Economy

Worldwide, a staggering four to five trillion plastic shopping bags are used every year. Most are discarded after a single use. Like all other plastics, the bags too are made from fossil fuels and are popular because they are durable, cheap, strong and lightweight. But these very characteristics are also what make them a problem. Plastic bags take extremely long to degrade: estimates range from 100 to 1000 years. Which means that all the plastic bags ever manufactured are potentially still around in the environment. And that is a problem. 'Biodegradable' plastic bags have been adopted by a local retail…

I have been working in a very reputed BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) firm in Bangalore for the last six years. Today, during our tea break, the question, "Why we work for a BPO?" was raised. Post break I came back to my work station with my thoughts lingering about what we had discussed. Most of us in my group joined because we were either graduates or post graduates and not every one of us could get into management (or) technical trade. In the beginning, all of us felt it’s a 'no other go' scenario and found it difficult to explain…

Urban families are always on the lookout for a great bargain. Power bills account for a considerable percentage of the monthly household budget, and one such gadget that can cut down the same is the gas geyser. The gas geyser has a simple mechanism to heat water for bathing purposes - the LPG gas outlet is connected to an enclosed burner which heats the inlet water, giving hot water in few seconds. Gas Geyser, Chinese make (Pic: Divya Sharma) It takes just 3-5 minutes to fill a big bucket with hot water. However, this simple tool can turn a killer…

In 1995 when I first visited the Kathriguppe main road at Banashankari 3rd Stage, it reminded me of RK Narayan's description of a sleepy town. But today it boasts of everything that a city needs, including a retail store fresh@banashankari just 200 m from our residential complex with 72 apartments. I was informed the founder of Heritage Foods was none other than N. Chandrababu Naidu, former Andhra CM.I am a 65 year old who loves fruits. I used to be a regular customer at fresh@banashankari since it opened. I shifted my source of purchase from the road side fruit vendor…

I knew it - MNCs are no better, if not worse, than desi ones when it comes to after sales service. This painful truth was revealed to me when my Whirlpool Quick Chill became a hot case, so hot that even the company didn’t want to touch it with a barge pole. It happened last summer. I wanted to impress a client of my husband with a tall chilled glass of lime juice from my Whirlpool, just like the ads showed, and reached into the deep freeze for ice, and, what do you know, I felt water sloshing about in…

Are you familiar with offers like ‘Shop for Rs.999 and get a gift voucher worth Rs.99'? Most of us constantly look for such announcements in supermarkets, malls and showrooms. But are they for real, i.e, do consumers really get what the vendor promisesThe moment we come to know of discounts and offers through the media, we rush to avail of them. S N Subramanya, a consumer and RTI activist, also jumped at one such offer, to his regret. The Big Bazaar (Food Bazaar) grocery outlet in Sigma Mall on Cunnigham Road regularly has special offers on Wednesdays. On 19th November…

Many of us often fight with the road-side shops for charging an extra Rs.2 for cold drinks or water. Some of us succumb to the demand after a futile argument. Still others pay without any question. But have you paid almost double for buying the same brand of bottled water from the same shop at the same time? S N Subramanya (79) was asked to pay. He happens to be an RTI and consumer activist and so pursued the matter further.On 8th January 2008, S N Subramanya went to Commercial Street to shop. There, he purchased two bottles of Kinley…

Continuing to enhance the airport's infrastructure, Bengaluru International Airport inaugurated the country's first of its kind Cargo Village. Spread over 11 acres of land area with adequate provision for future expansion, the facility, located near the cargo terminals is expected to strengthen Bangalore's position as a trade and commercial hub while ensuring faster clearances of import and export consignments from the cargo terminals at the airport. The facility, completed over a period of 10 months, has been built with an investment of Rs. 12 crore.From left to right: Marcel Hungerbüehler - COO, BIAL, Mr. Prabhu- President BCHAAI and Albert Brunner…

On the market floor, things are fresher than ever.Before we had malls, we had shopping complexes. And the one at Jayanagar 4th Block was the most popular among them. And it continues to be a great place to shop, especially if you are looking for bargains in Bengaluru.Set in the heart of the sprawling suburb of Jayanagar, the complex is the hub around which places for shopping and eating continue to evolve.Meanwhile, the complex thrives without much change. It maintains a careless concrete look which is in sharp contrast to the sterile marble and glass experience of a mall. The…

Power cuts are again the talk of the town since Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) declared a minimum two hour cut in all the residential areas in the city. “Is it really only two hours?” is what my colleague Gayathri S asks me. She gets a power cut of six to eight hours every day since the declaration of power cut was done by BESCOM. My colleague lives in Venkatapura, Koramangala. She complains of untimely power cut of more than six hours a day disturbing routines. When we checked, we found that she is not the only one suffering from…