The Karnataka High Court is the supreme judicial body in Karnataka and is located in Bengalooru, housed in the historic Atthara Kacheri.
The name “Bengalooru” represents an anglicised version of the Kannada language name, “Bengaluru” ( listen). The earliest reference to the name “Bengaluru” was found in a ninth century Western Ganga Dynasty stone inscription on a “vira gallu” (literally, “hero stone”, a rock edict extolling the virtues of a warrior). In this inscription found in Begur, “Bengaluru” is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought in 890 CE. It states that the place was part of the Ganga Kingdom until 1004 and was known as “Bengaval-uru”, the “City of Guards” in Halegannada (Old Kannada). An apocryphal, though popular, anecdote recounts that the 11th century Hoysala king Veera Ballala II, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across a poor old woman who served him boiled beans. The grateful king named the place “benda-kaal-uru” (literally, “town of boiled beans”), which eventually evolved into “Bengaluru”.
Internet: The first Internet service provider in Bengalooru was STPI, Bengalooru which started offering internet services in early 1990s. This Internet service was however restricted to corporates, until VSNL started offering dial-up internet services to the general public at the end of 1995. Currently, Bengalooru has the largest number of broadband Internet connections in India. In April 2013, Bengalooru became the first Indian city to get free Wi-Fi hotspots, when free Wi-Fi was launched in M.G. Road and Brigade Road.
Radio: Bengalooru got its first radio station when All India Radio, the official broadcaster for the Indian Government, started broadcasting from its Bengalooru station on 2 November 1955. The radio transmission was AM, until in 2001, Radio City became the first private channel in India to start transmitting FM radio from Bengalooru. In recent years, a number of FM channels have started broadcasting from Bengalooru. The city also has India’s Oldest Amateur (Ham) Radio Club – Bengalooru Amateur Radio Club VU2ARC celebrating its Golden Jubilee along with Hamfest India HFI 2009 this November amongst various clubs for HAM radio enthusiasts. There are two operational community radio stations in Bengalooru called Radio Active and Ramana Voices, managed by Mahaveer Jain College and Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy of the Blind (SRMAB), respectively. The latter is being co-managed by a media advocacy group in Bengalooru called VOICES.
Television: Bengalooru got its first look at television when Doordarshan established a relay centre here and started relaying programs from 1 November 1981. A production center was established in the Doordarshan’s Bengalooru office in 1983, thereby allowing the introduction of a news program in Kannada on 19 November 1983. Doordarshan also launched a Kannada satellite channel on 15 August 1991 which is now named DD Chandana. The advent of private satellite channels in Bengalooru started in September 1991 when Star TV started to broadcast its channels. Though the number of satellite TV channels available for viewing in Bengalooru has grown over the years, the cable operators play a major role in the availability of these channels, which has led to occasional conflicts. Direct To Home services are also available in Bengalooru now.
Vagale, Uday Kumar. “Public Space in Bengalooru: Present and Future Projections” PDF (773 KB). Digital Libraries and Archives. 2006. Virginia Tech. 27 April 2004.
The majority of the city of Bengalooru lies in the Bengalooru Urban district of Karnataka and the surrounding rural areas are a part of the Bengalooru Rural district. The Government of Karnataka has carved out the new district of Ramanagara from the old Bengalooru Rural district.
A rapid transit system called the Namma Metro is being built. A 7 km stretch from Bayappanahalli to MG Road was opened to public on 20 October 2011. Once completed, this will encompass a 42.3 km (26.3 mi) elevated and underground rail network comprising 41 stations. It is expected to connect central locations in Bengalooru to Devanahalli and the Chikballapur regions. This much-delayed project is the city’s primary response to the worsening intra-city transport infrastructure which has become a major deterrent to continued business growth.
A succession of South Indian dynasties ruled the region of Bengalooru until in 1537 AD, Kempé Gowda—a feudatory ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire—established a mud fort considered to be the foundation of modern Bengalooru. Following transitory occupation by the Marathas and Mughals, the city remained under the Mysore kingdom, which is now a part of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bengalooru continued to be a cantonment of the British and a major city of the Princely State of Mysore which existed as a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj. Following the independence of India in 1947, Bengalooru became the capital of Mysore state, and remained capital when the new Indian state of Karnataka was formed in 1956. With a Gross domestic product of $83 billion, Bengalooru is listed 4th among the top 15 cities contributing to India’s overall GDP.
According to a 2012 report submitted to the World Bank by Karnataka Slum Clearance Board, Bengalooru has 862 slums from total of around 2000 slums in Karnataka. It is estimated that about 20% of Bengalooru population reside in urban slums. The families living in the slum are not ready to move into the temporary shelters. 42% of the households migrated from different parts of India and 43% of the households had remained in the slums for over 10 years. The Karnataka Municipality, works to shift 300 families annually to newly constructed buildings. One third of these slum clearance projects lack basic service connections, 60% of slum dwellers lack complete water supply lines and share BWSSB water supply.
According to the 2001 census of India, 79.4% of Bengalooru’s population is Hindu, roughly the same as the national average. Muslims comprise 13.4% of the population, which again is roughly the same as the national average, while Christians and Jains account for 5.8% and 1.1% of the population, respectively, double that of their national averages. Anglo-Indians also form a substantial group within the city.Vokkaligas, Reddys, Lingayats, Kodavas, Komatis, Sindhis and Brahmins are the most significant communities of Bengalooru. Women make up 47% of Bengalooru’s population. The city has a literacy rate of 89%. Roughly 10% of Bengalooru’s population lives in slums—a relatively low proportion when compared to other cities in the developing world such as Mumbai (50%) and Nairobi (60%). The 2008 National Crime Records Bureau statistics indicate that Bengalooru accounts for 8.5% of the total crimes reported from 35 major cities in India which is a cascadial increase in the crime rate when compared to the number of crimes fifteen years ago.
