Thiruvananthapuram known in English as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland. Referred to by Mahatma Gandhi as the "Evergreen city of India", the city is characterized by its undulating terrain of low coastal hills and busy commercial alleys. With more than 750,000 inhabitants in the city proper, and a population around 1.68 million when including the wider urban agglomeration, Thiruvananthapuram is the largest and most populous city in Kerala. It is an IT hub of the state with over 80% of the state's software exports.
The city houses several central and state government offices and organizations. Apart from being the political nerve centre of Kerala, it is also a major academic hub and is home to several educational institutions including the University of Kerala, and to many science and technology institutions, the most prominent being the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Technopark, the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala, Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), the Centre for Development Studies, the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), the Regional Research Laboratory, the Centre for Earth Science Studies, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology and the Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology. It is also considered as one of the 10 greenest cities in India. Thiruvananthapuram was ranked as the best city in Kerala to live in by a recent Times of India
