GENRE: In Focus

Bangalore and Seattle. Two cities more than 8,000 miles apart separated by the vast Atlantic Ocean and opposing viewpoints, even farther apart, on how different levels of government should interact. One favours a stronger control of city governance through the central and state government, while another favours a more self-supporting city government. Both are large metropolitan areas, at least relative to their respective countries, but the population density of Seattle pales in comparison to Bangalore’s population density. Seattle’s metropolitan area has an average population density of 230 people per square kilometers, while Bangalore has a staggering 13,495 people per square…

Compact Fluorescent Lamps fall under e-waste category, however Bangalore does not have a system to recycle them. Pic: Wikimedia and Wikihow We feel good about the savings Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) achieve in terms of energy efficiency and cost, and the bright lights that light up our homes. The city of Bengaluru sees high CFL usage. However, once a CFL loses its life, what does one do? Throw it carelessly into dustbin away from one’s eyes, and forget it? What happens to it then? Here’s what happens. The CFL light joins a pile of garbage, tied inside a plastic cover.…

Trucks that don't exist in reality are added to garbage transport database of BBMP by adding random numbers, which sometimes include two-wheelers and buses! Pic: Shree D N First the High Court, then the Chief Minister. Now it is the turn of Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of Karnataka to point fingers at Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s garbage management. CAG has noted that BBMP has spent more than the amount allotted towards Solid Waste Management expenses; At the same time, BBMP has lost more than 66 crores by not collecting cess in 2008-11 from 18.38 lakh households! In the CAG Report…

Vehicular traffic causes maximum air pollution in Bangalore city. Benagluru’s air may not be the most polluted in the country, but it is among the top 15 polluted cities in the country with its particulate matter increasing over the years and nitrogen dioxide levels way above permissible limits. It is a known fact that the transport sector is a major contributor to air pollution in the city with the vehicular population inching towards 50 lakh vehicles on the roads. Ozone, carbon, ions, molecular markers of particulate matter, sulphates are significantly high at many locations were studies have been conducted. In…

H D Kumaraswamy has seen it all public life, and knows how to handle issues. Pic courtesy: facebook.com/janatha.dhala As widely known by now, Janata Dal (Secular) leader and ex-chief minister H D Kumaraswamy​​ (HDK) shocked everyone with his frank admission of asking money for electing a person as Member of Legislative Council (MLC). After a CD of what appeared to be a conversation between a MLC-post aspirant Viju Gowda Patil and HD Kumaraswamy surfaced in the media, HDK admitted that he indeed had demanded money, and this is how politics is run in the state. Listen to the controversial audio…

Just as the new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi took charge, there were reports of an MBA student interning at Bangalore, being arrested under section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2008, for sending an anti-Modi MMS on WhatsApp. This was the second such case to be booked under the section in 12 days; the first was when a man in Goa was arrested for posting an anti-Modi comment on Facebook. The Goa arrest was made on May 12th, before the election results were declared, while the Bangalore arrest was made on May 24th. This raised questions on freedom of expression,…

Ever-increasing traffic adds to pollution and emission. File pic. It is difficult to choose between a hot dry summer day and the day after a nice shower in Bengaluru, when it comes to the concentration of pollutants in the air. On a hot day, the air currents disperse the pollutants high up into the atmosphere, while on a day after the showers, because of the increase in humidity levels the fumes from vehicle exhaust pipes remain closer to ground level. In Bangalore, several environmental issues have attained the status of omnipresent and instead of figuring out a solution to mitigate…

Dogs trying to figure out the source of stinking meat on Railway Parallel Road, Malleshwaram. Some residents of Malleshwaram in Bengaluru noticed that there was a foul smell in the air one fine morning, after the first rains. They saw many bags lying around near the railway area on 11th main road. When they checked the bags, there was animal waste dumped by unknown persons, rotting and causing the smell. When they enquired with city administration, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials on how to dispose animal waste, the answer they got was shocking: BBMP does not have a proper…

Voters have given their verdict. BJP has once again made a clean sweep in Bengaluru, repeating the 2009 Parliamentary election pattern. However, there are some differences this time. We take a look at the numbers: Bangalore South Ananth Kumar won the seat for the sixth time comfortably, with a margin of over 2.2 lakhs (56.9% of total polled votes). Nandan Nilekani got a sizeable number of votes (36.4% of the total polled votes), but it wasn’t enough to propel him to victory. The takeaway is this: The competition was fierce and limited to BJP and Congress, with very few votes…

As the city gears up to welcome new Members of Parliament, we take a peek at the statistics and poll predictions to see how has Bangalore voted in the past, and who might win the race in Bangalore this time. Our focus is on the three urban constituencies - Bangalore South, North and Central. 2009 - the honeymoon effect In 2009, the state was being governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the scams hadn’t hit the government yet. Bangalore’s 28 constituencies had 18 BJP MLAs. The sense of euphoria and what the experts call “the honeymoon effect” swept…