Nepal wants to emulate Bangalore’s IT prowess, says Prachanda

Bangalore, Nepal is keen to replicate the IT revolution in India’s ‘Silicon City’ and has sought the industry’s help in its effort to modernise its development process.

Expressing his “deep appreciation” for Bangalore, whose technology prowess has earned it global recognition, the Nepal Prime Minister, Mr Prachanda, said that his country wanted to emulate the vibrancy and commitment of the Silicon City for bringing about a change in his country in the shortest time.

Addressing members of the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday, Mr Prachanda said that his Government would soon formulate a new industrial policy to create an investment-friendly environment.

He extended an invitation to the private sector to invest in Nepal, which offered opportunities in the hydel power sector, apart from other areas of industry. He said the private sector was welcome to bid for power projects there.

Nepal was interested in seeking help for its education sector from Karnataka, a State which excelled in premier professional institutions, he said and added that the new policy would encourage mutually beneficial cooperation.

Kathmandu IT park

Earlier, in his address, Mr Binod Chaudhary, President, Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), said Nepal offered significant investment opportunities in the IT sector.

The country had only a small IT park near Kathmandu but would like to expand the scope of the sector with the help of Bangalore’s expertise.

Mr C.P. Rangachar, former Chairman of CII (Southern Region) and Managing Director of Yuken India Ltd, said Bangalore could particularly help that country in setting up BPOs focusing on rural areas for a balanced development.

Bangalore Or Bengaluru Or Bengalooru

Bangalore, as a city, has come a long way from the time when Kempe Gowda built it in the sixteenth century and named it ‘bendakaaluru’, to the times when our local government wants to change its name from Bangalore to Bengaluru. It has seen the British invasion and also survived to see the IT revolution by building a strong economic platform which heavily depends on its name - The Brand ‘Bangalore’.

For anyone who knows about this famous city, hearing it’s name brings to mind the beautiful weather, the numerous defence establishments it has, the famous gardens (Lal Bagh and Cubbon park), the culture and warmth of its residents and the more recent IT industry.

With everything a city needed to grow, God knows how the idea of changing its name came about in the first place.

I know it definitely has nothing to do with the new trend in India of renaming its cities to remove the anglicized names. The cities that were renamed from Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai and Calcutta to Kolkata had lost their original names and the new names were the result of colonization. Even though the word Bangalore was coined during the colonial times it was always known as Bengaluru in Kannada, which means even though the entire world knew it as Bangalore it never lost it’s original name of Bengaluru which is it’s official name in Kannada.

In this way, it had joined ranks with few cities who had an English name and a different native name such as Turin(Torino in Italian), Florence(Florentia in Italian) , Venice (Venezia in Italian) and Paris (pronounced as Pari in french).

It looks like this is purely a political motive rather than something which is good and widely accepted as our beloved home – Bangalore.