Catherwood LibraryILR School

Workers striking over a regional border dispute have brought Bangalore, India's equivalent of Silicon Valley, to a standstill. Offices, schools and government sites were shut as activists staged a 12-hour stoppage in the state of Karnataka. The dispute centres on Belgaum, a town 500 kilometers north of Bangalore and claimed by both Karnataka and the neighbouring state of Maharashtra. It began soon after India gained independence nearly sixty years ago. More than 1,500 Indian and multinational technology firms like Hewlett Packard, Dell, Microsoft, IBM, Infosys and Wipro have offices in Bangalore.