Observer issue 19

The Weekly

BSERVER An IIJNM Publication

The Weekly Observer @theweeklyobserver

Volume 16 Issue 19

Demonetisation adds to the banking difficulties of visually impaired people

Thursday, 16 March, 2017

Online delivery apps shines offline Page 5

Page 3

Siddaramaiah presents ‘please all’ budget

By Arunava Banerjee arunava.b@iijnm.org

The Karnataka government seems to have prioritized health care and education in this year’s budget.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in his Karnataka state budget 2017-18 speech said, “Any public policy, apart from the purpose of achieving the intended target, should also be very efficient in its execution. Demonetization caused huge amount of distress to the public but the Union Government is yet to disclose what outcome has been achieved by it.

Apart from proposing to have a dialysis centre set up in each of the 114 talukas in the state, the budget also aims at setting up five superspecialty hospitals for cancer and heart treatment in Devanagere, Tumakuru, Vijayapura and Kolar.

The budget also guaranteed assistance of Rs 1000 to 25,000 HIV infected kids. A shortage of doctors in government hospitals in Karnataka is expected to be countered by the setting up of DNB post graduate courses in government hospitals. A sum of Rs 10 crore has been allo-

trict hospitals.

For the easy accessibility of ambulances, the budget plans to place an ambulance within a 10-15 km radius of every establishment. Ambulance services will be streamlined under two different departments to be integrated.

For education the budget approved grants Karnataka CM announced state budget 2017-18. to establish the Courtesy: NammaKarnataka Dr BR Ambedkar School of Economics in cated for establishing a 20 bed poly trauma centre and a 10 bed Inten- Bengaluru, to be set up on the lines sive Care Unit at the Sanjay Gandhi of the London School of EconomAccident Trauma and Rehabilita- ics. A new university will be set up in Raichur, to oversee all colleges tion Centre in Bengaluru and Rs under the Raichur and Yadgir dis10 crore to upgrade the Wenlock tricts. The government has also hospital in Mangaluru. The bud- proposed to set up 25 polytechnic get plans to set up 150 mortuaries colleges in rural areas in this year’s in community health centres and budget. Free laptops have been blood transfusion units in 10 dis- proposed for first year students

studying in engineering, polytechnic and first grade colleges.

The provision of providing milk to school students under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme will be increased to five days in a week from the present 3 days and anganwadi children will be gived eggs twice a week starting June. The budget also proposes to provide school children studying in classes 8-10 with books with a social message.

To improve the infrastructure of Karnataka’s capital city, Rs 150 crore has ben allocated to the BBMP for developing and maintaining railway over bridges and under bridges and Rs 300 crore has been provisioned for the development of storm water drains. Phase 3 of the Bengaluru metro also received clearance and the PwD is expected to develop 150 km of roads at a cost of Rs 1455 crore.

The budget has also proposed the widening of the Hebbal flyover and construct an under bridge at the cost of Rs 88 crore to degcongest traffic. Three thousand more buses will be added to the BMTC fleet of which 150 will be electric buses, Fifty of these buses will run in Mysuru.

Amid water crisis, Vrishabhavathi struggles to survive

By Mrigakshi Dixit mrigakshi.d@iijnm.org

Vrishabhavathi, a century old river that used to be one of the prime sources of water for the residents of the city, is on the verge of extinction. Owing to the disposal of waste from industries and households, the river has now become a hub for waste disposal.

The river originates from Basavanagudi and is a tributary of Arkavathi River.

Vrishabhavathi gets polluted the mostwhile flowing through Kengeri and R. R. Nagar. Over the years, the river has turned into a cesspool of pollutants from various sources.

Chandrasekhar, a priest at a temple near the river said, “This temple was built, 5 years ago, earlier devotees used to come, but now due to the bad smell, nobody comes,” he added.

According to the Vrishabhavathi Valley Treatment Plant study, one-third of the entire water waste, that is estimated to be around

five-million litres, flows into the river.The researchers also said that the treatment plants have not been modified for the last 20 years.

“The river is constantly getting polluted with heavy metals like nickel, mercury, copper, chromium, manganese, and lead,” said Dr. M.D

Subhash Chandran.

