Bangalore Set to Be Renamed Bengalooru

Bangalore, the Indian city where the largest technology companies such as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have offices, is being renamed Bengalooru.

The name change for the city, capital of southern Karnataka state and home to two of India's biggest software companies, will be announced later today by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy during the province's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Bangalore follows cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in adopting local-language versions of their names following independence from Britain in 1947.

``The name change is to give Bangalore the original Kannada flavor, which has been Anglicized,'' said I.M. Vittal Murthy, Karnataka's secretary of information and culture. ``It is being done in respect for the sentiments of the people.''

Bangalore had its administration taken over by the British in 1831. Today, the city of 6.5 million is home to more than 250 high-tech companies, including Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. The city is considered the technology hub of the country and often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India.

With the growth of India as an outsourcing destination, the city's name was used as a verb -- ``Bangalored'' -- to describe the loss of such jobs in the U.S. and other economies.

``I don't think it will make any difference to the Bangalore brand or to the people of Karnataka,'' T.V. Mohandas Pai, head of human resources at Infosys, said. ``It is perfectly OK to use the local name of the city. It will not affect the industry.''

Political Gains

The name change won't help much, except as a reminder of historical significance that political parties are trying to use to gain popularity, said N. Bhaskara Rao, chairman of the Centre for Media Studies, a policy research group in New Delhi.

``The changeover may cause some inconvenience to the people, especially to foreigners, and cost some additional money, but it will not have an effect on the brand name internationally,'' Rao said.

India's commercial hub changed its name to Mumbai from Bombay in 1995. The southern city of Madras switched back to Chennai in 1996 and the eastern city of Calcutta, once the capital of India during British rule, to Kolkata in 2001.

The proposal to rename Bangalore and at least eight other cities and towns in Karnataka has been sent to the federal government for approval, Murthy said. The name changes will become effective after they are notified by the federal home ministry.

The name Bengalooru was recorded in a ninth-century temple inscription, according to the Web site of the Karnataka government's department of information technology.

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