stable zone (Zone II). Only mild tremours have been recorded in the city.

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Climate

Image:Bangalore raintemp.pngDue to its elevation, Bangalore enjoys a pleasant and equable climate throughout the year. The highest temperature recorded was 38.9°C (102.0°F) on May 22,1935 and the lowest was 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°)[8][9] Bangalore receives about 900 mm of rain annually, the wettest months being August, September, October and 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 was 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 was recorded as one of the wettest months in Bangalore with heavy rains causing severe flooding in some areas, and closure of a number of organisations for over a couple of days.[10]

Economy

Main article: Economy of Bangalore

Image:Bangalore UtilityBuilding.jpg After Indian independence, some of India's largest public sector heavy industries were established in Bangalore. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which manufactures and maintains indigenous and foreign licensed fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force, is headquartered here. The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), also headquartered in Bangalore, develops civil aviation products. Other heavy industries in Bangalore include Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) and Hindustan Motors (HM).

In June 1972, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was established under the Department of Space and headquartered in Bangalore. 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 Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles. ISRO also heads India's ambitious moon program.

Bangalore is called the Silicon Valley of India because of the large number of Information Technology companies located in the city. Bangalore's IT Industry, which is the largest contributor to India's USD 12.2 billion IT and software export market [11], is divided into three main "clusters" [12] — Software Technology Parks of India, Bangalore (STPI), International Technology Park Ltd. (ITPL), and Electronics City. Image:Bangalore Infy.jpg STPI Bangalore counts among the premier and oldest Internet Service Providers (ISP) in India and was created by the Ministry of Information Technology, while the International Technology Park (ITPL) was created as a result of a joint venture between India and Singapore. Electronics City, established in 1992, is located in the southern outskirts of Bangalore, is an industrial park spread over 330 acres (1.3 km²). Infosys and Wipro, India's 2^nd and 3^rd largest software companies, are headquartered in Electronics City.

Biotechnology is a rapidly expanding field in the city. Bangalore accounts for at least 97 of the approximately 240 biotechnology companies in India. 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.

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Transport

Direct international flights to Bangalore were limited. However, more airlines have started flying to Bangalore in recent years. Bangalore's HAL Airport (IATA code: BLR), functions as both a domestic and international airport. It is India's fourth busiest airport. Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France serve Bangalore with nonstop flights from Frankfurt, London and Paris respectively. Image:Bangalore autorickshaw.jpgDirect flights from Bangalore fly to other parts of Asia including Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Bahrain, Dubai, Sharjah and Muscat.

The liberalization of India’s economic policies has 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, Kingfisher Airlines and Go Air.

Bangalore is well connected to the rest of the country through the Indian Railways. The Rajdhani Express connects Bangalore to New Delhi. The city is also connected to Mumbai (Udayan, Chalukya, Kurla Express), Chennai (Madras Mail, Brindavan Express), Kolkata (Yeshvanthpur-Howrah Express), Hyderabad and Mangalore.

Black and yellow, diesel operated auto rickshaws, referred to as autos are a popular form of transport. They are metered and can accomodate upto three passengers. Taxi service within Bangalore is provided by several operators commonly referred to as "City Taxi" providers. Taxis can take in upto four passengers and are usually metered and relatively more expensive that auto rickshaws. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) busses, formerly known as Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) busses provide transport within the city. A fleet of 3,207 BMTC busses operates daily, servicing an average of 2,800,000 commuters [13].

Demographics

Main article: Bangalore Statistics

Image:Bangalore Mosque.jpgAs of 2005, Bangalore had a population of over 6 million, making it the 3^rd largest city in India and the 27^th largest city in the world [14]. The city has experienced a growth rate of 34.8% for the decade 1991-2001, considerably higher than the 21.54% decadal growth rate of the country. Residents of Bangalore are referred to as Bangaloreans or Bangalorites, regardless of their religious or linguistic origin. Kannadigas accounted for 38% of the population, which, given Bangalore's cosmopolitan nature, constitutes a virtual majority. Sizable ethnic minorities in Bangalore include residents from neighboring states Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Bangalore's progress in the fields of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has also led to the growth of a large pool of migrant workers from North India. Scheduled Castes and Tribes account for 14.3% of the city's population. Kannada, the official language of the state of Karnataka, is widely spoken in Bangalore, as are Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. English is the lingua franca of the city's white collar workforce.

