Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani have chosen "TecHalli" as an alternative name for Bengaluru, instead of India's Silicon Valley.
The name, submitted by a Twitter user, includes the word "halli" which means "village" in Kannada.
"We have a result: @NandanNilekani who agreed to be a co-judge shortlisted 4 entries and then we both converged on one entry from those that we thought was the most appropriate. And the winner is…(Drumroll please) 'TecHalli' submitted by @SrinivasPReddy," Mahindra tweeted on June 4.Thank you Sirs ..
— SriniPatlolla (@SrinivasPReddy) June 5, 2021
"His entry cleverly put the 'H' in Tech to double use. By capitalising the ‘H’ he drew attention to 'Halli' meaning Village/Place in Kannada. So we now go from Silcon Valley to TecHalli! Srini, DM @MahindraRise your mailing address to receive a model Pininfarina H2 Speed (sic)," he tweeted.
Mahindra had conducted a caption competition, calling for a new title for the country's tech capital. He said the winner of the contest will get a scale replica of car design company Pininfarina's H2 Speed.
He had tweeted that he was "not thrilled" that Bengaluru is called the "Silicon Valley of India", adding that it was "too derivative" and "wannabe".