SSC
Silicon Valley, the global hub of information technology, is located in:
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Answer: Option C — California, USA
Detailed Solution
Silicon Valley is located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California, USA.
About Silicon Valley:
It covers the Santa Clara Valley and nearby areas, including cities such as San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino and Menlo Park.
The name comes from the "silicon" used in making semiconductor chips. Many early chip makers were located there.
The term was popularised by the journalist Don Hoefler in a series of articles in 1971.
Its growth is linked to Stanford University, which encouraged its graduates to start companies nearby. The "Stanford Industrial Park" was established in 1951.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) was founded in a garage in Palo Alto in 1939; the garage is known as the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley".
Fairchild Semiconductor (1957) and Intel (1968) were early chip makers.
It is home to the headquarters of many of the world's largest technology companies, such as Apple (Cupertino), Google/Alphabet (Mountain View), Meta (Menlo Park), Nvidia, Intel and Cisco (Santa Clara and San Jose).
It is known for its venture capital firms and start-up culture.
Indian-origin entrepreneurs and executives have played a large role there; for example, Sundar Pichai heads Google and Alphabet, and Satya Nadella heads Microsoft (based in Redmond, Washington).
Silicon Valley of India:
Bengaluru (Bangalore), Karnataka, is called the "Silicon Valley of India" because it is India's leading IT hub. Infosys, Wipro and many start-ups are based there.
Hyderabad's HITEC City is called "Cyberabad".
Other technology hubs:
- "Silicon Hills": Austin, Texas.
- Route 128: Boston, Massachusetts.
- "Silicon Wadi": Israel.
- "Silicon Fen": Cambridge, England.
- "Silicon Glen": Scotland.
- Seattle (Washington State): home to Microsoft (Redmond) and Amazon.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Texas has "Silicon Hills" around Austin.
- ✗Massachusetts has the Route 128 technology corridor near Boston.
- ✗Washington State has Microsoft and Amazon in the Seattle area.
Quick tip
Remember: Silicon Valley = California (San Francisco Bay Area; Santa Clara Valley; Stanford; HP garage 1939); "Silicon Valley of India" = Bengaluru; "Cyberabad" = Hyderabad; Silicon Hills = Austin, Texas.
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World GK: Countries, Capitals & Currencies — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of World GK: Countries, Capitals & Currencies, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers world GK: countries with their capitals, currencies and parliaments, national symbols, famous landmarks, the longest, largest and highest features of the world, and international boundary lines such as the Radcliffe, McMahon and Durand Lines. The most common questions match a country with its capital or currency, or a parliament with its name (such as the Knesset of Israel or the Diet of Japan). Revise countries continent by continent, giving extra attention to India's neighbours. Questions on boundary lines usually ask which two countries a line separates. Practise the world GK questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.