Reports

It’s bad news for all – from farmers to policymakers. Yields of tea, coffee and cardamom from high altitude plantations in the Western Ghats are falling because of the changing regional climate. Worse, the region is likely to see a 1.7-1.8 degrees C rise in temperature by 2030. Rainfall may increase in most parts, but the number of rainy days will go down. If that is not all, sediment yield is on the rise with the increasing intensity of rainfall. The warning comes in a hardhitting report ‘Water...

It’s not a problem as yet, but the first signs of trouble have been found by a bunch of schoolchildren. The issue is that of fluoride content in drinking water in the state. The Schools Water Portal, an initiative of Arghyam, has found fluoride content in seven places in the state: Bellary, Kudremukh, Kasargod, Mangalore, Belgaum, Kopal and Bangalore North. According to Priya Desai of Arghyam, the Schools Water Portal is an online platform that shares learning resources on water with parents...

The term “water woes” has today become a cliché. But it’s not water supply issues or the associated woes that are disturbing. What is, is the fact that water has been disappearing right from under our noses. Bulk of the water supplied to Bangalore has to be carried from afar because there’s precious little groundwater left. Najeeb KM, regional director of the south-western zone of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) offers a pointer as an explanation: “One of the prime reasons groundwater...

It’s bad news for Karnataka. Growth is slowing down, and inter-state comparisons of socio-economic development indicate that human development indices are stagnating in Karnataka. The Economic Survey for 2011-12 has revealed that the state fared the worst in terms of growth in 2009-10 with a paltry 3.88%, compared with an all-India average of 7.96%. In contrast, the growth in Uttarakhand was almost three times that of Karnataka — at 11.61%. The slowdown in the state becomes more obvious when one...

Gayatri Kumar is disenchanted and annoyed. This homemaker from Rajajinagar had fallen for ‘extra talk time’ and ‘free roaming incoming’ sops that Tata Docomo had thrown her way last July. The solemn promises that the mobile service provider made went unkept. Her bills kept soaring despite her limited usage; and to make matters worse, whenever she stepped out of town, the network would die on her. Ganesh Shankar is equally upset, only that in his case the service provider is BSNL. When the IT...

Tasleem hasn’t taken a bath in three weeks, or received his wages for two months. He has been living the life of a destitute at Banappa Park, in the heart of the city, since then. Tasleem, well into his 50s, had left his worldly belongings behind when he fled the Bangalore Turf Club three weeks ago. He is not alone here — there are close to 300 others for whom life has been hell last few weeks. “I can’t possibly return to my native village (in Kishengunj district, Bihar). I have been eking out a...

When a group of parents with differently abled children came together in 2005 to lobby for parks and playgrounds in the city be made accessible to suchchildren, they faced an uphill task. They were not sure if the move would work. But some six years later, the initiative is being lauded by UNICEF as a success story, that can be emulated the world over. The initiative in question is Kilikili, a Bangalore-based trust that was set up to create inclusive neighbourhood play spaces for all children...

The dark, dingy room from which weaver Taufeeq Ahmed operates is tell-tale. It is crammed to the last inch. There’s barely any leg space for him, leave alone his occasional visitors. The room is poorly lit, and will never provide you with a whiff of fresh air. Taufeeq’s weather-beaten face belies his age. The thick glasses wear heavy as he leans into his loom, and he does not have to make up a face to brood. He looks every bit a man resigned to his fate. Taufeeq does not look impoverished, but...

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) apparently believes in different strokes for different folks. The regulator has been adopting different yardsticks for penalising different insurance companies for the same purported offence. Earlier this year, the public sector United India Insurance Company was fined Rs 5 lakh under the provisions of section 64 of the Insurance Act, 1938, for opening 35 new branches across the country without its prior permission. The IRDA, however...

Can a potential Rs 17,500 crore penalty for gross violation of the Insurance Act be whittled down to Rs 20 lakh? Surely not, one may say. But this, in fact, is exactly what the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has done for Reliance General Insurance Co, an Anil Ambani group company. Simply put, this is the violation. Reliance sold 3.5 lakh health insurance policies without informing IRDA - which is illegal. So when IRDA found this out, in an order dated 23 July 2009, it...