| Bangalore,
the fifth largest city in India and the capital of the southern
state of Karnataka, is one of Asia's fastest growing cities.
Situated at an altitude of about 920 metres above sea level,
it is blessed with a pleasant climate that distinguishes it
from the hot climes of India's other larger metros. Despite
the booming (sometimes unplanned and haphazard) growth, Bangalore
still retains a significant amount of its quiet charm and heady
greenery that led the British colonial authorities to dub it
as a "Pensioner's Paradise".
Although the greenery is fast
depleting, a victim to rapacious builders and a lethargic
government, Bangalore still compares very favorably in this
respect to India's major cities. No wonder it has been the
automatic choice for the "Garden City of India"
tag.
International visitors looking for ways to unwind
after a hard day's work coding and decoding, would find Bangalore's
growing Club Culture, the number of weekend resorts (many
of which have opened up in recent days ) and its famous pubs
(over 200 of them) where one can get a good drink in a pleasant
ambience, a most welcome surprise. And it is these pubs that
have given it the epithet, "The Pub Capital of
India". Watch out Dublin, you have competition
coming!
The discovery of Bangalore's pleasant climate,
low real estate prices and cheap availability of skilled,
English-speaking manpower by International Technology majors
starting off in the mid to late-1980s, set off a major IT
Boom. Today with almost all of the biggest IT and Technology
(250 and growing at last count) organizations setting up a
base here, Bangalore has become a "real-time" rival
to California's Silicon Valley. No wonder it prides itself
today as "India's Silicon Valley"
or even the more ambitious "Asia's Silicon Valley"!
The next few pages seek to give you a
more comprehensive look into what has gone into the shaping
of Bangalore today.
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