According to a study conducted by Ashoka Trust of Environment and Ecology, the river is full of sewage that goes untreated due to small capacity of Sewage Treatment Plant (STPs). With massive urbanisation along the banks of the

Vrishvabhathi river, buried under the depth of waste and contaminated water during the time of water crisis.

Courtesy: Leo Reegan

river, an increase in dumping of pollutants directly into the river is expected.

According to the study, only one-third of the STPs, installed in the river are working and that can treat only half percent of the effluents.

Roza, a 16-year-old girl said, “We are living here since one-and-a half years. It’s hard for us to live here because some or the other person in our family keeps falling ill.”

“The condition of the river is consistently becoming worse over the last 50-years. I remember people living the near river used to directly drink water from it.” recalls Raju, an autorickshaw driver.

“The river is like this since last ten years and no action has been taken by the authorities in last 10 years. In my locality, people complain of frequent fevers,” said Chandru, an autorickshaw driver.

“The city is undergoing a water crisis so we should atleast take initiative to save the water body that we already have,” he added.

#Elections2017 Virender Sehwag @VirenderSahweg Totally shocked that Mayawati didn’t say that EVM refused to get touched by her voters because they’re Dalit #Elections2017

Sir Ravindra Jadeja @SirJadeja It’s “Hand”, That Always Applies Brake On “Cycle”. Proved Yet Again #Elections2017#UttarPradesh #Mayawati #UPElection2017

Rajdeep Sardesai @sardesairajdeep BJP is a party of vultures and falcons, they want to gobble the people’s mandate against them in Goa: @ digvijaya_28 tells me @IndiaToday

Anit Gosh @Indianit07 They played - Gurmehar Card, Cast Card, Religion Card, Donkey Card!

But everything is failed Bcoz #ModiMagic still in d Air

M Venkaiah Naidu @MVenkaiahNaidu #ElectionResults show people’s faith in govt’s pro-poor policies, anti-corruption measures- #DeMonetisation & zero tolerance to terrorism!

METRO

2 The Weekly Observer

Thursday, 16 March, 2017

Rs 1800cr steel flyover project out, Rs 25,000cr project in The controversial steel flyover proposed by the Karnataka government sees the dawn after the opposition by Bhartiya Janta Party

By Prabhakar Kumar Thakur prabhakar.t@iijnm.org After several months of protests, the controversial 1791-crore steel flyover, which was planned to be constructed between BasaveshwaraCircle and Hebbal has been scrapped by the Karnataka government.

This action came earlier this week after allegations of corruption by the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party and a long citizen-based campaign against the6.7-km proposed flyover, which was cleared by the government in September last year.

“We have cancelled the project as we have been forced to prove our sincerity. There are corruption charges levelled against us when not one rupee has been taken as kickback,” said Bangalore Development Minister K. J. George while addressing the media.

While the flyover project has been quashed, the government has another and even bigger project in

5,000 anti-flyover protesters formed a human chain earlier in October.

Courtsey- The Indian Express the pipeline. It is an 83-km long elevated corridor that will connect four different corners of the city. The government has already completed the soil testing for the corridor which started in November last year. The elevated corridor

will be constructed between Hebbal and Silk Board, Krishnarajpuram to Goraguntepalaya and Jnana Bharti to VarthurKodi.

Soil testing along the alignment, inventory of metro lines, flyovers and other infrastructure

along the project has already been completed, said the Karnataka State Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL), according to a report in The Hindu.

The estimated cost of constructing the corridor is Rs. 25,000

crore- nearly 14 times the cost of the steel flyover, which was estimated to cost Rs. 1,791 crores.

Currently, the draft report on the proposed corridor is being prepared, after which it will be sent to the government for approval. For the project, 100-acres of land is estimated to be acquired.The six-lane elevated corridor will be constructed on a public-private parnership (PPP) basis.

The now scrapped steel flyover, which would have destroyed 812 trees and heritage buildings, had been approved by the government and the tender had already been passed. However, it was being opposed furiously by environmentalists, civic activists and artists under the banner of “steel-flyover beda.”

The controversial diary entries of payments of kick-backs to congress leaders, which purportedly belonged to Congress Member of Legislative Council (MLC) K. Govindaraj, served as the last nail in the steel bridge’s coffin.

The need for quality care from infancy to young adulthood Lack of neonatologists, paediatricians in India is taking a toll on the well being of infants

By Konica Kamra konica.k@iijnm.org The number of child deaths per year continues to be high in India due to unsatisfactory critical care.According to UNICEF, in 2015, an estimated 5.9 million Indian children under the age of 5 died, which came down to 11 deaths every minute.

“I lost two children who were born of a cesarean delivery- one died immediately after birth and another died after being in the ICU for 3 days,” said Sakshi Kwatra, a mother of two children.

Her second baby was shifted from one hospital to another, thrice and “caught infection and blood clots were formed all around his body,” Kwatra recollected.

There is an urgent need of neonatologist - a specialist for new born babies, to not only provide warmth and compassion to young ones but also to provide quality care in a specialised manner.

For many years, critically ill children have suffered from diseases related to nutritional deficiency, disease patterns, and severely limited resources.

The evidence suggests that access to poor quality provisions leads to child morbidity and mortality, according to experts. Indian Academic of Pediatrics mentions that 90 percent of paediatric emergencies land in small hospitals that do not even have intensive care units (ICU’s).

“Paediatricians provide co prehensive health care. The major cause of infant deaths that is seen in children is lack of nutrition, i nfections, injuries, organic diseases and dysfunctions,” said Dr. Sarbari Reddy, a paediatrician who runs a clinic in Kammana Halli Every year more than 10 mi lion children in lower and middle income countries die before they reach their first birthday, according to Indian Paediatrics.

“Every parent will realize that no amount of preparedness during pregnancy and before the baby’s

According to UNICEF : 1-4 years of age Number of deaths: 3,830 Deaths per 100,000 population: 24.0 5-14 years of age Number of deaths: 5,250 Deaths per 100,000 population: 12.7 Number of infant deaths: 23,215 Deaths per 100,000 live births: 582.1 Causes of deaths Congenital malformations Deformations and chromosomal abnormalities Disorders related to short gestation and low birthweight: Not elsewhere classified Newborns affected by maternal complications of pregnancy

birth would be sufficient to handle their baby in the initial days. Understanding and pre-empting the baby’s needs will always remain a work in progress,” said Dr. Indu Nair. Every parent needs to redesign his/her life to accommodate the newborn baby, the tiring schedule, and get adequate rest, she added.

Many children who die due to preventable diseases can be saved if attended by a medico, say doctors. The module should address training of health professionals so they are equipped to tackle the circumstances effectively, say experts.

Experts also note that India’s adolescent population- between ages of 10 to 19- should also receive more adequate care.

According to Indian Academy of Pediatrics, in India, 46 percent of inpatients and 81 percent of outpatients, seek medical care in private hospitals or clinics and the majority of private set-ups run with unqualified and untrained paramedic staff.

To promote the importance and need of paediatricians and neonatologists, many institutes are coming up with a unique concept to support the existing need. For in-

stance, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi has equipped itself with India’s best paediatrics department, offering consultation in 10 speciality clinics in the afternoons.

The department’s inpatient area offers 45 regular admission paediatric beds, and eightbeds in the High Dependency Unit and another eightbeds in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, as well as a 12bed Day Care Unit and a three-bed Dialysis Unit.

For new borns, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) offers a 20-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and an eight-bed Kangaroo Mother Care Unit, among other services.

Doctors say an immediate call of action is needed and it should focus on reducing India’s existing infant mortality rate, fostering a healthy lifestyle and easing dayto-day difficulties of children with chronic conditions and difficulties.

This should involve monitoring the child through regular check-ups, administering vaccinations, treating infections and talking to parents regarding school and behavioural problems, they added.

3 The Weekly Observer

HEALTH

Thursday, 16 March, 2017

‘Don’ to keep Alzheimer patients h‘app’y By: Aarohi Pathak aarohi.p@iijnm.org

Location Tracker Bengaluru: Rachana Amma, User can track the 64, a resident of Shanthina- patient’s location and gar, keeps asking for food. prevent him from She remembers the names of getting lost. her daughter and son-in-law but wears a blank expression when asked about her grandchildren.

“Sometimes she even soils her clothes”, says her daughKnow more ter Nisha, “We thought of The user can access more sending her to an old age information about the home but the ones we apcondition. proached didn’t wish to take an Alzheimer’s patient as they find it difficult to handle them. So she stays with us,” she added.

Today, hope is around the My Album corner for Rachana Amma The user can create and her family. an album which helps Alkem Laboratories, a the patient to recall events and relations in multinational pharmaceutical his life through piccompany, has launched India’s tures. first-ever application to support people with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers. wala, digital accounts manager at “An Alzheimer’s patient is Aklem, based in Bengaluru. completely dependent on others The situation, said Suratwala, for care. Consequently, the fam- prompted Aklem to develop ily members have to spend a lot of DonApp – the app is available for time, energy and money. However, android inGoogle Play Store and for in many cases, the elderly are just Apple users in IOS store. DonApp sent off to old age homes,” said has various features that help manMaria Surat age the patient’s daily activities. It

Caregiver’s guide User can get tips and advice on better caregiving from doctors across the country.

Medicine Reminder It provides timely reminders for medicine doses and doctor’s appointments.

Watch Video It shows videos related to the condition and experiences of doctors and other caregivers. providesreminders for medicine doses and doctor’s appointments, and has a location tracker as well that helps the user track the patient and preventsthem from wandering away and getting lost.

Don App also allows the user to create an album of their cherished memories using the photo

album feature, which helps the patient recall events and relations in his/her life through pictures. The patient and the care-giver can access more information about the disease as well, using the “know more” feature and can get advice on better care-giving with the

“care-giver’s guide”.

‘The increasing number of cases of Alzheimer’s is taking a toll as the available medical facilities are not sufficient and not many hospitals or care centres are able to provide 24*7 supervision and support.

Therefore, it is good if the family can help the patient at home itself,” said Dr. Sharon, a clinical psychologist at Victoria Hospital.

According to Sharon, Alzheimer’s is mostly found in people aged 60 years and above. “This is a progressive disorder, which means, the condition constantly keeps deteriorating. However, the rate of deterioration can be reduced and the responsibility for this lies with the family of the patient,” Sharon said.”

Almost 47 million people around the world, are living with dementia, and 4.1 million of those live in India, according to the World Alzheimer Report by Kings College London in 2015.

A large chunk of the 4.1 million mass are elderly citizens. This is a serious matter for a country where the number of people over the age of 60 has hit an all-time high, accounting for 8.6 per cent of the country’s 1.34 billion population, according to Census 2011. continued to page 4

Demonetisation adds to the banking difficulties of visually impaired people

By Bhakti Tambe bhakti.t@iijnm.org Have you ever closed your eyes and tried to guess the value of a bank note? It’s difficult, isn’t it?

Now, imagine how difficult it must be for visually impaired people who constantly have to keep

Courtsey: Ayushee Chaudhary guessing the value of the currency they are holding.

According to the 2011 Census, 1.5 crore people in India are blind. While bringing out structural monetary reforms, the government clearly did not keep in mind the needs of the visually impaired

population.

The introduction of new INR 500 and INR 2000 notes just added to their problems as it is very difficult to differentiate between them based on their size. “The new notes of Rs.500 are just like Rs.20 or Rs.10 notes. Currently, I can differentiate, as all the notes are new and crispy. But what after this?” questioned Omkar Jadhav, a 21-year-old M.A. student from Pune.

According to Shruti K, a 26 year old BPO employee in Bengaluru, “It took me months of practice to learn all the tricks of identifying different notes since we don’t have any watermark on our notes. And now, I will have to unlearn most of them and find new tricks to understand the new features.”

There are several dangers involved in transactions for visually impaired people. “I can be tricked into accepting counterfeitt moneyy since I can’t see and won’t be able to understand the difference. The possibility of my accepting invalid

currency is high. I wonder how the policymakers did not care about millions of blind people in India,” said Viraj Kapoor, a 22-year-old M.Sc. student at Christ University, Bangalore.

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) website states that there is a special mark on the notes to help the visually impaired identify the denominations. This feature printed using the intaglio method – an incised image on a flat surface- has been introduced on the left side of the watermark window on all notes except those of Rs.10. This mark is in different shapes for various denominations: The Rs. 20 note has a vertical rectangle; the Rs. 50 has a square one; the Rs. 100 note, a triangle; the Rs. 500, a circle one; and the Rs. 1000 had a diamond mark.

The website has not mentioned any such arks regarding the new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 notes.

“The problem with the intaglio is that it fades when the notes get older. And how many new notes [does] one get to handle in

everyday business?” asked Rahul Kulkarni, founder and chairman of the National Association for the Welfare of Physically Challenged, Pune, Maharashtra.

Kulkarni further explained that this is not the only difficulty that visually impaired people face. “RBI has guidelines for banking when it comes to visually impaired or disabled customers. But every bank prefers to work on their terms. They often deny credit card services to blind people,” said Kulkarni.

“In rural parts of the country, the situation is even worse. Unaware about the RBI norms, the bank people do not allow a person to open [an] individual bank account and compel them to open a joint account,” said Kulkarni, who himself is a banker. “Visually impaired people are not privileged to have a chequebook and debit cards in such places.”

According to Kulkarni, that poses an enormous problem for the blind in the process of going cashless.

METRO

The Weekly Observer

Sizes don’t differ, blind suffer Continued from page 3 “Every bank has different mobile apps. We (blind people) use screen reading software and these mobile wallets or banking apps do not support our software. It’s very difficult to access these apps. In addition, our ATM machines do not talk and hence, are not at all visually impaired friendly,” added Kulkarni.

The National Association for Blind (NAB) has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court regarding the issue of identification marks for visually impaired people, where the respondents were - RBI (for notes) and Mint India (for coins). The hearing in the Bombay High Court, where both the agencies will have

1.5 crore

disabled population of the country has left them disapointed to respond, is pending.

Suhas Karnik, from the NAB told India Today, “There are a few lines which will probably help those who have little vision but these new notes have come as a sheer disappointment. Even after our waiting for six years, the government has not thought about us.”

“Our constitution guarantees equal opportunity and equal access to every individual in the country, “said Kulkarni. “This policy of RBI which does not even consider the disabled population is violating the basic principles of our constitution.

If the RBI can introduce the currency value in Devanagari scripts on the notes, how difficult is it to

introduce the same value in Braille?” he questioned.

The European Central Bank developed the currency designs of Eeuro banknotes and coins in 1990with the co-operation of European Blind Union that has features that help visually impaired people handle the currency with ease. These features include different size, large value numerals, raised print, tactile marks near the edges, different weights and different thickness of notes and coins.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has introduced a tactile feature which helps the vision-impaired community to understand the value of the currency. Each denomination will have a different number of raised bumps. For e.g., a $10 banknotes will have two bumps on each edge, a $20 will have three bumps. Also, each banknote is a distinct colour and length, a banknote identification card enables visually impaired citizens to measure the length of each bill and differentiate banknotes.

In United States, all banknotes are the same size, shape, and weight, regardless of denominations. Earlier blind people used to understand the denominations value using folding techniques and specialized apps. Since 2015, Bureau of Engraving and Printing started providing a currency reader device called ‘iBill’, free of charge, to eligible blind blind and visually impaired individuals.

In India, however, the visually impaired population is already struggling with several challenges, and the fact that this mammoth decision of introduction of new notes, did not involve a consideration for the 1.5 crore disabled population of the country has left them disappointed.

It developed the currency designs of Eeuro banknotes and coins in 1990with the cooperation of European Blind Union. It include different size, large value numerals, raised print, tactile marks near the edges, different weights and different thickness of notes and coins.

The Reserve Bank of Australia - Each denomination has a different number of raised bumps. For e.g., a $10 banknotes will have two bumps on each edge, a $20 will have three bumps. Also distinct colour and length, a banknote identification card

In United States - Since 2015, Bureau of Engraving and Printing started providing a currency reader device called ‘iBill’, free of charge, to eligible blind blind and visually impaired individuals.

Thursday, 16 March, 2017

4

With the city’s growth , art seems to have taken a place of its own “The video shown by BTV actually shows an alley next to a tea shop were people smoke cigarettes regularly. I don’t see how such a proof is conclusive enough to blame one of the best colleges in Bangalore,” -Dr.Ravishankar, the Dean of the evening college

The Metro station building stands with art that the city’s youth can relate to easily Courtsey: Mrigakshi Dixit By: Nivedita Naidu nivedita.n@iijnm.org Ranging from graffiti to street plays and engaging the common man with the arts , spaces in Bangalore add colour to the daily lives of many!

Bangalore is known as India’s IT hub. Like any other city evolves and grows, Bangalore over the years has embraced people from a variety of places. The city’s public space is also evolving and plays a major role in engaging people with arts.

Mr. Sunder, 45 has been residing in Bangalore over 25 years.

He said he encounters art in public spaces more often now than before. The BMTC buses have posters about monuments, there are paintings on the pillars of the flyovers, and some metro stations have paintings. “ I enjoyed watching the shadow painting at one of the flyovers . It is always a pleasant surprise to encounter art while on a long commute, the best part is, it is not expected and it usually surprises me ,” he added.

Another student from Uttar Pradesh said, “Art in public spaces gives a chance to artists to showcase their skill and also transforms boring open spaces to vibrant stretches, giving the mind a break from the monotony. I was amazed to see the Metro station building on Church Street, it simply made me happy!”

Street art in Bangalore is not restricted to graffiti alone, some places also have art installations, an example is the MG road metro station. Recently four Namma Metro stations held an event called ‘ Festival of stories’. The aim was

to use art and tell a story about the city’s evolution. At the Cubbon Park metro station students from the Shrishti Institute of Art ,Design and Technology used their imagination and coloured the spaces.

Students were seen working before the event kicked off. In one such interaction, when one of the artists’s who was busy creating a painting was asked what the painting meant, he said, “In my opinion, a park is a place where we meet nature. Parks are places where nature and the city confluence beautifully.” After listening to the explanation the paint-

ing he created made more sense.

The city is not just restricted to art on the walls; there are places like Cubbon Park where plays are open for the public. Various activities take place on the weekends that engage the city dwellers. Anup , an engineer by profession who visits Cubbon park events said these small initiatives of reaching out with art to the people not only beautifies the place but also sensitises public on various issues. He added, Bangalore was once known as the garden city which is now turned to be the garbage city, increasing street art in the form of graffiti will help beautifying the city again.

Niharika , a student studying arts says, “Street Art should visually communicate to all viewers, it should be weird and disturbing, people do not notice otherwise.”

The painting at the station depicting the confluence of nature and the city.

Courtsey: Mrigakshi Dixit

LIFE

5 The Weekly Observer

Thursday, 16 March, 2017

More ways to calm your ‘App’etite

By Ahana Chatterjee ahana.c@iijnm.org

The boom in online food delivery services over the past few years has been helping the local restaurants expand their business and increase their number of customers. Not only that, they are also helping people who are migrated to the town, to find decent food without issues.

Indian parents are always concerned about how their (grown-up) children will manage to make or to find food after long office hours or a tiring day at college. When will they buy groceries and vegetables and cook? Online food delivery apps like Zomato, Foodpanda, Swiggy, Fresh Menu, and Faasos have solved these issues for many people.

When anyone shifts to a new city, their major concern, apart from accommodation, is always food. And if the person does not know how to cook then the problem is even bigger. The food delivery apps are saviours for these people.

New migrants to a city are largely dependent on these.

“For people like us, who are new to a city, food delivery apps are important because we don’t have an idea of where to order from.

And we also get to know which one will be affordable. Cooking every day is a challenging task given the number of hours we work. So a food delivery app after a long day’s work is a blessing,” says Ranadeep Chakraborty, a student from Bangalore.

Not only food delivery apps, there are online grocery shopping places as well, where one can order groceries from any place and get them on their doorstep without any problem. These services came into limelight basically for the people who do not have time to spend in grocery shopping or cooking proper meals due to long working hours.

“Food delivery apps have certainly made life easier for working bachelors. I have six different food delivery apps on my phone which give me a variety of restaurants and dishes to choose from. I come home after work, too tired to even move my legs, but starving! What do I do? Go on, find a good restaurant, and order myself a sumptuous meal. I also have the option to choose fresh food, salads, meals, combos, desserts. So basically, for me, it’s like I’m at a hotel with a variety of options,” said Mohammad Affanul Haque, a media professional from Delhi.

These apps are also a saviour for the people living in hostels. When students get bored with the mess food, they end up using these apps.

The food delivery apps help one find restaurants that serve cuisine of their choice. They can simply browse restaurants according to their location and find their favourite cuisine also.

Sayantan Mitra, an engineer from Bangalore is one of the many users who check these apps to find their preferred cuisine. “I use these

apps to check the rating and then decide where to go. Now, we know where we can actually get good and delicious food. Also, after a long day of work, I sometimes don’t feel like cooking, so I just order food.

Now-a-days, some food joints remain open the entire night and provide late night food delivery.

So things have become a lot easier.

Also, there is this fresh menu where they offer different menus each day and you get to choose different food every day. I love this concept. Now ,I think life will be tough without these food delivery apps,” Mitra

said.

This is not the only advantage of the food delivery apps. They have been helping in expansion of business of small restaurants all over the country. The restaurants listed with food delivery apps get more customers online, it is a way of promotion for them. Cheffu Stuffu, a two year old small restau-

rant in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, from the very beginning tied up with Zomato to get more customers. “Getting listed in these apps is a good strategy for promotion,” Deepak BM, the founder of the restaurant said. They have a unique menu and right promotion for it was required.

“During summer, we receive more online orders via Zomato, as people don’t go out in the afternoons. Also, on weekends, we receive high number of orders. The number of online orders is purely based on seasons. Due to the online app, I have mixed type of customers and they help to get new customers every month,” Mr. Deepak added.

A Bangalore-based food delivery app, Swiggy which started in 2014 is one of the leading online delivery apps in the city. This company serves in eight metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata and few more. More than 10,000 restaurants all over the country are listed in this app. “We check quality of the food, hygiene of the restaurant kitchen, packaging quality, restaurant’s popularity in the area and then list them with us. If a restaurant is not so famous but still has a good feedback from the customers of the locality, we do list them,” a spokesperson of Swiggy said.

Every week, around hundred restaurants gets listed in Swiggy from all over the country. “We get more orders from Bangalore and

Hyderabad; and 500 to 600 orders from other cities. At times, we cross one lakh orders in a day from all over the country,” he further added.

In Bangalore around 1000 to 1500 people work for Swiggy and help deliver the food.

However, the online food delivery apps have failed to serve to the small cities of the country. Shishir Mathur, a computer science engineering student from IIT Kanpur, who stays in the hostel, shared his concern about not having benefit of online food delivery apps. “Due to the lack of choice and variety in Kanpur, life becomes very monotonous here. For an avid foodie, having the same food everyday makes life tasteless and boring.

Additionally, due to the lack of competition the existing food service also slack in their quality.

We find out ways and reasons to celebrate and have some good food outside for a change. Here, in Kanpur, we don’t have the luxury of different cuisines. The good restaurants are about 10 to 12 kilometres away from the campus. So, the food delivery apps would have made life much easier. But, just the service is not important; there is need for better food joints serving good food at an affordable cost,” Mr. Mathur said.

People have increasingly becoming dependent on the online food delivery apps.Tech savy millenials are using these apps. The change in lifestyle of people, have led to the origin of the food delivery apps in the country.

All the king’s men couldn’t put ‘Hampi’ together again!

By Ayushee Chaudhary ayushee.c@iijnm.org If you are tired of the monotonous rush in Bangalore and need a pause; you must grab a weekend getaway opportunity for yourself. If your interest lies in art and history, and if there’s a slight ignition within you for some adventure, Hampi is a perfect choice.

The ancient site is a 5-6 hours’ drive from Bangalore, situated at a distance of 343 kilometers. Begin with an early morning drive via NICE road and then continue along NH-75 towards Hassan.

Once you are on the highway away from the city, it’s difficult to locate a huge, fancy restaurant or hotel until you reach Chitradurga where you have a restaurant or two to settle and eat; if you are looking for a break from the drive.

After hours of journey, you

spot a pre-historic stone gate that welcomes you to the ancient site of Hampi. But be prepared to cross the settlements where the locals reside before you reach the historical location and begin spotting the huge stones and rocks along the road.

The fine ruins of Hampi present a spectral landscape that attracts and captivates hundreds of travelers. Giant boulders are spread over many miles and the tall palm trees along with banana plantations add to the whole scenic view of the ruined settlement.

As you will walk your way through Chandrashekhara Temple, running your fingers over the carvings of the pillars of the temple, you cannot stop but think of hundreds of stories that they tell. There are over 50 temples like Vithala Temple and Virupaksha Temple among others that narrate century old stories of the dance forms, the music,

the women, etc through the artistic architecture.

There are hotels and lodges at Hampi but if you wish for some adventure, you must take this chance for camping. Take your tent and the necessities for a bonfire and you can make this visit much more memorable. Since the site is under the archaeological survey, you will have to take permission for putting the tent or you can just go to one of the temples and mark your territory for the night with the kind temple keepers.

While in Hampi, you must catch a look of the old stone chariot and take a climb up the Matanga hill. It is the highest and the centrally located point of Hampi and its peak is the best place for you to get the aerial view of the entire settlement. Once you reach the top and look at the boulder-strewn landscape as the fast wind engulfs you, you are sure to be taken aback

by the breath taking view that will speak to you about the unread pages of history. Make sure you do not miss to sit and see the surreal sunset or sunrise from this peak as the sun adds colours to the otherwise pastel landscape. One can also see the tourist’s visiting the temple, with some of them even cycling their way through the streets; declaring a perfect amalgamation of ancient art with the contemporary world.

Hampi is located on the bank of Tungabhadra River, also giving you a chance to relax yourself at the riverside. Once you are down, you will have to walk a little ahead to entice your taste buds with local south Indian food.

Hampi is definitely a place to visit and to admire the rich heritage but if you are too keen to explore the site, a weekend might not be enough to capture whole of the beautiful ruins of this ancient city.

A visit to Hampi will let you glide through the ancient past while your feet are still in the present.

UNWIND

The Weekly Observer

Thursday, 16 March, 2017

6

I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’S Digital Army

By Bhakti Tambe bhakti.t@iijnm.org “A troll is someone who leaves a message on the internet that is intended to annoy people,” defines the Cambridge dictionary. But Swati Chaturvedi argues that a troll is a tool systematically used by ruling Bhartiya Janata Party to target the opposition party leaders and journalists for their political propaganda.

The role of social media in BJP’s 2014 election victory is undeniable. Social media cells built during the election campaign have gained more power and authority over a period of time. In her book, I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army, the author and journalist narrates the

shocking story of the functioning of ruling party’s social media cells.

The book tells about how these trolls systematically target someone to further the party’s propaganda, how much they get paid, and the consequences of the same.

She comes up with proofs (screenshots of tweets and emails), personal accounts and interviews with high-level officials, and establishes that BJP is spending enormous money, time, and energy to foster the trolls.

BJP has been effectively using the social media platforms to reach out to the people. But, as Sadhavi Khosla, a member of BJP’s social media team tells in the book, the tone of campaign shifted from endorsing Modi to demeaning the opposition party leaders and trolling journalists or non-BJP supporter.

Vicious and filthy language, sexually explicit imagery, misogynistic

and vulgar comments, morphed photos, and doctored videos are the tools this digital army uses to attack anyone and everyone who criticises BJP. This book goes on to establish that that the attacks on Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, Kanhaiya Kumar, Shahrukh Khan and wellknown journalists were cooked by the BJP’s social media cells and people were being paid for each tweet that they retweeted or liked.

BJP has been consistently denying these allegations.

The book raises two important questions: One; why does the Prime Minister follow those people who are abusers and trolls on twitter? Second; why BJP ministers are endorsing the tweets done by trolls by retweeting or liking them? It is

true that Prime Minister can decide whom to follow on twitter, but it is also true that leader of the nation should be careful in the way he portrays his image.

The author highlights; while the social media is thriving in India, understanding its perils is also important. The filthy voices of social media have entered the very heart of powerful and the government must find a way to clean things up.

Author: Swati Chaturvedi Juggernaut Books; Rs 250; 192 pages

Source: Amazon.co.in

Editor in chief Yogita Chainani

Managing editor

Ayushee Chaudhary

Social media editors Mrigakshi Dixit Aarohi Pathak

Copy editors

Prabhakar Thakur Chhavi Nagpal

Layout editors Konica Kamra Bhakti Tambe

Photo editor

Ahana Chatterjee

Staff

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