Jalandhar ( ਜਲੰਧਰ ) known as Jullundur, is an ancient city in Jalandhar District in the state of Punjab, India. It has an urban population of almost a million, and another million live in the rural areas outside the city.
The city is well known for its production of traditional Indian Sweets, sports equipment, leather goods and rubber goods, and auto parts. Many major leather manufacturers are based there, the largest being Gee Kay International who supply a variety of leather products ranging from garments to tool bags around the world. Many major sports equipment manufacturers such as BAS, Bhaseen Sports (Baspo),Soccer International, Spartan and F.C. Sondhi are based there. In sports goods, some the world's best known equipment and products for football, cricket, and hockey are made in Jalandhar. Major sports giants such as Adidas, Reebok, Dunns, and Mitre outsource from Jalandhar. Current mayor is Rakesh Rathore Jalandhar was a hub of green revolution of India in early 60s. Dr. Dilbag Singh Athwal, world renowned scientist in plant breeding, developed India's first high yield wheat KALYAN. The wheat he name afer his native village Kalyanpur 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of city of Jalandhar. Later Dr. Athwal headed International Rice Research Institute, International Agricultural Development Service etc. Dr. Athwal took early retirement from his position as senior vice president Rockefeller Institute. The village Kalyanpur (now part of Jalandhar city) have produced prominent scientist including Dr. Raghbir Singh, Dr. Rajbir Kaur, Dr. Iqbal Singh Athwal. Jalandhar is the world's biggest manufacturer of leather tool pouches and aprons with major American and European customers buying from factories in Jalandhar. \ Jalandhar being the NRI Belt and having large number of marriage palaces, Jalandhar has a huge consumption of fresh flowers, with world renowned florists like Meera Florist providing the service. Recently Ludhiana district have developed more marriage palaces, and have American based companies because being the second largest district of NRI residents the Ludhiana city is the hub of Punjab. Jalandhar is also famous for its surgical tool industry. Jalandhar produces a large number of surgical tools. Big companies like Camlin outsource their production here. The city boasts of having the largest number of hospitals in Asia. A place called Basti Sheikh has many cottage projects which run without any help of the Punjab government.[citation needed] Jalandhar also has the biggest printing industry in India. Major publishing and advertising companies like, MBD, Aay Bee advertisers have their main offices in Jalandhar. Jalandhar is seeing an increasing growth of technology investment, with headquarters and operational centres from the likes of Dell and Microsoft being set up. Jalandhar is also the home of the headquarters of Kayako. Jalandhar is famous for its sports industry, but very few know the name of Hindustan Hydraulics who pioneered the manufacturing of high-tech CNC machines for sheet metal industry. The company has its customers not only in India but in countries like Germany, Holland, USA who are better known for the manufacturing of machine tools around the world. Jalandhar is also quite known for its electrical goods industry. Manufacturers like Standard Switchgears and Apex Electricals, located in Jalandhar, have been producing world-class electrical switchgears for over three decades. |