Bengaluru

Bengaluru began as a mud fort built by Kempe Gowda in 1537, named for 'boiled beans'—a dish served to a hungry king by an old woman. The settlement occupied the Deccan Plateau at 900 meters elevation, giving it a climate that would prove decisive. Under British rule, this temperate hill station attracted military cantonment and British retirees, earning its reputation as a 'Garden City.' Independence brought something else: Nehru's policy of dispersing sensitive industries away from borders placed aerospace and defense here.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (1940), Indian Space Research Organisation (1969), and Bharat Heavy Electricals seeded the region with engineers. When Texas Instruments opened India's first international tech center here in 1985, it drew from this pre-existing talent pool. The 1990s liberalization triggered metamorphosis: Infosys, Wipro, and hundreds of IT services companies scaled on the back of lower costs, English fluency, and twelve-hour time zone offset from American clients. What began as outsourcing evolved into innovation.

Today Bengaluru generates $110+ billion in GDP with over 12 million residents. The city contributes $64 billion annually to India's IT exports—alone accounting for nearly 40% of the national startup ecosystem. The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 ranked it #14 worldwide, up seven places from 2024. Total ecosystem value reached $136 billion in 2024, producing 32 unicorns between 2020-2024. The first half of 2025 saw $3.9 billion in startup funding—40% of India's total.

The 96 km Namma Metro (second-longest in India as of 2025) tries to keep pace with congestion. Bengaluru now ranks #5 among global AI cities. Four billion-dollar IPOs in 2024—Swiggy ($12B), GoDigit ($3.6B), Indegene ($1.3B), Blackbuck ($1B)—demonstrate the ecosystem's maturation from cost arbitrage to genuine innovation.