Bangalore

Snapshot of Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency:- Total electorate: About 2.2 million spread over eight assembly segments

– Present assembly position: Congress and BJP have four representatives each

– Candidates in Lok Sabha poll fray: 23, including 12 independents

Main contestants:

– Incumbent Ananth Kumar of BJP (five-time winner since 1996)

– Nandan Nilekani of Congress (maiden attempt)

– Ruth Manorama of Janata Dal-Secular (maiden attempt)

– Nina P. Nayak of Aam Aadmi Party (maiden attempt)

Past Performances in Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat:

Britain-based IT firm Xchanging plc has been certified to provide engineering products and services to the aerospace industry.

“The AS9100 Revision C certification, conferred on us after audit process by the International Aerospace Quality Group, strengthens our engineering services capabilities in the aerospace industry,” the company’s Indian subsidiary said in a statement here Tuesday.

The C certification is the industry-specific standard related to ISO 90001 conformity and aerospace-related qualifiers.

Indo-Japanese joint venture Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Wednesday said it is recalling 44,989 units of the multi-utility vehicle Innova manufactured between February 2005 and December 2008.

According to the company, the recall has been mandated due to an error discovered in the spiral cable mounted on the steering wheel.

“This (error) will lead to continuous illumination of an airbag warning lamp on the instrument cluster giving prior indication of a problem to the customer. In addition, the driver’s airbag may get deactivated,” the company said in a statement.

The two-day 31st national conference of the Kannada speaking people which ended in Delhi on Sunday, urged Central Government to clear all pending projects of Karnataka.

The conference, which was organized by ‘Dehali Kannadiga’, a Kannada monthly published from Delhi, asked Union Government to implement Hubli-Ankola railway line project, introduce passenger service between Bangalore-Mangalore and include Tulu and Kodava languages of Kannada script in the eight schedule of the constitution.

On Saturday night the city traffic police booked 1,076 drink and drive cases across the city.

The special drive conducted between 9 pm to 2 am happened at 133 places across the city, and a total of 13,442 vehicles were stopped and their drivers/riders were checked for alcohol consumption. Of the 1,076 cases, 12 were registered against women drivers.

The total number of drink and drive cases booked in January stood at 2,568, whereas on Saturday, Bangalore traffic police booked over 41% of that number in just about five hours. In February, the figure stood at 6,444.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) seems to have turned a blind eye to illegal drawing of water from its main pipelines by many residents and apartment inhabitant in Ashwini Layout of Ejipura and VGS Layout.

Some residents in these areas are unlawfully drawing water directly from the BWSSB’s main pipelines. They have linked their connections to motor pumps to draw water from the main lines.

The BJP created a world record in corruption during its tenure in Karnataka between 2008 and 2013, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said here Monday while campaigning for Congress candidates in the city — C Narayanaswamy, Nandan Nilekani and Rizwan Arshad.

“We spoke of developing Information Technology, but the BJP broke a world record in corruption in Karnataka with their loot of Rs 1 lakh crore in mining,” Rahul said.

On Sunday, visitors relished a variety of mouth-watering dishes made of jackfruit at the ‘Halasina Habba’ (jackfruit mela) held at Mahalakshmipuram.

A beeline was formed by the foodies and eagerly waited to sample food items such as biryani, chips, dosa, ice cream, juice, among others, all of which were made from jackfruit.

Additional Director of Horticulture Department, Dr K Ramakrishnappa, inaugurated the event, stressed on the health benefits of jackfruit and organic products made of it.

BJP candidate for Bangalore South H N Ananth Kumar had K S Eshwarappa for company and former deputy Chief Minister former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa during his campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls on Sunday.

Former Minister V Somanna and Kumar had made preparations to take maximum advantage of Yeddyurappa’s presence by organising a mammoth bike rally and road show that waded through Govindarajnagar and Vijayanagar Assembly segments for more than five hours.

Namma Metro’s month-old Green Line service between Swastik and Peenya was disrupted for an hour due to a anomaly in electricity supply, which causes inconvenience to anxious passengers besides delaying subsequent trains.

At 3:03 pm, a sudden power cut hit the metro train services at Kuvempu Road, Yeswanthpur, Rajajinagar, Yeswanthpur Industry and Peenya Industry stations for about an hour.

Half of the 46 million voters across Karnataka are below 40 years and the enrollment of first-time voters in the 18-19 years age group has been “remarkable this time”.

The southern state goes to the polls in a single phase April 17 to elect 28 lawmakers to the 16th Lok Sabha.

“Our efforts to enroll as many citizens above 18 years as voters since January paid off as we have seen a record number of them, especially youth registering for the EPIC (electoral photo identity card),” state chief electoral officer Anil Kumar Jha told IANS.

Bangalore-based Champions Group is aiming to bring in ‘experiential luxury travel’ in Goa, a concept that is picking up worldwide in tourism, as said by the company official today.

“We have launched Catamaran facility for high-end customers in South Goa. There are also other facilities which are low priced and unique to the state giving a lifetime experience to the travellers,” Prajwal Vishwanath, a senior official from Champions Group, told PTI on the sidelines of the ongoing Goa International Travel Mart (GITM).

