The Business Towns

Kollengode Town, Kerala, takes its name from blacksmiths. “Kollen” refers to the blacksmith community that lived here, and the name stayed even after the area came under a royal family…

Koraput Town, Odisha, is nicknamed both the “Switzerland of Odisha” and the “Aero Engine Capital of India,” two titles that don’t usually go together. The first comes from its cool,…

Langford Town, Bengaluru, is getting a metro station with its name on it, but the station isn’t technically in Langford Town. According to its official details, Langford Town metro station…

Leisure Town, Hadapsar, Pune, is in a locality with one of the city’s most curious names: Sade Satra Nali. In Marathi, “sade satra” means seventeen and a half, and “nali”…

Napier Town, Jabalpur, is often assumed to be named after the famous British general Robert Napier, but it wasn’t. According to a 2024 report on Jabalpur’s colonial place names, the…

Mokokchung Town, Nagaland, is the heartland of the Ao Naga people, and just a few kilometres away is the village where, according to legend, the Ao first settled. Ao tradition…

Mon Town, Nagaland, is the gateway to a village whose chief rules on both sides of an international border. Longwa, about 42 km from Mon, sits right on the India–Myanmar…

Moran Town, Assam, gets its name from a market. “Moran” is a shortened form of “Moran-hat,” a trading place where members of the Moran community came to sell their goods.…

Moreh Town, Manipur, is a border town where, before 2023, you could hear a single sentence switch languages midway. One journalist who visited in 2019 described people starting a sentence…

Austin Town, Bengaluru, has produced more international footballers than many Indian states, which is why some writers call it “Little Brazil.” Several of India’s early Olympic footballers, including Anthony, Kanniah…