According to the 2001 census of India, 79.37% of Bangalore's population is Hindu — roughly the same as the national average [15]. Muslims comprise 13.37% of the population, which again, is roughly the same as the national average. Christians and Jains account for 5.79% and 1.05% of the population respectively, double that of their national averages.

Women make up 47.5% of Bangalore's population. Bangalore's literacy rate is considerably higher than India's average literacy rate, at 83%. Bangalore's workforce structure is also different to that of the rest of the country. 6% of Bangalore's workforce was engaged in agriculture related activities (39% of rural Bangalore was engaged in agriculture and 99.8% of the urban worker population was engaged in non-agriculture related industries.) Roughly 8% of Bangalore's population lives in slums. [16]. Bangalore's per capita income, at 2001 levels is USD 1,110.03 (Rs. 53,625) [17].

The 2003 National Crime Records Bureau statistics indicate that Bangalore has a higher incidence of crime than other large cities in India. [18].

Culture

Main article: Culture of Bangalore

Image:Bangalore BrigadeRoad.jpgBangalore is known as the Garden City of India, because of its climate, greenery and the presence of many public parks, including the Lal Bagh and Cubbon Park.

Deepavali, the "Festival of Lights", transcends demographic and religious lines and is celebrated with great vigor. Dussera, a traditional celebratory hallmark of the old Kingdom of Mysore is another important festival. Other traditional Indian festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Ugadi, Sankranthi, Eid ul-Fitr and Christmas are also celebrated.

Bangalore is home to the Kannada film industry which churns out about 80 movies each year in Kannada.

The diversity of the cuisine available is reflective of the social and economic diversity of Bangalore. Roadside vendors, tea stalls, South Indian, North Indian, Chinese and Western fast food are all very popular in the city. Udupi restaurants are very popular and serve predominantly vegetarian, regional cuisine. Image:Commercial st.jpgBangalore has many clubs and bars, and is sometimes referred to as the Pub Capital of India. Popular nightspots in Bangalore include Hint, Blue Bar (Taj West End), Taika, Tuscan Verve, Pecos and TGIF.

Cricket in Bangalore, just as in the rest of the nation, is the most popular sport. A significant number of national cricketers has come from Bangalore including current Indian cricket team captain Rahul Dravid, Gundappa Vishwanath and Anil Kumble. Many of the city's children play gully cricket on the roads and in city's many public fields. Bangalore's main international cricket stadium is the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, which hosted its first match in 1974. International Cricket was played at the Central College grounds before moving to the current venue.

Bangalore has a number of elite clubs, like the Bangalore Golf Club, Bowring Institute and the exclusive Bangalore Club, which counts among its previous members Winston Churchill and the Maharajah of Mysore.

Education

Image:Iisc-Founder.jpg

The school system in Bangalore, like those in the rest of the country, are either run by the Government of Karnataka or by private, sometimes religious, organizations. Private schools in Bangalore typically use English as the medium of instruction and are affiliated with either the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) or the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board.

After completing their secondary eduction, students typically enroll in Junior College (also known as Pre-University) in one of three streams — Arts, Commerce or Science. Upon completing the required coursework, students enroll in general or professional degrees.

Bangalore is home to the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Bangalore), National Law School of India University and Bangalore Medical College. All of these institutions are nationally renowned — the National Law School is consistently ranked as the top law school in the country and both St. John's Medical College and Bangalore Medical College are consistently ranked among the top ten medical schools in India.

Bangalore has the most engineering colleges of any city in the world ^{[citation needed]} thus fuelling its IT industry with an abundant graduate workforce. Some of the city's engineering colleges include Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE), BMS College of Engineering (BMSCE) and PES Institute of Technology (PESIT) .

