City: Bengaluru

The Karnataka government is trying to increase tourism in the city of Bengaluru. Recent news reports say that they are planning to extend the 11.30pm closing time for bars and restaurants in the city to 1am. A few days ago the paper had a report of the city introducing a tourist 'Big Bus' with a hop-on, hop-off service which goes to the tourist attractions of the city — Lalbaug, Cubbon Park, Vidhan Soudha, Bangalore Palace, Tipu's Palace, Bull temple etc. However, these tourist attractions are all quite old. Most predate independence and the formation of Karnataka and are at least…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBBMP) on February 17th 2014 presented a Budget of Rs 7773.08 crore for 2014-15. However, there are not many new projects, while the emphasis is made on paying pending bills and continuing spill over works. Debt-ridden cash-strapped BBMP had come under fire in last July for presenting an imaginative Budget of Rs 8498 crore. Out of the expected Rs 8445,26 crore, BBMP could collect only Rs 3208.95 crore. This reduced the estimated expenditure for 2013-14 to Rs 3236.15 crore, and the pending payments and announced works in the last Budget spilled over to the 2014-15 Budget.…

On Sunday morning (February 16th, 2014), I was rudely woken up at 5.15 am by a group of people who were making religion* loudly outside my apartment block. I’d heard this cacophony before and had dismissed it, assuming incorrectly on two separate occasions that it was a funeral procession and a Jain family taking sanyas. Even though the religion was happening loudly on both occasions, I thought this was an aberration that can’t be outraged over because these were one-time events. However, what took place on Sunday changed all that. At 5.15 am, about 15 people, armed with a dholak…

Bangalore Political Action Committeee (BPAC) conducted a Google Hangout panel discussion on the budget, on February 14th, 2013. The panelists included BPAC President Kiran M Shaw, Vice-president TV Mohandas Pai, social entrepreneur Ashwin Mahesh and urbanist V Ravichandar. The debate was moderated by Revathy Ashok of BPAC. Mohandas Pai said though in terms of growth the average of the state is better than the national average, he wants to see a large vision in the budget to develop the entire region and industries in terms of infrastructure. He said he wasn't happy with the 7.2 % growth in service economy,…

Plan outlay - State Budget 2014-15. Chart courtesy: Budget document Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's pro-agricultural, pro-poor Budget seems to concentrate more on the rest of Karnataka, but it hasn't neglected Bangalore totally. The allocation to the city seems to focus more on addressing infrastructural problems than anything else. Two major elevated corridors - one to smoothen the airport traffic and another to ease the pressure on outer ring road, will be major step towards reducing travelling time for Northern and Western parts of the city. But these also mean that the city will lose some more precious green cover. The Budget…

Great (Global) Backyard Bird Count this weekend! Bangaloreans, put your plans for this weekend on hold and participate in the Great Global Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)! Or maybe, you could carry on with your plans, so long as you participate in the Great Global Backyard Bird Count! The Great Global Backyard Bird Count is an annual census of sorts, tracking species and number of birds across the world. Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, it was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds. In the past 14 years, tens…

Lok Sabha elections are nearing. People are waking up to see what has been done from the funds the Member of Parliament gets. For those interested, here is a little bit of history. The Government of India put in place the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) since 23-12-1993, (barely two weeks following the passing of the Seventy third and seventy fourth amendments on 6 December 1993), enabling MPs to identify small works of capital nature with emphasis on creation of durable community assets based on locally felt needs in their constituencies. The initial allocation of Rs. 5…

The Ugly Indian (TUI) is an inspired community in its truest sense. One of the forerunners of large-scale citizen movement to clean up the streets of Bangalore, they have inspired large groups of people to take ownership of their locality and do their bit. It was only a matter of time before it picked up. Now the movement seems to have touched most of the educated elite in Bangalore. Several TUI-inspired spotfixing groups are getting formed across various localities of Bangalore. The groups that are currently in operation are: Whitefield Rising: All areas from Kundalahalli to ITPL Banaswadi Rising: Kammanahalla-Kasturi…