Green-card holder in the poll fray

A Karnataka assembly poll candidate is reported to have declared his assets in US dollars. Presumably, because he runs a business in the US, owns a flat there and holds US government bonds. It is not clear if his dollar declaration of assets would be acceptable to the electoral officer. Every candidate is required to [...]

The new Bangalore airport

Got these pictures by mail from Monica Mascarenhas Prabhu, who wrote, “I visited the new Bengaluru International Airport last week and took some pictures. … thought you would find this update useful”.
 Parking lot that can hold 2000 vehicles; and (right) the signboard points to check-in right ahead. 

Check-in counters. They have 53 of them.

snacks & coffee area; (below) bar [...]

Clothesline ’satyagraha’

Didn’t think, did you, that hanging out your laundry in the backyard or balcony is such a big deal. It is, for residents in Aurora, an upscale Ontario suburb, where outdoor-clotheslines, seen as an eyesore, are banned by law. The New York Times reports that a local citizen group there has taken to hanging laundary to dry [...]

Where pawn-brokers score over banks

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) survey carried out in some 300 districts is reported to have revealed that the rural poor continue to rely on neighbourhood moneylender. And RBI has drafted, what its deputy governor Usha Thorat calls, a concept plan to check this trend. At a Mumbai symposium she spoke of the need [...]

Cricket as mega-buck business

Cricket industry (zero-sportsmanship venture) has evidently stretched  India’s economic liberalization to ludicrous lengths. We have DLF-IPL flogging 20/20 matches as entertainment product sold to cricket consumers by the seat – costing anything between Rs.200 to Rs.5,000 per fixture in Chennai. A season ticket could set you back by as much as Rs.30,000 (Chennai rates).  
Seven other [...]

Sapgreen is in business

Mysore’s first tree-plant start-up, Sapgreen, is now in business. Its founders – Anil Kumar and Ashwin Upadhyaya - are self-confessed greenhorns who have the backing and goodwill of  the Friends of Roadside Trees (FORT), a bloggers group, and a bunch of green-minded college students. It is a club-up of a civic initiative of public-spirited residents with [...]