About Bhopal

Bhopal is a city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It's one of India’s greenest cities. There are two main lakes, the Upper Lake and the Lower Lake. On the banks of the Upper Lake is Van Vihar National Park, home to tigers, lions and leopards. The State Museum has fossils, paintings and rare Jain sculptures. Taj-ul-Masjid is one of Asia’s largest mosques, with white domes, minarets and a huge courtyard.

History

The capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal was built on the site of the 11th Century City of Bhojpal, founded by the Parmara King Bhoj (1000-1055). The city was originally known as Bhojpal, named after Bhoj and the dam (‘pal’) that he is said to have constructed to form the lakes surrounding Bhopal. The present city of Bhopal was founded by one of Emperor Aurangzeb’s Afghan soldiers Dost Mohammed Khan, who took advantage of the chaos that followed Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 and managed to establish his small kingdom in Bhopal. Although the kingdom was small, it survived several wars and became a princely state in British India in 1818.

Weather: 27°C, Wind SW at 6 km/h, 34% Humidity

Economy of Bhopal

The major small and medium scaled industries are located in Govindpura industrial area. It has 1044 such industries.The largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited has a unit in Bhopal. A major manufacturer of heavy electrical equipments, BHEL serves as an important source of employment in Bhopal and nearby areas. The city is also a home to the DB Corp, which is called Bhaskar Group informally, a Rs. 1700 crore (Rs. 17 billion) business conglomerate with strong presence in media. The publication and head office of Bhaskar Group is located in Maharana Pratap Nagar. Another major publishing house i.e. Manjul Publishing House famous for the translation of the Harry Potter series of novels into Hindi is located in the old city of Bhopal. As mentioned before that Bhopal is divided in to two parts, the old city and the new city. The major industries in the old city are medicinal, electrical goods, chemicals, cotton and jewelry. Other industries include flour milling, cotton dying, cloth weaving and painting, as well as sealing wax, making matches, and sporting equipment. The residents of the city are also engaged in large retail businesses. Beautiful zardozi and small string purse,batua is also a popular handicraft item made in old city of Bhopal. In addition, there are also a large number of garages in the Old City which specialize in automobile conversion. Mandideep is another industrial suburb of Bhopal. With total exports of around 2,300 crore rupees ($500m; £300m) per year it has ever remained a hub of economic activities in Bhopal. Hindustan Electo Graphite and Lupin Laboratories ltd. are two famous industrial units in Mandideep area. While Hindustan Electo Graphite (HEG) ranks amongst the largest graphite electrode plant in the world, other Lupin Laboratories ltd. is famous name in the field of bio-medical sciences. Apart from these two many others like Eicher Tractors have their operational unit at Mandideep. In recent years many business houses are competeing to tap the ample business opportunity in Bhopal. The city saw the sudden emergence of mall culture which has now emerged as an accepted part of the life of Bhopal. Many new venues for business are coming up giving Bhopal a tag of ever growing city in India.