With stabilized trends now available for all the 223 constituencies, it appears that Congress may ultimately cross 112 seats which is  the required number for forming the Government. The latest (Final) position provide 121 seats for Congress, 40 for JDS and 40 for BJP. KJP has won in 6 and BSRC in 4. Others have [...]

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With trends in  all 223 seats now available the trend indicates a hung assembly where Congress will fall just short of majority. JDS appears to have gained substantially and may even emerge as the second largest party followed closely by BJP. The combinations to be looked for are Kumaraswamy as CM supported by BJP, KJP [...]

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In an initial surprise in counting trends, BJP is doing much better than expected. Out of 44 seats in which leads are now available, BJP is ahead in 18 vs Congress in 12, JDS in 7, KJP in 4, BSRC in 1 and Independents in 2. These are very early trends and may change substantially. [...]

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Know Your Customer norms are an important element of record keeping in Banks, Companies and several other agencies which manage the identity of people. India is now moving into Aadhar usage which makes the Identity management a very important aspect of Governance. Failure to maintain proper KYC results in frauds and hence security professionals including [...]

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The voting for the Assembly elections in Karnataka is scheduled for 5th of May 2013. The Campaign will end in the next couple of days. As the campaign approaches the final stages, Voters have not been able to get a clear picture of what they need to do. Media has been unhelpful since they are [...]

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Bangalore Political Action Committee an action body of Citizens has been looked upon as an organization that supports clean politics. However the recent release of the names of 14 candidates to be provided with partial funding of election expenses raises many eye brows. The list  of 14 candidates endorsed by the BPAC are: 1.Krishna Byregowda (Congress, Byatarayanpura),  [...]

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Basavanagudi is an important constituency in South Bangalore from where the sitting BJP MLA Mr Ravi Subramanyam is contesting. There are 17 other contestants including a strong candidate from Congress in Mr B.K.Chandrashekar. KJP has put up a well known music director Mr Ravi Kiran as its candidate while JDS is also making a  bid [...]

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In chosing a candidate for exercising our votes we are often confronted with manifesto’s of different parties. Unfortunately the integrity of political parties is so low that whatever they state in the manifesto is not considered reliable. Now in Karnataka, almost all parties say they will waive farmer’s loan and provide rice at Rs 1 [...]

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A TOI study in Karnataka has revealed that “Corruption” is one of the major issues in Karnataka. Mr Rahul Gandhi in a speech yesterday, has stated that BJP has created a world record in corruption in Karnataka. Perhaps he was refering to Mr Yeddyurappa’s regime. Presently Mr Yeddyurappa is in KJP and hence his misdeeds [...]

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During the last Karnataka Assembly elections in 2008, I had written an article here in Bloggernews.net on each voter creating a score card for the candidates in his constituency and arriving at a score before deciding on the candidate. In the current elections where the voters have an even higher level of confusion on chosing [...]

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Congress party consists of a few leaders who are so unintelligent that they have unwittingly opened new doors of opportunity for Karnataka BJP after the terror strike yesterday. Yesterday there was what apparently was a terror attack where a bomb exploded very near the BJP office in Malleswaram, Bangalore. Several BJP leaders and their supporters [...]

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An interesting study conducted by IRIS Knowledge Foundation, (See here)  in association with IAMAI suggests that in over 150 Loksabha constituencies, Face Book users are likely to have a significant influence on the voter’s choices in the election. This means that 28% of the seats are capable of being influenced by Netizens either because they are themselves the voters or that [...]

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To All Candidates seeking election to Karnataka Assembly A Memorandum from “Netizens of Karnataka” who are expected to be over 12% of the population in the State and over 20% in the Urban area. Dear Sir/Madam I understand that you are contesting the forthcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka. At the outset, I wish you all [...]

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According to various reports that have emerged about the “Vijaya Sankalpa” meet organized by Karnataka BJP on 8th April 2013, it appears that the party has shown no commitment for any change in its approach to Governance. On the one hand the leaders are still reluctant to criticize Mr Yeddyurappa and there is every indication [...]

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Indian electoral politics is deeply divided on caste and community basis. Congress continuously blames BJP of being “Communal” and has been successful in alienating the population on the basis of Hindu Vs Muslim and to some extent Hindu, Muslim and Christians as major community groups. The electoral strategies are devised on the assumption that each community prefers [...]

