New Venues for shopping this Diwali in Belgaum
8:15 AM Posted by ukmad
Rajmal Lakhichand Jewellers has come a long way since its inception in 1854. The 6th generation now holds the torch of the family business guided by the same vision that drove each generation of creators.
Relian
ce Fresh at Khanapur Road will commence operations within a day and one more super market, Smart Super Market is opening at Thakkar Plaza, Club road, Belgaum.So where did you shop this Diwali?
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Belgaum-Mumbai flight in 3 months?
7:05 AM Posted by ukmad
Discontinuing of the air service has discouraged entrepreneurs: BCCI
Belgaum is the second largest exporter of industrial products in the State
A delegation of the Belgaum Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI), has submitted a memorandum to Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel requesting him to restart air service between Belgaum and Mumbai at the earliest. Many entrepreneurs had put on hold their plans to invest in Belgaum as the city lacked proper connectivity, discontinuing of the air service to Mumbai had only discouraged entrepreneurs further.
How could the Government expect entrepreneurs to invest in the city without providing them services such as air connectivity?
The BCCI said that airline companies had plans to expand their fleet. In such a situation, aircraft maintenance and service facilities at Mumbai and Bangalore might not be able to cater to the growing needs. Besides this, maintenance and servicing of aircraft had become expensive in metros. In addition, space available at airports in such cities for additional hangars and maintenance workshops was less, the BCCI said. As a result, majorities of airline operators were considering shifting their maintenance and servicing facilities to small cities (such as Belgaum), it said.
Belgaum had the potential to meet the requirements of airline operators, the BCCI said and added that nearly 4,000 persons could get jobs if such facilities were started here.
A friend of mine who came in from Dubai could not come to Belgaum directly as no flight was available, he had to go to Hubli and then come to Belgaum by car. Many people like who have come in from abroad for a holiday face the same problem. So its not only businessmen but also the public at large how is affected. He also added that reaching Belgaum takes more time than flying from Dubai to Mumbai.
The BCCI has done its job, now a follow up is very essential in this case as normally promises made are not kept. The people of Belgaum should get a flight to Mumbai, as the AirDeccan(Now Kingfisher Red) had stopped its Belgaum Mumbai flight on March 30 sighting under occupancy. I also urge and request the MPs,MLAs,MLCs to take keen interest in this issue and see that we have a direct flight. Source The Hindu
Belgaum is the second largest exporter of industrial products in the State
A delegation of the Belgaum Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI), has submitted a memorandum to Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel requesting him to restart air service between Belgaum and Mumbai at the earliest. Many entrepreneurs had put on hold their plans to invest in Belgaum as the city lacked proper connectivity, discontinuing of the air service to Mumbai had only discouraged entrepreneurs further.
How could the Government expect entrepreneurs to invest in the city without providing them services such as air connectivity?
The BCCI said that airline companies had plans to expand their fleet. In such a situation, aircraft maintenance and service facilities at Mumbai and Bangalore might not be able to cater to the growing needs. Besides this, maintenance and servicing of aircraft had become expensive in metros. In addition, space available at airports in such cities for additional hangars and maintenance workshops was less, the BCCI said. As a result, majorities of airline operators were considering shifting their maintenance and servicing facilities to small cities (such as Belgaum), it said.
Belgaum had the potential to meet the requirements of airline operators, the BCCI said and added that nearly 4,000 persons could get jobs if such facilities were started here.
A friend of mine who came in from Dubai could not come to Belgaum directly as no flight was available, he had to go to Hubli and then come to Belgaum by car. Many people like who have come in from abroad for a holiday face the same problem. So its not only businessmen but also the public at large how is affected. He also added that reaching Belgaum takes more time than flying from Dubai to Mumbai.