Multinational General Electric (GE) Friday unveiled a low-speed turbine to generate wind energy for meeting India’s unmet power needs.

“The new turbine (1.7-103) has been developed and engineered specifically for India’s low-wind speed conditions. A 100MW wind farm powered by the new version of turbines can produce electricity that can light up 413,000 homes annually,” GE South Asia chief executive Banmali Agarwala said in a statement here.

Renewables accounts for five percent of the country’s energy mix by production and 12 percent by installed capacity.

Bearys Global Research Triangle (BGRT), Bangalore’s first research park, developed by Bearys Group in Whitefield Ashram Road, was awarded the prestigious Platinum – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), here recently.

This is one of the most coveted green building certifications globally, considered to be the most stringent, and takes BGRT into the league of the selected few elite green developments around the globe.

Labour unrest in Toyota India is having an effect on car production, as most of the striking employees are refusing to return to work even 12 days after management lifted the lockout March 24.

“Our production has declined 50 percent to 350 cars from 700 cars a day, as the twin plants are operating in one shift with about 1,200 supervisors, technicians, apprentices and contract labourers,” Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd vice-chairman Satish Viswanathan told reporters here Friday.

Department of studies in education, University of Mysore and Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) Karnataka organized a National conference on Education for ‘Sustainable Development’ on March 27 and 28.

The concept of this conference was the need for sustainable development at a time when there is an explosion of knowledge and development, without thinking about the future generations.The conference began at 10:30am by an invocation in Sanskrit by students of the Mysore University on March 27.

An activist of Aam Admi Party (AAP) Mr. Imtiyaz Kazi said that the agenda of AAP to curb corruption will help to establish social justice in the society and would solve many issues that minorities of this country are confronting with. This explanation of an activist was endorsed by AAP Lok Sabha election candidate from Bangalore North Parliamentary constituency Mr. Babu Mathew.

Bangalore South is among the seven constituencies in the country chosen by the Election Commission to introduce Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system on an experimental basis.

“During this Lok Sabha elections, this machine (VVPAT) will be used in seven places, Bangalore South has been chosen from Karnataka,” Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha told reporters here.

Others include Patna Sahib in Bihar, Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Gandhinagar in Gujarat, Chennai Central in Tamil Nadu, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Jadavpur in West Bengal.

Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has in a complaint with Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) as the sex workers alleged that the sex workers around K G Road, Majestic, Upparpet and surrounding areas are being subjected to violence and harassment by the police.

C G Hunagund, SHRC Commission Member taking cognisance of the complaint, has directed Commission’s Inspector General of Police to probe and submit a report by April 23.

Agitating workers of auto maker Toyota India resorted to an indefinite fast as a stand-off with the company’s management continued 10 days after a week-long lockout was lifted March 24.

“As the management is not ready to consider our demand that it should not insist on signing a conduct letter to resume work, about 20 employees are on an indefinite fast,” Toyota Kirloskar Motor Employees’ Union president Prasanna Kumar told IANS Thursday.

About 4,000 workers are on a sit-in demonstration from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the factory gate.

Call it “son stroke” or a generational shift in Karnataka politics; it is all evident in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

A few old guards are paving the way for their sons to take over. The sons are steering talks, chalking out campaign strategies and setting sights on millions of young voters.
Prashant Deshpande and S S Mallikarjun, sons of Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande and Horticulture Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa respectively, are making a bid to inherit their fathers’ legacy.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said state BJP leaders had “no face” to campaign in Lok Sabha elections, as several of them were involved in scandals during their party rule in the state.

Addressing a public meeting at Sindagi, 60 km from here, he said several ministers and the then Chief Minister (B S Yeddyurappa) hit by scandals had to go to jail and they had no “moral courage” to face the voters.

“That is why they asked their national leader Narendra Modi to address public meetings in state,” Siddaramaiah said.

Six former chief ministers of Karnataka, including one who was prime minister for 10 months, are in the fray for the Lok Sabha seats from the state — a record of sorts.

Of them, two each are from the Congress (M. Veerappa Moily and N. Dharam Singh), the BJP (B.S. Yeddyurappa and D.V. Sadananda Gowda) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) H.D. Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Moily is the central minister for petroleum and natural gas in the outgoing UPA-II government.

With the prime objective of increasing the political awareness in the community and to facilitate the understanding of Muslim issues by the political parties ahead of the 16th Lok Sabha Elections; “Karnataka Muslims,” the fortnightly newspaper in association with a Gulbarga based NGO, ‘Sahara’ organized an interactive session among community intellectuals and political parties.

Indian IT bellwether Infosys’ co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who has declared assets worth Rs.7,770 crore ($1.3 billion), said that “it’s time to give back to people and the country” what he got in life as he contests the Lok Sabha election. “As I had a successful and fulfilling career in private and public sectors, there is not much left to achieve personally at this age (58). And as I and my family are financially secure, it’s time to give back to people and country what I got in life though I was born and brought up in a middle class family,” Nilekani told IANS in an interview here.