Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that Bengaluru's prominent tech hub, Electronics City, will be renamed after former Chief Minister D Devaraj Urs. The announcement was made during the 109th birth anniversary celebration of Devaraj Urs at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday, August 20. The CM said that Devaraj Urs put many efforts in creating an equitable society and his efforts to uplift marginalised communities, including Dalits, Backward Classes, minorities, and women.
During the event, Siddaramaiah also highlighted that Urs was responsible for renaming the state as Karnataka in 1973, following its unification in 1956. The CM noted that the year-long celebration of Karnataka's renaming would conclude with an event in November, where a statue of Kannada Bhuvaneshwari would be unveiled at Vidhana Soudha.
The Electronics City project was originally conceived by RK Baliga, the first chairman and managing director of Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. (Keonics). Devaraj Urs, who supported Baliga’s vision, appointed him to lead Keonics in 1976, paving the way for the establishment of Electronics City. The foundation stone for the tech hub was laid by Urs in 1978 on 332 acres of land in the villages of Konappana Agrahara and Doddathogur on Bengaluru-Hosur Road. Spanning over 800 acres, Electronics City was initially home to public sector enterprises, but it rapidly attracted private companies, especially during the IT boom of the 1990s.
Major tech companies like Infosys and Wipro set up their headquarters there, transforming the area into a major IT hub. Today, Electronics City hosts over 200 IT/ITES companies, making it a significant contributor to Bengaluru's reputation as the "Silicon Valley of India."