Reports

It took the Lokayukta more than six years to pass orders based on a complaint against the illegal widening of roads inside the boundaries of the Devarayanadurga State Forest, among the oldest reserve forests of India. It was on October 16, 2007 that a complaint was lodged with the Karnataka Lokayukta against "maladministration and looting of public wealth" in the Devarayanadurga State Forest. After hearing the respondents and taking in the complainant's responses to the objections of the...

The standard of students entering the IT sector at the entry level in India is well below the industry requirements, especially when it comes to testing of softwares being developed by IT majors. Now, Hewlett-Packard wants to bridge this gap with a software university, one that will make students industry-ready. Explaining the rationale, Michael Garrett, vice-president of WW Software Professional Services, HP, said, "We are seeing a big demand for skills in the application space. Clients are not...

Life for Amol Palekar may soon come a full circle. The actor-filmmaker is contemplating returning to the profession he had started from — that of painting. Interacting with journalists at an informal gathering here on Monday, Palekar announced, "I am seriously thinking of going back to painting. I started my creative journey as a painter (in the late 1960s). I have had seven one-man shows to my credit. But that aspect of my life had been put on the back-burner. Now I am very serious about...

If insects are to be taken as a vital sign indicating a city's environmental health, there's not much to worry for Bangalore. That is, not yet. A recent study conducted by researchers from the Ashoka Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) has recorded a large number of insects — 2,185 insects from 10 orders, of which ants, bugs, beetles and flies were the most common. They also found 25 species of trees and 117 species of herbs and shrubs in the 50 sampled domestic...

Buzzwords often keep changing, sometimes for the better. The newest one is 'cricket for sustainable development'. To borrow a cliche, this is one with a difference. That's because this is a project that comes with an in-built campaign component. This is the Green Wicket project of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) which seeks not only to establish it as a seal of approval for eco-friendly and resource-efficient stadia, but also promote eco-friendly practices among fans and the...

One of the common refrains that proponents of the controversial Challakere projects had been resorting to so far was that the ecologically-fragile grasslands was not a critical wildlife habitat. But now, the bluff has been called. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has filed an affidavit with the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone) insisting that the Amrit Mahal Kaval grassland ecosystems indeed constitute a critical habitat for the Great Indian Bustard, which it noted is...

So, we have been told that Bangaloreans are increasingly travelling to foreign destinations for vacations. And today we have been told that Bangkok is one destination. If one is looking for indicators, one of the best would a low-cost carrier(LCC) launching a direct flight to Bangkok. SpiceJet on Thursday became the first airline to gauge and act on the trend by launching a service that will operates on four days in a week. There's a rationale to it. V Raja, senior vice-president (commercial)...

The world’s slimmest smartphone is here, and Bangalore has had a hand in it. The Ascend P6, measuring just 6.18 mm, was launched by Huawei on Thursday. The handset, which has already received a good response from global consumers over the past few months, was introduced into the Indian market, after being conferred the European Consumer Smartphone 2013-14 title recently. The PIM applications (personal information management) for the phone, whose brushed metallic look with a naturally curved base...

The dismissal of petitions seeking quashing of criminal prosecution of senior representatives of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwar (UAS), agri-biotech company Mahyco, and consultants Sathguru has paved the way for proceedings to be initiated against them in the Bt Brinjal biopiracy case wherein they have been accused of criminal conspiracy in using local brinjal varieties to develop the GM vegetable. The ruling by Justice AS Pachhapure came on Friday after an earlier high court...

The job market is improving. And it s doing so steadily in Bangalore. Over 21,000 new job opportunities were generated in various sectors across Bangalore during the second quarter of this financial year. This is a significant 12 per cent increase over 18,700 new jobs created in the first quarter this year. The figures are from the study ‘Job Trends Across Cities & Sectors’ conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). New jobs are being created all over, but...