BENGALURU, Oct. 1 -- Bengaluru, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka and the country's third-most populous city, is perhaps best known as India's "Silicon Valley".

It is home to the headquarters of Infosys and Wipro, two of India's "Big Six" IT companies, and to multinational giants like Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which unveiled its "Ananta" campus in 2025, a sprawling 12-storey structure of roughly 1.6 million square feet, with seating for more than 5,000 employees.

I visited the city last month. After landing at Kempegowda International Airport, which runs on 100 per cent renewable energy, and clearing security at Terminal 2, through its hanging gardens and indoor waterfalls, I got my first taste of Bengaluru's inf...