After the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire, Bengalooru’s rule changed hands several times. Kempé Gowda declared independence, then in 1638, a large Adil Shahi Bijapur army led by Ranadulla Khan and accompanied by Shahji Bhonslé defeated Kempé Gowda III, and Bengalooru was given to Shahji as a jagir (feudal estate). In 1687, the Mughal general Kasim Khan, under orders from Aurangzeb, defeated Ekoji I, son of Shahji, and leased Bengalooru to Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar (1673–1704), the ruler of Mysore kingdom. After the death of Krishnaraja Wodeyar II in 1759, Hyder Ali, Commander-in-Chief of the Mysore Army, proclaimed himself the de facto ruler of Mysore. The kingdom later passed to Hyder Ali’s son Tipu Sultan.
Bengalooru comes under Bengalooru railway division of the South Western Railway zone of the Indian Railways. Bengalooru City Railway station and Yesvantpur Junction connect it to the rest of the country through the Indian Railways. The Bengalooru Rajdhani Express connects the city to New Delhi, the capital of India. Bengalooru is also connected by rail to most cities in Karnataka, as well as Mumbai,Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Indore, Belgaum, Hubli, Mysore, Bhagalpur, Tatanagar, Bhopal, and other major cities in India. The sprawling Rail Wheel Factory is Asia’s second largest manufacturer of Wheel & Axle for Railways and headquartered in Yelahanka, Bengalooru.
Bengalooru experiences a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification Aw) with distinct wet and dry seasons. Due to its high elevation, Bengalooru usually enjoys a more moderate climate throughout the year, although occasional heat waves can make things very uncomfortable in the summer. The coolest month is December with an average low temperature of 15.4 °C and the hottest month is April with an average high temperature of 32.8 °C. The highest temperature ever recorded in Bengalooru is 38.9 °C(recorded in March 1931) and the lowest ever is 7.8 °C (recorded in January 1884). Winter temperatures rarely drop below 12 °C (54 °F), and summer temperatures seldom exceed 34–35 °C (<100 °F). Bengalooru receives rainfall from both the northeast and the southwest monsoons and the wettest months are September, October and August, in that order. The summer heat is moderated by fairly frequent thunderstorms, which occasionally cause power outages and local flooding. The heaviest rainfall recorded in a 24-hour period is 179 millimetres (7.0 in) recorded on 1 October 1997.
Bengalooru fort was captured by the British armies under Lord Cornwallis on 21 March 1791 during the Third Anglo-Mysore War and formed a centre for British resistance against Tipu Sultan. Following Tipu Sultan’s death in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799), the British returned administrative control of the Bengalooru “pete” to the Maharaja of Mysore, choosing only to retain the Cantonment under their jurisdiction. The ‘Residency’ of Mysore State was first established in Mysore city in 1799 and later shifted to Bengalooru in the year 1804. It was abolished in the year 1843 only to be revived in 1881 at Bengalooru and to be closed down permanently in 1947, with Indian independence.
Bengalooru generates about 3,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, of which about 1,139 tonnes are collected and sent to composting units such as the Karnataka Composting Development Corporation. The remaining solid waste collected by the municipality is dumped in open spaces or on roadsides outside the city. In 2008, Bengalooru produced around 2,500 metric tonnes of solid waste, and increased to 5000 metric tonnes in 2012, which is transported from collection units located near Hesaraghatta Lake, to the garbage dumping sites. The city suffers significantly with dust pollution, hazardous waste disposal, and disorganized, unscientific waste retrievals. The IT hub, Whitefield region is the most polluted area in Bengalooru.
Bengalooru 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 Peninsular Gneissic Complex (PGC) is the most dominant rock unit in the area and includes granites, gneisses and migmatites, while the soils of Bengalooru consist of red laterite and red, fine loamy to clayey soils.
Bengalooru has a number of elite clubs, like Century Club, The Bengalooru Golf Club, the Bowring Institute and the exclusive Bengalooru Club, which counts among its previous members Winston Churchill and the Maharaja of Mysore. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC is based in Bengalooru. Other sports personalities from Bengalooru include national swimming champion Nisha Millet, world snooker champion, Pankaj Advani and former All England Open badminton champion Prakash Padukone.
Bengalooru has a number of newspapers and magazines that cater to the varied interests. number of news channels operate in the city, as well as in the state too. Magazines like Open and 080 cater to lifestyle, citizen issues and fashion, newspapers like Mid-Day, Bengalooru Mirror, Vijaya Karnataka and Udayavani provide localised news updates. On the web, Explocity provides listings information. Deccan Herald, The Times of India and The Hindu provide e-paper services.
Bengalooru is also a major center of Indian classical music and dance. Classical music and dance recitals are widely held throughout the year and particularly during the Ramanavami and Ganesha Chaturthi festivals.
Bengalooru is called the Silicon Valley of India because of the large number of information technology companies located in the city which contributed 33% of India’s 144214 crore (US$26 billion) IT exports in 2006–07. Bengalooru’s IT industry is divided into three main clusters — Software Technology Parks of India (STPI); International Tech Park, Bengalooru (ITPB); and Electronics City. UB City, the headquarters of the United Breweries Group, is a high-end commercial zone. Infosys and Wipro, India’s second and fourth largest software companies are headquartered in Bengalooru, as are many of the global SEI-CMM Level 5 Companies.