Hyderabad

Also dubbed as the City of Pearls and Cyberabad, Hyderabad is a major tourist destination in India. Presently, it is the twin capital of the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in India. But as proposed by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra will soon have a new capital in the Vijaywada region. Set up in 1591, the city is one of the major metropolitan cities of the country. It is famous for its IT industry, biopharmaceutical sector, and the Telugu film industry. Hyderabad represents a confluence of the old and the new - it is known the world over for its 400-year-old Charminar as well as for its pearls, bangles, silks, IT companies and mouth-watering cuisine. Though a cosmopolitan city, it has retained its glorious past. Hyderabad is home to people from diverse cultures and traditions.

The history of Hyderabad goes back to the period when Quli Qutub Shah seized power from the Bahamani Kingdom in 1512 and established the city of Golconda and the Qutub Shahi dynasty. However, lack of water supplies and frequent epidemics like plague and cholera forced Mohammed, the fifth Quli Qutub Shahi to found a new city and thus Hyderabad was founded. Asaf Jah-I proclaimed himself the Nizam and established independent rule of the Deccan as the Mughal Empire started to crumble. In 1798, under the subsidiary alliance agreement signed between the Nizam and the British East India Company, the territory north of the present-day Hussain Sagar Lake was established as a cantonment. It came to be known as Secunderabad. Successive Nizams of the Asaf Jah dynasty ruled it until the state was merged into the Indian Union in 1948.

Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, is fast becoming the IT hub. Most tourism here is business tourism. The city's boundaries have been extending far beyond the original city - now called the Old City - to include Secunderabad and new developments in adjacent municipalities. The city has its fair share of history and culture which now seems to be overtaken by the metro image with the sprawling cafes, malls and corporate buildings. Hyderabad also provides for a great gastronomic