The city of Bangalore has seen industrialization in varying steps and stages. I believe every city makes its own kind of progress in its attempt at Industrialization and in the cities gradually agriculture begins to fade giving rise to Industrialization. Fruits like oranges Guava and Grapes were grown aplenty in this city at various pockets only to disappear with time and not to forget even the cultivation of paddy ..and for various reasons known and unknown they began to get displaced for ever from the overall map of the city.
There were some attempts at Industrialization in my view point with the advent of the British into the city and the creation of their Cantonment only the chronology is confusing. To my mind the earliest effort at Industrialization of Bangalore must have come with the setting up of the cigarette manufacturing plant of the Imperial Tobacco Company ITC at cook town in Bangalore East. Modern day industrial climate came into this town through ITC and must have been followed by Binny Mills. Both of these must have had British ancestry and the same model being followed by the Mysore Kingdom in setting up the Mysore lamps and Mysore soaps and detergents limited and the power required to all these ventures being supplied by the hydro electric plant at Shivanasamudhra. With the advent of the second world war an Aeroplane servicing facility started by Hirachand / Walchand becoming HAL post Independence. Every city inherits such legacy and this is the Industrial legacy of Bangalore and the many Public sector units that came about this place owe its existence to this legacy.
Post Independence a plethora of public sector units and their ancillaries pervade the city and dictating to a large extent the economic equations of the place. Imperial Tobacco Company became Indian Tonacco Company and note that this factory is in the hot bed of the Brirtish dominated Bangalore and carried its culture aplenty for many years and the factory is displaced to a new location owing to environmental reasons of Industrial waste and odor I had visited this plant and met some personnel of the quality control department and saw a sprawling factory bearing a Victorian enigma.
What is so unique and particular about the Industrial culture and climate of Bangalore. I notice every two decades a metamorphosis and this seems to have occurred as a rule time and again. In the 1950's the public sectors arrive and thrive..in the 1970's in my view point were the mini steel plants that came aplenty in the city and there were very many of them on Whitefield road. The electric motor industry also thrived alongside these steel industries in Kirloskar Electric. There was Bhoruka Steel , Kap Steel , Mittal Steel , Andhra Steel all mini steel industries which gradually wound up due to shortage of power with time. Bangalore sees a major tryst with Electronics with BPL and the company largely blossoming to into full bloom in the late 1980's and there again one sees the two decade gap. The Electronics sector dominated the city around this period with electronics related Industry of various kinds around the city in full sway. With Globalization this Electronic sector gradually slips into oblivion and IT sector emerges and I would put the middle part of the decade between 2000 and 2010 as the most gleaming period for the software sector through organizations like Infosys and Wipro.
The city of Bangalore seems to me to be at the threshold of another metamorphosis and it is to be seen what Industry would make its advance like a bolt from the blue to have a strangle hold of the economy and the city at large. Globalization and Internetization has redefined the World and its dynamics and the World would get to undertake almost instantly and partake in full measure any large scale change this city might be at the throes of. Possibly it is the Education sector that would have its influence replacing the manufacturing sector and a phenomenon that is healthy to the core and in what measure emerging sectors are going to leave a stamp on Bangalore is to be seen like the various organizations that were its predecessors.
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