Category: India

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US Consulate in Bengaluru

According to White House sources US will soon open Consulate Offices in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

This development will help Visa seekers within Karnataka and nearby states to get their Visa’s approved in Bengaluru.

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Karnataka Cabinet Portfolios

  • DPAR.
  • Finance Department.
  • Intelligence from Home Department.
  • Cabinet Affairs.
  • Bangalore Development.
  • Major and Medium irrigation.
  • Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.
  • Revenue Department excluding Muzrai.
  • Transport Department, ST Welfare.
  • Housing, Infrastructure Development.
  • Forest, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs Department.
  • Fisheries, Port and Inland Transport Department.
  • Minor Irrigation, law, Parliamentary Affairs and Legislation.
  • Home Department excluding Intelligence.
  • Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology, Skill Development.
  • Public Works Department.
  • Tourism Department, Environment and Ecology Department.
  • Social Welfare, Backward Classes Welfare Department.
  • Animal Husbandry Department.
  • Large & Medium Scale Industries.
  • Labour Department.
  • Co-operation Department.
  • Agriculture Department.
  • Urban Development Department (including KUWSDB & KUIDFC, Excluding Bangalore Development, BBMP, BDA, BWSSB, BMRDA, BMRCL Directorate of Town Planning from Urban Development)
  • Health & Family Welfare, Medical Education Department.
  • Excise from Finance Department.
  • Muzrai, Haj and Wakf Department.
  • Municipal Administration, Small Scale Industries, Public Sector Industries.
  • Sericulture,Youth Empowerment and Sports Department.
  • Primary & Secondary Education and Sakala.
  • Energy, Kannada and Culture Department.
  • Mines and Geology from Commerce and Industries Department, Women and Child Development, Empowerment of differently Abled and Senior Citizens Department.
  • Handloom and Textile Department from Commerce & Industries Department,Sugarcane Development and Directorate of Sugar.
  • Horticulture and Planning, Programme Monitoring Statistics Department.
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Mysuru Dasara : State Festival of Karnataka

The legacy of Mysuru Dasara festival dates back to four centuries ago. The 10 days of celebration in Mysuru city represents the tradition and rich cultural heritage of Karnataka. During these 10 days Mysuru city and Mysuru palace is decorated and grandeur of the place is reclaimed.

The story of Mysuru getting it’s name gives a picture of the place and festival.

Mysuru gets it’s name from a asura(demon) known as Mahishasura.

Folktales of this place or the history here says that long ago in Mysuru lived Mahishasura who performed deep penance and requested a boon from lord Brahma.

The boon was that ‘Mahishasura should not have death’. Brahma to which replied all beings that are born must die. In turn Mahishasura asked for a boon that if he must die, let it be at the hands of a woman. To which Brahma agreed and granted the boon.

When Mahishasura became invincible, goddess Chamundi(a form of goddess Durga) was born in order to kill Mahishasura. A fierce battle ensued between Mahishasura and Chamundi before Mahishasura  was killed.

Hence, the name Mysuru for the place.

Untill 1973, the present state of Karnataka was known as Mysore state.

Chamundi hills located close to the city of mysuru is the abode of goddess Chamundi.

The state goddess Chamundi is carried on a procession by a group of elephants with Arjuna(chief elephant 2018) carrying 750 Kg golden howdah having the idol of goddess chamundi.

People from various countries and states arrive at Mysuru to experience the beauty of this occasion.

On this auspicious day, wishing everyone a happy Dasara.

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Technology and Elections: Democracy taken for a ride

We live in a tech savvy world where political polarization is widely done than ever before. Technology which was meant to bring transparency and clarity is used to clog and obscure people of reality.

Elections which are a quintessential part of democracy has been diluted of it’s attempt to create true change and nation building process.

There is a reason to discuss about current trending technologies as the following avenues can create a biased opinion in the minds of voters.

Social Media

  • WhatsApp – Probably one of the most vulnerable platform to spread fake news, easy to opinionate, ability to reach out quickly to masses through groups and the power it gives for sharing content on it’s own platform and posts from other platforms. Political parties have been using this platform excessively to propitiate people by their propaganda.
  • Facebook – Biggest social media platform which literally captures every single action of it’s users on it’s platform. It can influence all it’s members through groups, friend lists, pages, Facebook Ads. Given their ability to target ads to a particular group of people, this platform has the best route to impact people.

