GENRE: Explainers

I moved to Bengaluru six months ago to start a fellowship programme. This was my first visit to Asia. I was fortunate my housing was sorted by my host organisation. Most expatriates and students who come to Bengaluru are not as lucky as they have to look for accommodation on their own. For first timers finding reasonable, quality accommodation in a good neighbourhood can be quite a challenge. Ideally, the area should be friendly, the neighbours should be good, it should be free from noise and bare necessities should be accessible. Most expats posted to Bengaluru will have a relocation…

Part 1 and Part 2 of our series on rainwater harvesting (RWH) exposed how the government as well as citizens have failed in making the most of a scheme that, if implemented well, could have set Chennai as a worthy example in water management. While negligence on the part of authorities has been a crucial factor, lack of awareness on RWH as a whole also plays a major role. There is a need to dispel the ignorance or misconceptions among residents, many of whom feel that the construction of RWH structures cost a bomb.   Experts who have worked on…

This January, Neha Suri, a Delhi resident, got refund and compensation from the builder who took money from her offering an apartment and never handed it over. Neha had paid Rs 46 lakh to the builder in 2007. The builder had promised to hand over the apartment in 2010, but never did. In 2015, Neha filed a complaint at the National Consumer Redressal Commission. This January, the Commission ordered the builder to refund her Rs 46 lakh along with simple interest of 10% per year on this amount, and litigation costs of Rs 10,000. In another consumer case this April,…

When your options for bank deposits are flexible, you need not invest all your funds in FDs, but can spread them out across different instruments. This helps you to diversify your investments and expands the reach of your hand. Moreover, even when you decide to invest in FDs, won’t it help if you reinvest periodically? Invest first in short-term FDs and then as it matures, invest again for longer stretches of time. Keep the process alive even as different FDs mature. This could be an important lever that will enable you to meet your monthly income needs. It is not…

Even in the dusky season of retirement, when one is meant to finally relax having successfully shouldered the responsibilities of a lifetime, the elderly today have creases of concern on their faces, as they find interests rates for their investments falling. “Retirement has not been too exciting for me,” exclaims Anantharaman, who completed service two years ago. “I had planned for it to be special and I had put aside some money in fixed deposits (FDs). However, I had never imagined that the interest rates on our FD assets after retirement would be hit thus.” Well, they have been. And…

Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) has come out with the draft plan for Bengaluru, and has displayed the Revised Master Plan-2031 (RMP-2031) in its website. It's time for interested citizens to understand and decode the RMP and comment in it, raise objections or give suggestions. For starters, read all the chapters – www.bdabangalore.org/TPMRMP2031.html , or http://www.bdabangalore.org/RMP2031.html. The pages are in the high triple digits and it is heavy reading – so it will take time. But it is a necessary first step so that unlike the protests about Padmavati, we are commenting based on knowing about what’s contained in the document. I…

In May 2017, members of the Sarjapura Residents Welfare Association (SRWA) initiated a project that turned out to be India’s first crowd-funded tree transplantation exercise. Since the initial months of 2017, scores of huge old trees – some even centuries old, were being axed to clear space for roads to be widened from Dommasandra to Sarjapura and beyond. Local residents couldn’t protest against this road widening, since getting good roads for their travel was indeed crucial for them. However, they could not bear the pain of losing these grand old trees and total annihilation of the lush green cover around.…

Launched in 2009 by the Government of India (GoI), Aadhaar is increasingly becoming inevitable in every walk of life. While it has become mandatory to link your Aadhaar card with your PAN Card, PDS card, bank account, mobile connections etc., many city residents are finding it quite a task to get the Aadhaar card made, primarily due to ambiguities in information available online. Here is a quick FAQ that can help you get started without further delay. Q. Where can I get my Aadhaar card made in Chennai? First things first: it must be noted that application for Aadhaar Card…

The jokes on Facebook and Whatsapp have been relentless -- some even gross, indicating the blockage of various bodily functions because they have not been linked to Aadhaar! Notwithstanding those, or the more serious concerns and critiques raised by scores of individuals, the government remains steadfast in its mission of mandating UID-linked verification of citizens for every scheme or facility that they avail. While several petitions against the statutory linking of Aadhaar with various essential services and schemes is now awaiting a ruling from the highest court of the country, mobile phone inboxes of consumers continue to be flooded with…

So you won’t live for another 115 years, but your house may. Even the angry monsoon waters that have hit Indian cities real hard this year - from Bengaluru to Mumbai to Gurugram -- might decide to break the record and roll in even faster and more furious next year. While they don't always make it to the headlines, many homes have got damaged due to the floods, and you certainly don't want your home to feature in that list. So why don’t you plan to insure it? Let’s begin. What is home insurance, anyway? It isn’t about being sure…