High-Tech Hyderabad

Entertain corporate clients in India’s innovative city. 

- Richard Newton

HYDERABAD’S GREAT LEAP into the future began in the 1990s, you could say. That was when ambitious plans were initiated to create a state-of-the-art campus for IT and other emerging industries on a large site west of downtown. Twenty years on, HITEC City (as the campus became known) is a reality, helping rebrand this large, ancient city in southern India as “Cyberabad.”

But you can also look much further back for the roots of innovation here. Golconda Fort, mostly in ruins now on an imposing granite hill to the south of HITEC City, was originally constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries. From the start, this formidable fortress stood at the cutting edge of communications technology, using acoustics to magical effect. Clap your hands at the entrance portico and you will be heard in the hilltop pavilion more than half a mile away. Inside some of the surviving buildings, whispers carry from room to room. The early rulers of Hyderabad State — the Nizams — understood the power of communication.

Several ornate Nizam palaces are scattered throughout the city; one, the Falaknuma Palace, has been converted into a sumptuously luxurious hotel operated by Taj Hotels, set amid 32 acres of gardens. The hotel makes the perfect base, ideal for entertaining business contacts and a peaceful retreat from the hectic madness of the city streets at day’s end.