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Media

Main article: Mass media in India

Bangalore commands one of the largest mass media markets in India. Major national English newspapers have subsidiary publications for the city, including the Times of India (Bangalore Times), Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Indian Express. The Deccan Herald is the largest circulating newspaper in the city and is headquartered in Bangalore. The Prajavani, a sister publication of the Deccan Herald is the largest circulating Kannada newspaper in the city. Newspapers in other regional languages are also available in the city.

National periodic journals and magazines such as India Today, Frontline and Outlook India also circulate heavily in the city. Kannada periodic magazines such as Sudha, Taranga and Mayura are also widely circulated.

In addition to the numerous AM radio stations run by All India Radio (AIR), Bangalore has three FM radio stations — Radio City, Gyanvani and All India Radio's Rainbow FM. Plans to six new FM stations have been approved by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Successful bidders for radio broadcast licensing in Bangalore include Radio Mirchi and Radio Mid-Day [19].

The state run, nationally broadcast Doordarshan provides both national and localized television coverage. Cable Television providers air independently owned, private networks such as STAR TV and Udaya TV, whose cable channels are broadcast in English and Hindi, as well as in Kannada.

Civic Administration

Image:Bangalore Traffic Police.jpg The city of Bangalore is administered by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), and represents the third level of government. The city council comprises 100 elected representatives, called "corporators", one from each of the 100 wards (localities) of the city. Elections to the council are held once every 4 years, with results being decided by popular vote. Members contesting elections to council represent one of more of the state's political parties.

A mayor and commissioner of the council are also elected, though not by popular vote. The post of the mayor and deputy mayor are filled through a quota system to a Scheduled Castes and Tribes candidate or to an Other Backward Class female candidate [20]. The current mayor and commissioner of the BMP are Mumtaz Begum and K. Jothiramalingam.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike is responsible for civic and infrastructural assets of the city. It often works in conjunction with other civic bodies such as the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to design and implement civic and infrastructural projects. Recently, the BMP has come under fire from the Karnataka High Court, citizens and corporations for failing to effectively address the crumbling road and traffic infrastructure of Bangalore. The BMP was formerly known as Bangalore City Corporation (BCC).

The Bangalore City Police (BCP) is headed by a Police Commissioner, who is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. Bangalore City Police has six geographic zones, and includes Traffic Police, City Armed Reserve, Central Crime Branch and City Crime Record Bureau. The Bangalore City Police runs 86 police stations in the city, including two all-women police stations [21].

Current concerns

Main article: Infrastructural Concerns in Bangalore

Image:Bangalore DoubleRd.jpgFor most of the period after Indian independence, Bangalore was a B-1 status city, and was not considered to be one of India's "4 major metropolitan cities". The city's roads, therefore, were not designed to accommodate the massive traffic that now prevails in Bangalore.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has attempted to overcome some of the shortcomings in the road systems by imposing one-way traffic systems and attempting to build a flyover (overpass) system in the city. The development of apartment complexes and townships negating the positive impact of the Outer Ring Road that was created to ease congestion in the city. The Hosur Road, which connects Bangalore to the Electronics City, is one of the most congested roads in the city. The road is also part of the National Highway (NH7) and therefore witnesses heavy truck traffic as well.

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. In 2005, however, the Central and State Governments allocated sizeable funding from their annual budgets towards the improvement of Bangalore's infrastructure.

Image:Bangalore HAL.jpg

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited owns and operates Bangalore's HAL 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.

A full scale international airport was planned at Devanahalli, 30 kilometres 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.

See also

[[wikitravel:{{{1|Bangalore}}}|Travel guide to {{{1|Bangalore}}}]] from Wikitravel

External links

• InteractiveMap of Bangalore
• Bangalore Development Authority
• Bangalore Mahanagara Palike
• Bangalore cyber police
• Links to various departments
• 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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es:Bangalore fr:Bengaluru gl:Bangalore - ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು gu:બેંગલોર hi:बंगलोर id:Bangalore it:Bangalore kn:ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು nl:Bangalore pl:Bangalur pt:Bangalore ro:Bangalore simple:Bangalore fi:Bangalore sv:Bangalore ta:பெங்களூர் zh:班加羅爾