Reports

Non-profits, as the urban legend goes, are supposed to be averse to technology. But that is only an urban legend, and Google wants to demolish this myth once and for all. On Monday, Google launched its Google Impact Challenge in India with little fanfare, as is characteristic of the company. A post on Google India's official blog said the US-based Internet giant is asking Indian non-profits how they would use technology to tackle problems both in the country and around the world. The four...

And when they came for the men, there was nothing left to complain about. The men in question were three unsuspecting individuals who were attacked by detractors in Hubli last week. All three men were victims of acid attacks; and the fact that acid can be easily procured perhaps had made the incidents appear more facile. Yet, the consummate ease with which acid can be bought from hardware or even grocery stores, is something that campaigners have been screaming hoarse against all these years...

The proponents of a mini-hydel project, who were asked by the authorities to halt work since the projected area of submergence had not been communicated to affected villages, have jumped the gun. The Kukke Hydro Project Pvt Ltd (KHPPL) has requested for CDM credits with the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC), without complying with the directive of the Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL). There were several serious issues with both the 214MW Kukke project...

This should be a rebuff of sorts to sceptics who have been insisting that IT companies are increasingly flocking to other states given the civic mess that Bangalore finds itself in. IT major Dell on Tuesday announced the inauguration of a new state-of-the-art Firmware Lab at its R&D centre in the city. The lab, which will be responsible for developing Dell’s embedded systems management products that form a part of its PowerEdge enterprise servers, is being described by the company as an...

It’s getting warmer and wetter up there in the Himalayas, and that may not augur well for Himalayan states where riverine disasters, like the recent Uttarakhand floods, have wreaked havoc. New research indicates that although the size of glaciers in the basins of the Indus and the Ganga will decrease in the 21st century, water discharge will, however, increase. While the results of the research predict a sombre future for Himalayan glaciers, they offer some good news for water and food security...

This one goes a step beyond the GIMs that the state has hosted in the last few years. The effort in question is that of Karnataka's apex industry body spreading its wings across the seven seas. The NRI Chapter of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), that was launched on Tuesday by Union minister for external affairs Salman Khurshid, is the first step in this direction. The gathering of industry leaders in the city turned out to be essentially a bouquet of...

You can describe it as an achievement against all odds. In spite of all the civic problems, from potholes to water scarcity, the city ranks the #1 business travel destination in the country. In fact, Bangalore ranks #12 worldwide. Bangalore emerged as the most visited city in India for business travel among the 25 most-visited cities worldwide followed by Mumbai at 20 in terms of number of overnight hotel stays, according to the latest release of Concur Expense IQ Report. Concur is a leading...

The last time, they had come in droves. This time, they brought their herds too. Over 1,000 people from 80 villages in Chitradurga district on Thursday flocked to Chitradurga town in protest against the massive diversion of around 10,000 acres of Amrithmahal Kavals land in Challakere taluk of the district for a variety of industrial, defence, institutional and infrastructure projects. The communities, whose livelihood primarily depend on livestock that they graze on these grasslands, herded...

When the Lake Development Authority (LDA) virtually handed over the Kelaginakere Byrasandra Lake on a platter to Bagmane Developers under the former's "Adopt a lake" scheme, the city would have thought that the lake had a hope. But eight years after the agreement was signed, allegations of encroachment and land-grabbing are flying thick and fast — not only against the developer, arguably one of the city's most well-known and powerful, but also a host of corporates and a public sector undertaking...

Infrastructure projects in Bangalore have opened up the land and helped alleviate mobility constraints for economic inputs. Many commercial and residential projects have been launched; and this has not only affected emerging micro-markets but also influenced property sector returns in mature and established local areas. A research project conducted by the London-based Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has found that the most noticeable effect of the infrastructure investment is to...