BMTC - Extending the monopoly

07/18/10 04:36 - idontspam

Quoting myself from an earlier post "I predict the irrelevance of the auto in the transport scheme within the next 5 years." 

Nanos may push autos out of B’lore

Looks like we dont have to wait 5 years for my prediction

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SPV Case Study - Konkan Railway !

07/17/10 15:43 - kbsyed61

These days I am in search of information on working of Special Purpose Vehicle. In this pursuit I have come across many pieces of info available on Internet.

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Scrap Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill / Act 2010 - Petitions

07/16/10 10:26 - indian

The maximum imprisonment for violating the provisions of the 1964 Act was 06 months whereas the 2010 Bill/Act prescribes imprisonment extending up to 07 years. It is this that has made people question the intentions of the State BJP (right wing) government as in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), imprisonment for such long terms is usually meant for crimes of a far more heinous nature.

The latest Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill / Act 2010 virtually equates the killing of a cow with the murder of a human. (It's only the economically weaker sections of the society who consume/eat beef in India.)

An offender may be imprisoned from 01-07 years and fined between Rs. 25,000-50,000 or Rs.1 lakh. Draws the lines - us and them, the beef-eaters and those who don't, the killers (bad ones) and the pious/good ones. Reinforces those lines with the draconian, absolute and brutal police power of the State behind one particular section. Removes any distinction between "cow" and "cattle".

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ITIR - Gaining Momentum

07/16/10 09:07 - Ravi_D

GOK passed the ITIR Act 2010 on Thursday, becoming the first state to do so. Per this DH Report:

The ITIR Act, 2010 will enable the state to attract a whopping Rs.2 trillion (Rs.2 lakh crore) global investments in the knowledge sector, boost exports and create 3 million jobs in a decade

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BBMP and Mosquitoes

07/16/10 04:36 - Ravi_D

Taking a deviation to discuss a less fancy but important topic. Public Health.

According to today's DH Report, "Mosquito Control Project Director" Dr Lokesh says:

The Palike is spraying pesticides, carrying out fogging and has launched several health awareness camps to educate the public about maintaining cleanliness in and around their houses.

...has assigned three people to spray pesticides in each ward.

...has also undertaken a publicity drive to inform every citizen about the precautionary measures.

 

So the story goes. I haven't seen a single fogging machine or guys spraying pesticides at work. If DH wouldn't report it, I wouldn't have a clue there was a 'publicity drive'. But everything stated implies things that have either happened in the past or presently ongoing. 

Do I live in a different Bangalore? Have you seen any of the above in your ward?

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Commuter Rail meeting with CiSTUP, went well, summary

07/15/10 19:53 - silkboard

Sanjeev, IDS, PS Anantharam sir and myself went over to IISc today to meet head of CiSTUP. Short summary on how it went

• CiSTUP to add their review comments / foreword to the report
• We will jointly organize a roundtable/seminar at IISc/CiSTUP to formally release the report and discuss the subject with relevant government officers and leaders
• Will invite all transportation and investment related departments of Karnataka, railways as well, and also, local MLAs and MPs who have shown interest or tend to attend these.

We are thinking end of August for this Commuter Rail / Namma Railu seminar. Keep watching for mroe updates, or join in if you want to help organize this.

A hard copy of the report is available now, contact IDS or anyone from the Namma Railu project team if you want to see it. Wll upload the soft copy here as well as part of work for this seminar at CiSTUP.

Lets go Namma Railu :)

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Open Data progress - met with dept. of Sericulture

07/15/10 19:37 - silkboard

So after 2 months of pause - we have been struggling to work meeting dates with some govt depts we have spoken with - we kicked this off with a meeting with Manivanan, who now heads dept of Sericulture.

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Counting the poor - how many do we have?

07/15/10 03:10 - silkboard

Public Agenda dear, here is that intellectually ruminating discussion we said we will have soon. How many poor people do we have in our country? The debate, and understanding the number is important because the classic quote goes - "you can't fix what you can't measure". If you can't count your poor, you can't check how your poverty alleviation programs are working.

Two important things around which disagreements arise are 1) How do you define a poor household? 2) How exactly do you count people using the poverty definition you accept?

First of all, the two popular stats that are quoted to start a discussions like this

• Arjun Sengupta - 77% of Indians lived on less than Rs 20 a day.
• Suresh Tendulkar co. - Poverty ratio at the all India level ... 37.2% in 2004-05. Rural poverty ... 41.8% and urban ... 25.7%. Criteria, spend per person per month. Rs446.68 in rural areas. Rs578.8 in urban. (see http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_an-honest-measure-of-poverty_1323446)

Some other notable stats:

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Mobilicity 2010 with CiSTUP

07/14/10 13:48 - idontspam

Agenda: Discuss Mobilicity 2010 event which will have Commuter Rail and suburban connect as focus.

Venue: CiSTUP, IISC (18th cross mariamma temple circle entrance)

If interested you can show up at CiSTUP we will gather there before the meeting

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Right is there; but, no information

07/14/10 09:53 - murali772

Following (in italics) are the relevant excerpts from the New Indian Express report:

The government may have enacted a law empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, but five years later many government departments are yet to take the “first step” towards proactive disclosure. Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act mandates that all authorities under the purview of the law must index, catalogue and computerise official records to be easily accessed by the people. So far, however, few departments have paid heed to the provision, says K A Thippeswamy, Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The progress, he said, has been “almost negligible”. “They (departments) do not even have a record room to keep  documents,” he said. “They were supposed to do it within six months of the Act coming into force. But it’s been five years and they are yet to do it.’’

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