Bengaluru’s Electronics City to be renamed after this former chief minister. Details here: Report | Bengaluru

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced that Bengaluru’s renowned tech district, Electronics City, will be renamed in honor of former Chief Minister D Devaraj Urs. The decision was revealed at a ceremony celebrating Urs’s 109th birth anniversary at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday, August 20, The News Minute reported.

Siddaramaiah praised Urs for his significant efforts to promote social equality and improve the lives of marginalized groups, including Dalits, Backward Classes, minorities, and women.

At the event, Siddaramaiah also recalled Urs’s pivotal role in renaming the state to Karnataka in 1973, following its unification in 1956, the report noted. The Chief Minister added that the year-long celebrations marking the renaming would culminate in November with the unveiling of a statue of Kannada Bhuvaneshwari at the Vidhana Soudha.

The concept for Electronics City was originally developed by RK Baliga, the inaugural chairman and managing director of the Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. (Keonics), the report further stated. Urs supported Baliga’s vision and appointed him to head Keonics in 1976, leading to the establishment of Electronics City.

Urs is also known to have laid the foundation stone for the tech hub in 1978 on 332 acres of land in Konappana Agrahara and Doddathogur on Bengaluru-Hosur Road. Spanning over 800 acres, Electronics City initially housed public sector enterprises but quickly attracted private firms, particularly during the IT boom of the 1990s.

Today, Electronics City is home to over 200 IT/ITES companies and has significantly contributed to Bengaluru’s reputation as the “Silicon Valley of India,” with major tech giants like Infosys and Wipro establishing their headquarters there.