Bengaluru Vs Hyderabad - we have a winner!
After Mr Ramalinga Raju's "true lies" or whatever, it is clearly emerging that in the battle between the two cities of the Deccan, my home city, Bengaluru is a clear winner.
Only, in this battle - the winner will take it all. Hyderabad has virtually logged out of the "global supply chain" as Tom Friedman, the famous NY Times columnist, would like to term the global economy. Pentium chips could not withstand the heat of Bhagyanagar cooled by the Hussain Sagar lake!
Yet, our humble Bellandur kere (lake in Kannada) seems to be at peace with Electronics City. And it deed, it is the pleasant climate of Bengaluru thanks to existant lakes like Sankey's, Bellandur, Agara lake which is directly contributing to the peaceful and largely fraud free corporate life.
Bengaluru Inc needs to thank past regents like Kempe Gowda of the 16th century and recent ones like Nalvadi Krishnarajendra Wodeyar.
In school text books and innumerous excursions we are taught to marvel the honest and upright Sir M Visveswaryya. Without him, Bengaluru's distinction as the first city in Asia to get electricity would not have been possible.
Yet, our dear Macaulay putri, Smt (or rather Ms) Manjeet Kripalani seems to think that the British bequeathed industrialisation to Bengaluru:
While not disregarding some of the positive contributions of the British, they were largely not responsible for the steady industrialisation of Bangalore.
The first phase of "industrialisation" began during the rule of Kempe Gowda. Kempe Gowda's efforts in building a system of lakes and rajakaluves (canals) managed to get the most precious resource for early industrialisation - water.
Kempe Gowda's efforts created a horticultural economy. The horticultural economy in turn created a perfumery industry which lasted till the arrival of the British and the establishment of the Cantonment.
Sir M V now stands as the foremost bedrock on which Bengaluru is built on. His establishment of Krishnarajasagara Dam against all odds and other important industries, PRIOR TO INDEPENDENCE largely formed the basis on which Bengaluru is able to establish it's industrial and technological prowess today.
The Aero India 2009 show today should thank Seth Walchand Hirachand's visionary establishment of Hindustan Aeronautics. The good Seth was able to pull it off only due to the munificense of Nalvadi Krishnarajendra Wodeyar. Of course, it must not be forgotten that the British managed to scuttle the Seth's original plans to establish a car manufacturing plant, presumably to protect their own industries.
IISc and Sir C V Raman, india's only nobel laureate completely educated in India and Bangalore specifically - all thanks due to HH the Wodeyar again!
World War I and World War II created the need for cotton which lead to establishment of textiles. This could only be possible with the electricity generated from the Shivanasamudra Hydroelectric plant - the first in Asia.
Florian Taube, in an interesting paper attributes Bengaluru's dynamism to it's social capital:
