Bangalore

Bangalore, city in southern India, capital of Karnataka state, one of India’s largest and fastest-growing cities and a chief industrial centre. It is located on the Mysore Plateau between the Eastern and Western Ghats at an elevation of 949 m (3,113 ft) and is known for its mild climate. Many retired people live in the modern residential sections surrounding the congested inner city. Since 1947 Bangalore has also developed into a major industrial city, with factories producing communications equipment, machine tools, aircraft, electric motors, printed materials, textiles, and footwear. Bangalore is also the centre of India’s space programme.

Since the late 1970s it has developed as a computer-software production centre, and is home to more than 100 software and hardware companies. It exported over US$300 million worth of software in 1993. Telecommunications and a range of industries related to defence (including aircraft manufacture, electronics, and light engineering) have also boomed in Bangalore over the past 20 years. Important educational and research institutes include Bangalore University (1964), the noted Indian Institute of Science (1909), and the University of Agricultural Sciences (1964). The old palace of the maharaja of Mysore is an important landmark.

Today, Bangalore is often called India’s “garden city”, with its numerous parks and avenues of jacaranda, gulmohur, and cassia; Lalbagh Gardens, with over 1,800 plant species, is one of the best of its kind in India. The old section of the city lies to the south of Bangalore’s railway station with most of the historical sights. The Cubbon Park area is where the tourist office, bookshops, emporia, bigger hotels, restaurants, and government buildings are located. The Mahatma Gandhi Road area is well known for its excellent shops and eating and drinking places. The Kolar Gold Fields, which contain the world’s deepest gold mines, are situated near Bangalore. The city originally grew around a fort established in 1537. Bangalore was a British administrative centre from 1831 to 1881, when it was returned to the maharaja of Mysore. Population 5,686,844 (2001).