Articles by Akshatha M

Early August, house owners in some neighbourhoods of Bengaluru woke up to find they may soon not have a roof over their heads. They were gripped by panic. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had initiated the drive against storm water drain (SWD) encroachers. On the first day of the drive, buildings were demolished in more than 32 locations in Bommanahalli, Mahadevapura and Yelahanka zones. Emotions ran high at the demolition sites. House owners were seen pleading the BBMP officials to grant them extra time to vacate, while some of them even got into an argument. It was a disturbing…

In the previous story on athletics for kids, we dealt with what Bengaluru city lacks when it comes to training budding athletes or athlete enthusiasts. Here is the second part of the series on the private and government facilities that are available for young athletic talents. The government does allocate funds for the sports activities. In the financial year 2015-16, Rs 118 crore was sanctioned (State and Central) for initiating various works in the Sports and Youth Services Department. The department officials say that of the grants allocated, 70 per cent was earmarked for sports-related works and the rest is for…

Phase 1 and 2 of Namma Metro network. Image: themetrorailguy.com Over the last few months, the news of Metro connectivity along the Outer Ring Road has been making the rounds. There have been news reports of the modification in Namma Metro Phase II plan to accommodate the metro link along the ORR, connecting the Silk Board Junction and K R Puram. But will this plan materialise? Is there a timeframe? According to a recent Deccan Herald news report, BMRCL has decided to modify the Phase II project, to make K R Puram and Silk Board junction as interchange stations. BMRCL…

The process of Aadhaar authentication. Pic: UIDAI website The Unique Identification numbers of Aadhaar card holders are being extensively used by government and private agencies for authentication purposes, as we have already seen in an earlier article. READ: Part 1 of the Aadhaar story for an idea about how private agencies are using Aadhaar authentication system to provide service to the customers. There are 246 registered Authentication User Agencies in India, both government and private, which are helping organisations and individuals in executing the authentication process. In simple terms, they help the organisation that has placed the authentication request, to confirm…

Pic: Wikimedia Commons In November 2015, even before the Aadhaar Act was passed in the parliament, Swabhimaan Distributions Private Ltd, a company based in Gurgaon, launched an Aadhaar based service called TrustID. It was hailed as the first mobile app to help people verify the identity of an individual using his/her Aadhaar ID in less than 1 minute. The TrustID website says the service aims to effectively utilise the power of Aadhaar for identity verification of an individual. Basically, it offers instant Aadhaar ID authentication or Aadhaar ID background check for any contact. It can be used to check anyone’s Aadhaar…

During the last few months, there have been several instances of the Karnataka Transport Department seizing cabs that operate under on-demand app-based aggregators. All hell broke loose for Ola and Uber cabs who were operating merrily in Bengaluru, when the State Transport Department introduced a formal set of rules governing taxi aggregators, on April 2nd, 2016.  In the previous two stories on taxi aggregators, you read about how Ola and Uber have changed the commuting pattern in Bengaluru, the commuters response to it, and how has it changed the lives of cab drivers in city. The policy called as the Karnataka On-demand…

On a bright Friday afternoon when office goers on Outer Ring Road - the Bellandur-Marathahalli stretch that houses many IT firms, are wrapping up work and planning their weekend, a young man in his early 30s clad in a crisp white shirt and khakhi trousers arrives at the Varthur traffic signal to man the traffic. His duty starts at 2 pm sharp and would go on till 10. Fridays are heavy traffic days, specially on the Outer Ring Road which is infamous for its endless traffic jams. But he is all prepared for his day’s work. He knows how miserable…

Taxi aggregators have brought a change in the commuting pattern in the city. Recently, on a late evening, I waited for an auto/cab at HSR Layout that can take me to Gandhi Nagar. At the auto stand, the driver says: “No meter madam. Gandhi Nagar is far,” hence he demands 500 bucks. I let go of the option and stop another auto on the road. This driver tries to strike a deal for Rs 350. I let go of this too. Then I try to search for a cab/auto in Ola app. The auto driver takes me to Gandhi Nagar…

Ever since the app-based cab aggregators - Ola, Uber, TaxiForSure entered the Indian market, a lot of stories have been told over the lucrative offers they give to the cab drivers and how the lives of cab drivers have changed. We have even come across the cases of highly educated and handsomely paid executives quitting their jobs in Bengaluru, to take up driving as a profession. The profession of cab drivers affiliated to app-based aggregators has been seen as a road to prosperity. There have been accounts of drivers earning even upto Rs 80,000 a month, which is equal to…

How many legal and illegal hoardings are there in Bengaluru and how to identify them? Looking for a complete location-specific data? Chances are that you will never ever get it. In the month of April, when I started working on a series of stories on decoding illegal advertising hoardings in Bengaluru, I tried to gather information about legal and illegal hoardings in the city. Since the officials at Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have claimed to have conducted surveys on hoardings, I thought they would be able to provide me the required information. Kumar Naik, who was the BBMP Commissioner…