City: Bengaluru

I am overwhelmed, and must take time to draw breath, step back a little, and consider, before starting to write this review. Quite an unusual thing for me; I usually have the ability to stand a step apart from the play I am watching, in order to give a more objective, less impassioned review of what I have seen and experienced. But on Tuesday, 9th October 2018 at Ranga Shankara, Sushmita Mukherjee, the well-known film and television actress, took a firm hold of our eyes and minds, and yanked us off on an intense roller coaster ride. She held us spellbound,…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship. In our previous article, we saw how talent coming out of IT engineering colleges do not have the skill sets the IT industry needs. In this article, we look at what the solutions could be. Though the hiring scene for fresh IT graduates looks bleak, there is still some hope. There are options if one has the willingness to put in extra effort and learn while working. “Experienced talent is tough to come by and it is getting more and more expensive. Hence more companies, both large ones and startups,…

The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd ( KRDCL), which is implementing authority for the controversial elevated corridor project in Bengaluru, has recently submitted its application to the State level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (Karnataka) for Environment Impact Assessment Study. Since its inception, the project has met with opposition from several civil society organisations and activists. It has been opposed on several grounds, some of them being – the process being a top down approach with no public consultations, the environmental impact including felling of several thousands of trees, the argument that flyovers and corridors rarely solve congestion in the city,…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship. Shreyas sat on the ‘bench’ for a few months after being selected by a top information technology company in Bengaluru through a campus recruitment drive. Coming from a tier-1 college in the city, and even after undergoing an induction programme, he wasn’t given any project to work on. He felt the need to study more and acquire new skills, to keep up with the trends in hiring. He quit the job and moved to Germany to study more. Many of his classmates who couldn’t study further are still on the…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship. Feeding a city like Bengaluru, that has 1.25 crore people is a huge challenge, and provides millions of business opportunities as well. The vegetables and fruits grocery business is a major part of this industry. It requires a solid supply chain to supply fruits and vegetables to the city from the surrounding areas and beyond, as they are perishable. There are thousands of vendors selling vegetables across Bengaluru, who set up shop on pavements or small stalls, or use a push cart. For these two couples living in Kammanahalli, the…

Karnataka first state to pass Good Samaritan Bill The Karnataka Good Samaritan and Medical Professional (Protection and Regulation during Emergency Situations) Bill 2016 has finally got President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent for implementation in the state. Home ministry officials confirmed the news to the media on Sunday. The act relieves citizens who act as ‘Good Samaritans’ during road-accidents, providing timely help to victims, from all legal obligations including appearances at police stations or courts. Bystanders to accidents don’t need to produce identity proof at the hospital and can withhold consent to act as witnesses, thus preventing harassment for the good deed…

It was a novel idea of providing services to students in the comfort of their homes: Apply for the BMTC bus pass online and have it delivered to you at home. However, the new service has run into rough weather as close to 70,000 bus pass applications remained unprocessed, forcing the students to turn up in large numbers at the KempeGowda  Terminal to collect their passes. With September 30th being the last day to avail these concession passes, and many unable to apply for it online because of glitches in procedure, many students queued up at the BMTC depot to…

There's a lot of talk about Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation's efficiency, price increase and making data-based decisions. People are asking the BMTC to stop fare hike. Before getting emotional about it all, let us go through the following points. Do we want to run BMTC as public sector transport organisation generating profit/Return on Investment (ROI) and to grow the network specifically focused on profits? Do we want to run BMTC as an employment-oriented social responsibility organisation to the public at large irrespective of its income/expenditure status? Do we want to run BMTC as a social responsibility for every citizen (Indian…

Citizens of Bengaluru were delighted to notice the tough action taken against the perpetrators of the city’s biggest eyesores - the polluting buntings and banners. These ugly and disfiguring hoardings used to obstruct straight vision and trigger off accidents by diverting motorists. For the past one month, thanks to the ultimatum by Karnataka High Court Chief Justice subsequent to a couple of PILs; the buntings were removed on a war footing. But now, for the past few days banners and buntings have started slowly popping up trampling the ban order. A few days back huge banners were being fixed across…

Panathur, situated near Kadubeesanahalli area in East Bengaluru, despite being the bridge to Outer Ring Road and Varthur where many tech parks are located, has always been a disguised rich slum. For people who migrate to Bengaluru thinking that it is an IT hub, the dreams shatter on the very first day, when they see the traffic here. Many multi-million dollar companies have their offices in the vicinity and the place is home to many good apartments - “good” as long as the residents are inside. What does a usual day on Panathur road look like? Even on the weekends,…