Consumers

A young seller arranging the vegetables at a weekly Santhe near Bannerghatta Biological Park. Pic: Bosky Khanna Food inflation is at 7-month high. Wouldn’t it be nice to know areas where you could get fresh vegetables in Bengaluru for throw away price? There are some places hidden on the outskirts of the city where you can buy fresh locally grown vegetables directly from farmers. Also known as Santhes, local small vegetable markets are organised once a week, in various places on the city outskirts. Homemakers, suppliers to hotels and restaurants, street sellers, shop owners and even direct hotel and restaurant…

In a significant ruling, Justice A S Pachhapure of the High Court of Karnataka dismissed on October 11, 2013 the petitions that sought quashing of criminal prosecution of senior representatives of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwar (UAS), M/s Mahyco/Monsanto and M/s Sathguru, who have been accused by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and Karnataka State Biodiversity Board (KBB) of committing serious criminal acts of biopiracy in promoting BT Brinjal, India's first food GMO. The petitions dismissed by the Court are those filed by University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad,  R R Hanchinal, Vice Chancellor and H S Vijaykumar, Registrar of…

Neutralizers like baking soda are added to milk to make it last longer, which might turn harmful in the long run. Pic: Shree D N Do you ever bother about the quality of milk you consume every day in various forms? If not, be careful. Six out of eight major brands among the milk sold in Bengaluru have been proved to be of substandard quality. During a BBMP council meeting held on September 30, 2013, Corporator S Harish submitted an astounding report on the eight milk brands distributed in the city. However buyers of Nandini (a product of Karnataka Milk…

Buying a car can be a harrowing experience. With all the various models and makes that are currently available on the Bangalore market, it is not always the easiest of tasks selecting what you want. One of the key point to be looked at while choosing a car is to look at your routine. For example, if the primary use of your car would be to get to work and back and not much else, you might consider getting a smaller car like the Maruti Alto 800. If you need the car to haul a large amount of cargo, consider…

This article was written in September 2013. Some details found here are outdated. This has been updated, to include the policies of new NDA government. The new article has been published on December 24th, 2014. Read it here: How to get LPG subsidy with or without Aadhaar card. How to get LPG subsidy with or without Aadhaar card Read more at: https://citizenmatters.in/articles/how-to-get-lpg-subsidy-with-or-without-aadhaar-card?utm_source=copy How to get LPG subsidy with or without Aadhaar card Read more at: https://citizenmatters.in/articles/how-to-get-lpg-subsidy-with-or-without-aadhaar-card?utm_source=copy The Central government’s ambitious Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme for LPG will be introduced in Bangalore starting December 1, 2013. So, be ready with…

Inderjeet Singh Arora, a 26-year-old IT professional recently inquired about purchasing a washing machine in one of the large format retail showrooms in Bangalore. The sales executive showed him various washing machines; from semi automatics to fully automatics. Even though he had multiple choices, Inderjeet couldn't pick the best one suitable to his needs. Many of us get stuck in similar situations. Our lifestyle needs, water and power consumption, noise generated from the machine, installation area required, frequency of usage, quantity of clothes and etc. are the major factors to buy a washing machine. Often, buying decisions are driven by…

Susheela, a vegetable vendor at Gandhi Bazaar who was thrown out on Jan 23rd, is one of those who was allowed to return on February 9th by city councillor P N Sadashiva. Pic: Vijayalakshmi P. After being thrown out by BBMP on January 23rd, vendors of Gandhi Bazaar, Basavanagudi have set up shops again on February 9th. "Yesterday the police constables chased us, but today they allowed us. But how about compensation?", asks Venkatappa, a 35-year-old florist. The vendors allege that the BBMP never gave them any notice.The trader's association of Gandhi Bazaar had a list which was used by…

Starting with the holiday weekend of December 24th-25th, OfferGrid, a distribution network for service and product deals for publishers is powering local deals on Citizen Matters, Bangalore's interactive newsmagazine. Deals from over 17 categories ranging from health care and dance classes to dining and education are available for nearly 24 localities in Bengaluru, at the time of launch on December 24th. All major major localities such as Jayanagar, Indiranagar, Koramangala, Malleshwaram, etc, are covered. The deals are available for readers on the Citizen Matters home page, article pages, events pages and more. Launched in Q3 2011, OfferGrid Exchange is the…

Bengaluru is one of India's more vibrant hubs for startups. But this startup near Whitefield is a firm few people would have expected. A Hoskote farmer has launched his own grocery supermarket. H Krishna Murthy, 40, a farmer who goes by the name Krishna, opened his swanky outlet, A1 Fresh World (A1FW) at Kadugodi last month. Krishna hails from Kolathur village in Hosakote and runs an 18-acre farm. Not unlike the major players in this sector, A1FW carries everything from fresh vegetables, dry groceries, diary foods, confectionary, beverages, savouries and so for. Hoskote-based farmer Krishna Murthy, who opened a supermarket…

After moving to Mahalakshmi Layout with her family, a few months ago, Lakshmi Teeka, 32, found that there weren't too many grocery stores in her neighbourhood. At supermarkets, she had to wait in line to pay the bill and checkout. Her friends introduced her to Town Essentials (towness.com), an online grocery shopping website that takes orders online and delivers groceries home. "I could do shopping at 12 am in the night and didn't have to wait in line anymore. The prices too are on par with wholesale prices so I began to order all my groceries including vegetables and fruits…