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The Headlines Today-C Voter survey of the election prospects in the forthcoming assembly elections has thrown up some interesting points for debate. Overall, the Poll predicts that Congress would form the Government with 118 seats in the next assembly with BJP getting 52, JD(S) getting 35 and KJP getting about 12 seats. What is surprising is that the Congress [...]

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The reorganization of the top party positions in BJP has raised several debates. As expected, Mr Narendra Modi has been inducted into the party’s Parliamentary Board and the Election Campaign Committee. BJP will however continue to debate if they have to project Mr Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate or wait until the election is [...]

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(Continued from previous article) Having discussed the current fluid status of the Karnataka Electoral scene prior to the elections in May 2013 in the first four articles of this series and the importance of Netizens to unite as a coherent voting entity in the fifth, I will now proceed to place before the community some [...]

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(This is a continuation of the previous article) As has been discussed in the previous four parts of this article, the electoral situation in Karnataka is very fluid. No party is likely to come to power with complete majority. At least four parties are likely to be in contention for formation of the Government depending [...]

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(This is a continuation of the earlier article) Congress has always been a formidable force in Karnataka. It lost the popular base only because during the Dharmsingh’s tenure it suffered from lack of Governance, as well as corruption and infighting. With the fall of BJP, the natural beneficiary has to be Congress. Working on the [...]

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[This is the third part of the draft letter being sent by Naavi.org to RBI in response to the discussion paper on Disincentivisation of issuance and usage of cheques.  Public may send their response before February 28, 2013 to RBI by email at: chequeusage@rbi.org.in  A complete copy as sent with suitably edited is available here. Earlier parts are available here.  Part [...]

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Section 5(b) of the Banking regulation act of India defines “Banking” as follows: (b) “banking” means the accepting, for the purpose of lending or investment, of deposits of money from the public, repayable on demand or otherwise, and withdrawal by cheque, draft, order or otherwise;  It is inherent in the definition that ability for “withdrawal [...]

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I draw the attention of the Governor of RBI  to the latest discussion paper released by RBI for disincentivising the use of cheques. If we go through some of the suggestions it appears that RBI has simply gone crazy. It is planning to misuse its respect and statutory powers to regulate the Banks to swindle [...]

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[P.S: This is a draft of a letter proposed to be sent to RBI. This is also the first part and will continue. I am releasing this to the public domain since I want public to understand the implications and submit their responses to RBI before the deadline of February 28, 2013.  This has reference [...]

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Indian Banking industry is already reeling under the  increasing Cyber Crime risks. The recent US $ 200 million Credit card fraud exposed in USA and a series of Bank frauds in RTGS and NEFT systems have exposed that the Banking system in India is lacking the fundamental ingredient of “Safety”. The much hyped “OTP” system [...]

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Section 66A of ITA 2008 has been one of the most abused sections of the Act in recent days. There is also a discussion about the constitutional validity of this section on  whether this section infringes on the constitutional “Right to Freedom of Expression” as provided in Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution. The discussion [...]

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I refer to the news report in Midday indicating a new modus operandi in the commission of a Bank fraud in India. This fraud has been committed as a combination of “Phishing”, “Security lapses at the victim’s Bank”, “Compromise of KYC by the mobile operator” and “Compromise of KYC by the collecting Bankers”. The compromise of KYC [...]

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What does the UK Guardian asking for us to reconsider the crime of pedophilia, and the Life of Pi have in common? Making up pretty lies to confuse the reality of the crime. The Guardian insists that the crime of having sex with children isn’t bad and such impulses should just be accepted as part [...]

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A lot of  the news about the Middle East is politicized in the US press, but today’s reports are not good. The Reuters news agency Religion section has this article, that cautions: The fabric of Middle Eastern society has fundamentally changed. Being Muslim has replaced being Arab as the primary identifying factor. The consequences are [...]

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This report from an Iranian blog on Global Voices, says they have such a chicken shortage the price of .chickens have soared. So someone decided to censor films and TV programs that show…chickens (!) Against a backdrop of lengthening food queues, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, the head of Iran’s law enforcement forces, has warned that films depicting [...]

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