India's growing tech hub Bengaluru had been christened the country's 'Silicon valley' for a long time, but that may soon change as auto industry tycoon Anand Mahindra has found an interesting name.
Earlier this week, Anand Mahindra announced a competetion - arising out of his own dislike at the 'wannabe' and 'derivative' title "silicon valley" to find a new, innovative, and true-to-Bengaluru name for the IT city.
Mahindra, upon coming accross a news article about a Bengaluru-San Francisco flight calling it a 'shuttle between two high tech valleys' put up a contest on Twitter giving netizens a 48-hour window to come up with a better title. The winner would get a scale replica of the Pininfarina H2 Speed miniature car.
And the winning coinage was one that derived a name combining 'tech' and the Namma Bengaluru-character: "TecHalli"
'Halli' in Kannada means 'village' and many places in Bengaluru bear that as a suffix.
Mahindra also shared a Tweet saying that the city was originally a village and 'TecHalli' would be a reminder for everyone to remember their roots. The competition was also judged by Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani.