The Weekly
BSERVER An IIJNM Publication
By Bhakti Tambe bhakti.t@iijnm.org On November 8, 2016, a historic economic move took place that wiped out 86 percent of the country’s currency from circulation. The motive publicized by the government was to ‘go cashless’ or shift to digital payment methods. While the country is gearing up to take up digital transactions, it is important to check the efficiency of existing cyber safety measures, in order to curb cyber-crimes. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, in last ten years, cyber-crimes reported in India rose from 481 in 2005 to 49,995 in 2015. India now ranks third, after U.S.A. and China in cyber-crimes. As per Symantic Corp software security firm reports produced in 2016, cyber-crimes include phishing, malicious code, website intrusion and banking related fraud. A joint study held by AS-
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SOCHAM-PwC revealed that in 10 months of 2016, a total 39,730 incidents of cyber-crime were reported. “It has been observed that financial gains are the major motive behind cyber-crime cases, and they account for 50 per cent of total cases in country,” according to Advocate Gaurav Jachak, cyber lawyer. In the month of October, 2016, an ATM card hack affecting around 3.2 million debit cards dented the Indian banking and security system. The country is witnessing a digital revolution and hence efforts to enhance the cyber security are needed. Sanjay Sahay, AGDP, Police Computer Wing, Bangalore, mentions we should have our own standards, protocol and operating system. continued on page 2
Tuesday, 07 February, 2017
Rising Bengaluru after ‘Udta Punjab’
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A post-demonetisation overview of India’s cyber security systerm
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Volume 16 Issue 16
Readers impressed by Karan Johar’s An Unsuitable Boy Are we ready to go digital?
The Weekly Observer
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Sub-urban rail still a distant dream for city By Prabhakar Kumar Thakur prabhakar.t@iijnm.org Bengaluru: Every day, many people come to Bengaluru from as far away as Mandya, Ramnagara, Tumakuru, Hosur and Doddaballapur. They come by bus or private vehicle. For them, neither is the optimum mode of travel as they get stuck in traffic jams regularly. “I wish there was a more robust mode of transport in the city. Even metro does not run on this route,” says Mukul, 38, who works in a small food joint in Whitefield. He must start very early from his home in the satellite town of Kengeri in order to reach work on time. “I have to spend nearly five hours of my day in the BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Trans-
port Corp.) bus.” While the people of Bengaluru spend hours stuck in traffic, the long-awaited Bangalore Sub-urban Railway seems still a distant dream, as there was no allocation made for Bengaluru Sub-urban railways in the recent budget proposal by Prime Minister
Modi’s administration. It was the first time that a combined Union and Railway Budget were presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely. A feasibility study was conducted by Rail Indian Technical and Economic Services (RITES) in November 2011 for Banga-
lore Sub-urban Railway, a project aimed at connecting Bengaluru with its suburbs in order to provide a hassle-free commute to people coming from distant places. The RITES report proposed developing the entire Suburban Railway network in three phases. In Phase I, the routes to be developed are KSR Bengaluru/Yeshwantpur to Tumkur, Chikballapur and Hosur. The final report, which put the cost of the Sub-urban Railway project at Rs. 9,000 crores, was submitted to Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) in No-
vember 2012. Sub-urban Railway has been found to be the cheaper option for commute in the city. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in the Legislative Assembly in January 2016 that the first phase of Namma Metro cost Rs. 13,845 crores. The government of Karnataka had allocated Rs. 27,000 crores for Phase II of Namma Metro. This way, the combine cost of Phase I and Phase II of metro is Rs. 40,845 crores. A study done in 2014 by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in collaboration with Praja - a citybased citizens’ group, found that having the Sub-urban Railway in the city is going to cost Rs. 18.5 crore, compared to Rs. 371.55 crores per kilometers for a metro train. continued on page 2
Towing cases on the rise in Bengaluru By Mrigakshi Dixit mrigakshi.d@iijnm.org Bengaluru: With the increase in vehicles on road, very oftentwo and four wheelervehicles are found in a no parking zone. The Bengaluru Traffic Police has reported that there is an increase in the vehicle towing cases, to curb the illegal parking. In the year 2016,a total of 91,80,348 cases were reported for car towing, and in 2015 the estimate was 76,26,671 according to the data provided by the traffic police on its site. The Motor Vehicle and Automation Act, recorded the least number of car towing cases in the year 2006 with number 16,55,470. “There has been a gradual increase over the years as the vehicles on road are increasing and space for parking is reducing,” said Muttanah, traffic police at M.G Road. “People park vehicles anywhere,especially two-wheelers. Most of the time they just stop for some time to buy something and in seconds it causes a traffic jam.” He adds. A total of 1.5 million vehicles are registered under the Road Transport Office (RTO). However, out of this the number of two-wheelers is estimated to be 42,19,709. “The maximum number of vehicles towed in 2016 are twowheelers because they are mostly illegally parked followed by four wheelers and load vehicles,” said Kiran, police constable. Kiran mentioned, the maximum
number of towing cases is reported in the Central Business District (CBD) of the city, which includes Vidhan Soudha area. Apart from CBD, Mahatma Gandhi road, Brigade road, Residency road, old Madras road and old airport road are few of the areas where maximum number of illegal parking takes place. The criteria set up by trafPhoto courtesy: Staff fic police to tow Car towed away from ‘no parking’ zone on Church St. four wheeler vehicles, for two excuses. But there are so many, the vehicles are four- vehicles that are left aban- wheelers it is INR 750 while for and we can’t let them go.” “My two-wheeler was towed last doned for a long time, parked on latter the fine is INR 1,100.The no parking zone, parked in a way fine for wrong parking is also in- month, during the time of demonetisation; I saw one ATM workthat creates problems for the com- cluded in that. In 2016, Bangalore Traffic Po- ing and parked my bike on the no muters, parked in a way that leads lice collected a total fine of more parking zone. I was standing in to traffic congestion. “Every day, we tow around than INR 30 lakhs. “Most of the the queue, with the ear plugs on. more than 70 to 80 vehicles,” said time, people leave vehicles just I was not able hear the announceKiran. He adds: “The police vehi- for some time, mostly outside ments as well,” said Shiv Kumar. Mirza mentions, one of the facclesare 24 hours on duty, patrol- the schools they leave to get their ling the streets to check for ille- kids, or sometimes they leave to tors that can also be cited for the gal parking. We observe for how buy something from the shop. increase in the towing cases is long the vehicle is abandoned, But within that fraction of time that there are less space to park and then announce on speaker the traffic swells up,” said Aftar vehiclesespecially outside the thenumber imprinted on the plate Mirza, Head Constable. He as- crowded places, and mostly the of the vehicle. If the owner does serts, “Even though we announce parking lots are situated inside not turn up within 15 minutes of on speaker but the noise is so and to avoid waste of time, peomuch around that sometimes they ple leave their vehicles wherever announcement, we tow it.” Under the Motor Vehicle act, the are not able to hear the warning. they find free space or according towing charges differ for two and Many a times the defaulters give to their convenience.