City: Bengaluru

A hoarding at the Directorate of Health and family welfare with information on dengue and chikangunya Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal ‘Dengue-like disease hits Bangalore’, ‘Sting of dengue at a feverish high in Bangalore’, ‘Dengue cases jump 3-fold in State’, are some of the headlines in recent media reports on dengue. However, several doctors in the city feel that there may be a slight misrepresentation in these reports that could unnecessarily result in panic and fear among people. A doctor with a well-known private hospital in the city, on the condition of anonymity, says a newspaper reporter asked if the dengue prevalence…

In a world of excess, how do you teach your kids to stay grounded? “Our last two vacations were in foreign countries, one intentional and one by chance. This year, when the vacation during summer was Coorg, our son asked us if we were going ‘abroad’ later.” Entrepreneur Supriya Kalbag laughs, but adds that the innocent query gave her a jolt. Was she raising a child who expected holidays to come with a foreign ticket and was taking for granted the hard work and effort that went into the comfortable life he had? Supriya decided to have a chat with…

To T Sham Bhat, BDA Commissioner Subir Hari Singh, BDA Chairman Town Planning Chairman                            Subject: Construct pedestrian subways in Bangalore This is to bring to your notice that there is urgent requirement of pedestrian subways at areas such as: • Vasanthnagar - Cantonment • Mekhri Circle • Jayamahal – Fun World • Indian Express • Mantri mall area • Belundoor • Yeshwanthpur,  etc It has indeed become a pain trying to cross roads in Bangalore as one has to literally put a risk to his life to cross a road. If he is not a good sprinter, heaven will…

Getting hold of a bottle of acid is not impossible, in Bangalore, but difficult - unless you have local contacts  - this what I found when I went hunting for acid on City streets a week before the Centre submitted the regulations on sale of acid to Supreme Court. My hunt started yielding results when I reached B V K Iyengar road and its surrounding areas. After searching in places like Ebrahim Street, J C Road and even petty jewelery shops and battery shops who use acid to clean jewels and batteries, I approached a shop on Hospital Road, near…

The disturbing trend of 'criminalisation of politics' – which is simply or rather simplistically understood, as being the criminalisation of our elected representative bodies i.e., Parliament, state assemblies and other representative bodies - has engaged considerable attention of the Indian citizenry, for reasons that are too obvious to require any explanation here. When concerns around this issue were raised over a period of time, before the most important forum within the judiciary, the Supreme Court, some interesting pronouncements have come our way. Evidently, they have made an impact on the electoral process, even  though it is debatable whether such judicial…

If there is one politician who is most qualified to present a Budget for Karnataka, it is the Chief Minister himself - Siddaramaiah. While he has shown his ability to do the fine balance with not antagonising the public with more taxes, he has played to the gallery as far as keeping multiple vote banks in good humour is concerned. What should the budget aim to do? What are the key measures that should have been dealt with differently in the budget? Creation of more jobs across agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors should be the fundamental objective for the moment.…

“His form is ungainly — his intellect small —” (So the Bellman would often remark) “But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, Is the thing that one needs with a Snark. Lewis Carroll: The Hunting of the Snark About 10 years ago, four NGOs in Bangalore — Janaagraha, Public Affairs Centre, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies and Voices — got together to demand quarterly accounts from the Bangalore City Corporation. This was called the PROOF campaign, and it attracted a great deal of interest. PROOF became possible because a system of accounting for the Corporation had been…

After years of lobbying by Praja, CiSTUP (Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning, Indian Institute of Science) and Directorate of Urban Land and transport (DULT), Commuters Railway Services (CRS) has got primary approval from the state government on July 5th, 2013. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced this in state budget too. He said that the project will make use of Special Purpose Vehicle that will be floated under the name Bangalore Suburban Rail Corporation Limited. He also sanctioned Rs.200 crore for construction of 29 underbridges and overbridges for railway across the city where the tracks intersect roads. A feasibility…

Every budget talks about how Bangalore is an important metropolis and how its glory as an IT-BT capital has to be restored. In keeping with the current sentiment, the budget has discussions about garbage, roads, sites and investments. However there is only so much a city can take; so much a city can absorb; a limit to which it can cope. So, the question with every budget is that why are we so Bangalore-centric? Unpack the current Karnataka budget and you have a section dedicated to Bangalore which details out fly-overs, sky-walks, grade separators and garbage management. There is an…

Connectivity to Bangalore will be improved in the coming years, with the government formally announcing the willingness to form Bangalore Suburban Rail Corporation, in the state budget, a few days after the proposal getting formal approval. This has cheered many groups who have been batting for the commuter railway for many years. Other major announcement was the decision to separate ground water wing from the Mines and Geology Department and form a Ground Water Directorate. This looks important in the background of the Right to Water bill proposed to be tabled in the Parliament. “We should not avail loans just…