Portal:India/Today's selected article/February 2006



Economy of Bangalore improved by heavy industries such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), Hindustan Machine Tools and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) after India gained independence from Great Britain in 1947. 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 35% of India's pool of 10 lakh (1 million) IT professionals. Bangalore accounts for the highest IT-related exports in the country.

Long before Bangalore was called the Silicon Valley of India, the city made its name as headquarters to some of the largest public sector heavy industries of India. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) headquarters was based in Bangalore, and was dedicated to research and development activities for indigenous fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. With over 9,500 employees, it is one of the largest public sector employers in Bangalore.

In August 2005, 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 convention. Increasingly, new IT centers are being built away from this city due to long inner-city commute times, poor infrastructure, high land and labor costs, increasing environmental problems and labor retention issues. (more...)

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