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Open Data progress - met with dept. of Sericulture

Governance

So after 2 months of pause - we have been struggling to work meeting dates with some govt depts we have spoken with - we kicked this off with a meeting with Manivanan, who now heads dept of Sericulture.

Counting the poor - how many do we have?

Governance

Public Agenda dear, here is that intellectually ruminating discussion we said we will have soon. How many poor people do we have in our country? The debate, and understanding the number is important because the classic quote goes - "you can't fix what you can't measure". If you can't count your poor, you can't check how your poverty alleviation programs are working.

Two important things around which disagreements arise are 1) How do you define a poor household? 2) How exactly do you count people using the poverty definition you accept?

First of all, the two popular stats that are quoted to start a discussions like this

  • Arjun Sengupta - 77% of Indians lived on less than Rs 20 a day.
  • Suresh Tendulkar co. - Poverty ratio at the all India level ... 37.2% in 2004-05. Rural poverty ... 41.8% and urban ... 25.7%. Criteria, spend per person per month. Rs446.68 in rural areas. Rs578.8 in urban. (see http://www.dnaindia.com/i...)

Some other notable stats:

Mobilicity 2010 with CiSTUP

15 Jul 2010 17:00
Asia/Calcutta
Commuter RailPublic Transport

Agenda: Discuss Mobilicity 2010 event which will have Commuter Rail and suburban connect as focus.

Venue: CiSTUP, IISC (18th cross mariamma temple circle entrance)

If interested you can show up at CiSTUP we will gather there before the meeting

Right is there; but, no information

Governance

Following (in italics) are the relevant excerpts from the New Indian Express report:

The government may have enacted a law empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, but five years later many government departments are yet to take the “first step” towards proactive disclosure. Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act mandates that all authorities under the purview of the law must index, catalogue and computerise official records to be easily accessed by the people. So far, however, few departments have paid heed to the provision, says K A Thippeswamy, Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The progress, he said, has been “almost negligible”. “They (departments) do not even have a record room to keep  documents,” he said. “They were supposed to do it within six months of the Act coming into force. But it’s been five years and they are yet to do it.’’

Alternatives to Road-Widening

This post is in response to criticism that road-widening critics haven't provided alternatives to widening.

Two things.

1. Sorry for the extreme illustration, but suppose I find someone committing a murder. I'm not sure that I have to provide an alternative to him and only then try to stop him.

2. I think the people mentioned above have suggested various alternatives. The 'people' say that the problem is a unsustainable number of private vehicles on our roads. Following from that, they have likened road-widening to 'loosening the belt to cure obesity' and recognised that it is a unworkable response to traffic congestion. They have provided following alternatives to resolving traffic congestion. None of these may help by itself. But some combination of them should be tried. The list has been made from the following sources:

SBC's Convention invite

The Solution - CyBaNa

Stupidity of road widening

Lake encroachment in Mahadevapura, where to complain?

LakesWater

Want to inform regarding the lake encroachments in and around Mahadevpura and Garudachar Palya regions.Where can we complain?
 
This is serious problem seen in most areas,covering a lake/pond and constructing.This is happening everywhere including bellandur, mahadevpura, Outer ring road, Garudachar Palya.
 

Summary of Praja CRS Report - Namma Railu

Here is an overview of the Praja Report on CRS, titled "Namma Railu".

Decongestion of Bengaluru is a burning issue facing the administrators today. With the kind of visibility Bengaluru has in the international arena and the role India is going to play in the world of the future, it is important for both central and state governments to sit up and take notice. Ignoring the long term mass transport needs of the city can backfire on the country. The economy of any city thrives on availability of good quality labor at affordable cost. Expensive housing and increased travel times only put more pressure on productivity of human capital. This may ultimately lead to flight of capital and hurt the economy with cascading effect.

GIM - Beyond Bangalore, Business World

Economy

Read some coverage of GIM in BusinessWorld, (Beyond Bangalore). Must say that beyond Bangalore is a nice topic for the article, here are some intereasting bits:

... projects, if they all take off, will see Rs 4 lakh crore being invested ... Almost 65 per cent of these projects are in the iron and steel sector ... in Bellary.

The stat that Karnataka needs to change is this ...

Karnataka ... single-city economy. Bengaluru ... accounts for over 55-60 per cent of the state’s GDP, according to Aroon Raman, chairman of CII-Karnataka.

An interesting angle on iron ore controversy. Will illegal activity go away, be legalized now!?

The under-valuation extortion racket

Governance

My flat, part of a multi-storied complex of 124 flats, located in Koramangala, was registered on 16/02/05. From about a year after registration, many of us owners started receiving notices from the 'under-valuation cell' of the Dept of Revenue, GoK, alleging under-valuation in the assessment of stamp duty payable.

Three new flyovers will decongest Sarjapura Road

Infrastructure

Hope this will bring down some traffic problem on ORR.

Commuting on Sarjapura Road is set to become a smooth affair as three flyovers are ready to be inaugurated on the thoroughfare anytime next week. The first flyover is located at Iblur Junction, while the second flyover is at Agara. The third flyover is an extension of the Agara flyover,

Iblur flyover will be a signal-free stretch and it will make the movement of vehicles to Silk Board Junction on Sarjapur Road faster.

Vehicles can now take the main road instead of taking service roads and cross roads and this will also ease the traffic movement towards Koramangala, Sarjapura Road, Marathahalli and Outer Ring Road.

Bangalore Development Authority officials said that there would be some bus lanes and grade-level roads dedicated to the Iblur flyover as it was a part of three-flyover interlink.

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_three-new-flyovers-will-decongest-sarjapura-road_1407322

sanjeev

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