Further, the comments on posts and the likes/reactions for a post have multiple fake profiles used by political parties to create a opinion.

  • YouTube – The leading video platform too is not spared from fake news, fake videos in recent years. Simple way of misusing the platform can be through it’s likes and dislikes button, again comments section here too can be misused. Each and every political video has 80 : 1 like, dislike ratio. Edited videos of speeches pose a threat to easier understanding for the people.
  • Twitter – Twitter on the other hand is more for niche users which can be used like a cyber war platform for different political parties. Hashtags, retweets from socially influential people and parody accounts can bemuse people. Also, the follower count of various political leaders is questionable.

The above mentioned points address the user aspects only, if dug deep dark data in back-end higher insights shall be extracted through data dumps and data generated through users. And this data is available with the platform plus the data provider for the user device. If there is a need the government in concerned jurisdiction can also access user data.

IT cell of major political parties today is equivalent to any medium size software consulting firm. It’s almost near to impossible for independent and lesser known political parties to make their presence felt on these above mentioned platforms.

The recent findings of data misuse from Cambridge Analytica from Facebook data is a single case acknowledged properly so far, there are various loopholes on all these platforms which needs to be fixed.

Television

With television channels available on mobile devices the line is thinning between conventional tv’s and internet tv’s. Here consider only conventional tv, there are several channels which operate 24X7 reporting about elections, lobbying for their desired political parties. There is little consensus expressed by these news channels to report unbiased news.

Moreover the surveys and opinion polls conducted by most news channels bring out results in favor of political parties which they approve and validate.

Newspaper / Print Media

Once a heavily dependent mode of news consumption, now reduced in it’s numbers on advent of internet and television. Yet, they are making their presence felt through online news portals these days. All newspapers in circulation today have political affiliation to some or the other political party, this mode is comparatively trustable given there is an organization to look through articles printed on the newspaper.

Unlike the other modes newspapers are on record, from ages.

Thus, with these pointers on current technologies we head towards the Karnataka assembly elections on 12th May 2018. Vote for a candidate without prejudice but with reasoning, if you don’t like any of the candidates, press NOTA.

Exercise your power to vote.

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India – Winners Under 19 Cricket World Cup : “The Wall” with twigs

ICC U19 World Cup 2018 is special for India because the performance of this team has been clinical and simply outstanding.  Look at the track record starting from match 1 that India played in this tournament.

Group Matches

India won by 100 runs vs Australia

India won by 10 wickets vs Papua New Guinea

India won by 10 wickets vs Zimbabwe

Super League quarter-finals

India won by 131 runs vs Bangladesh

Super League semi-finals

India won by 203 runs vs Pakistan

Final

India won by 8 wickets vs Australia

The margin and the rate at which these boys have won matches has been phenomenal.

One man behind this stupendous show is ‘The Wall – Rahul Dravid’. Not to forget the contribution of other coaches and support staff involved with this team. Dravid, would definitely be a happy coach after winning the cup which his boys(different team) had lost a couple of years ago in the final.

This is India’s 4th title overall and 1st on New Zealand soil at under 19 level.

Things that this lads would have definitely learnt from Rahul Dravid:

i) To score runs patiently.

ii) To put a price on their wicket.

iii) To care for every single run.

Prithivi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Manjot Kalra, Anukul Roy have been the pick of this tournament.

Rahul Dravid comes from the old school of thought in going through the grind to master skills. This can be seen even today when he instructed the young boys to stay away from mobile phones till finals and concentrate on the tournament instead of IPL auctions.

Well, I remember reading in local newspaper that Dravid owns a plot in HSR Layout, wish he builds a home here so that I can meet him sometime in the future and brag he lives in my neighborhood.

Harsha Bhogle had once called Dravid as “the Wolf who lived for the pack”, well the wolf has grown now to guide the whelps.

Congratutions to U19 Indian cricket team and the coaches, including Rahul Dravid.