The BCCI has done its job, now a follow up is very essential in this case as normally promises made are not kept. The people of Belgaum should get a flight to Mumbai, as the AirDeccan(Now Kingfisher Red) had stopped its Belgaum Mumbai flight on March 30 sighting under occupancy. I also urge and request the MPs,MLAs,MLCs to take keen interest in this issue and see that we have a direct flight. Source The Hindu
High Street Camp Belgaum, Old Photo
5:02 PM Posted by ukmad
 | This is an old photo of the High Street Camp, Belgaum. Seems to me its taken in the early 1900 or late 1800 may be cant correctly say. Its a post card on which this photo is there and is available for sale at ebay. |
Cost Cutting Diwali
5:31 PM Posted by ukmad
Diwali is that time of the year when all rich and poor in the whole of the country spend money saved over a year for clothes, sweets and many other things.
The large corporates, who till last year used to gift their employees gifts of hefty amounts this time plan to make it very simple with a Cap, when last year it was a costly T-shirt. Those gifts to clients have also seen a cutting, from costly art ware to just sweets this time.
The global melt down, Indian Stock market crash, which on Friday saw its most formidable fall ever and inflation have had its own impact on this Diwali.
May it be the rich or the poor, all have been hit very badly by the Melt down bug. Diwali time for all businesspersons is like an opportunity to cash in on just anything and everything, but this time it is another case. The malls in big cities are empty with footfall going down by 20 to 25%.
In Belgaum, it is no different story. We do not have many malls (other than Big Bazaar) over here and the bulk of the Diwali business is in the local shops. One shopkeeper told this blog that, He never feels its Diwali time. Normally during this time, we do not get any free time but this year we are all free with very little business. During Diwali, normally costly and above average prices of commodities sell very easily, this time only cheap verities are selling, one more businessperson added.
The sweet shops are also facing the same problem. The regular yearly orders have come in but for a less quantity, one owner said. The prices of dry fruits have touched the sky and hence the demand for them has diminished.
On eve of Diwali, I wish all my readers a Happy Diwali and wish that you are not in the Cost Cutting Diwali brigade.
As for me I will send emails and sms this time as I am part of the Cost Cutting Diwali brigade.
Happy Diwali!
Kite is in the air
1:33 PM Posted by ukmad
A piece of paper, a few broom-sticks [from the stick broom not the grass type.] and some string. Put them together with a boy from Belgaum and you have avionics that rival NASA.You pasted the paper onto the stick frame in what approximated a square. The paper had to be fine tissue paper but if push came to shove, even newspaper would do. Then you tied a Kuni, One up zero down. That's one finger measured horizontally above the upper connection of string to kite and none at the lower end. Kite flying is not a spectator sport.
The person who drew the short straw [i.e. the smaller one who could be bullied] was given the kite to hoist. He took the kite twenty odd meters away, faced into the wind and when you yelled at him, he would leap into the air and throw it as high as he could. Houston, we have lift off. If the flier did not co-ordinate his hauling in of the string, (Manja) it was many attempts before the apple fell away from the ground. When it did, the hoister had to charge back to the flier and stand a few paces upwind of him with the firki. [If you have to ask what a firki is go listen to Britney Spears.] He had to be ready to give deel. i.e. feed out the manja as your kite soared higher and higher. You had to get it between the telephone and electric wires, then past the odd branch of the drumstick tree and finally past the television antennae that were the final guardians of the gates to the open skies.Then you got older and just flying a kite was not enough. Your manja had to have the finest glass on it to make it the sharpest. Your kite had to be responsive to little flicks and tichkis for aerial sorties. Your point man who held the firki had to be tuned in to you to know when you wanted deel and when he had to lapat (rewind). You engaged in aerial combat [ok Lugees] with squadrons of the Luftwaffe, from the buildings down the road, Jockeying for supremacy of the skies. Climbing high into the sun so that with one fell swoop the manja of lesser mortals gave way leaving their kite slowly floating away on the breeze. With a flood of chokra boys running after it, waving long sticks with a twig tied at the end to ensnare the vanquished. And when you where vanquished you hauled your precious manja in as fast as you could before it snagged on the antennae or telephone cables or trees that you had skillfully maneuvered thru on your way out. Your firki had to be in the hands of a master, to stop the manja you reeled in becoming one big gotala. This master would turn around and keep the tension on the manja by letting it pass between his legs while he spun the firki with both hands at a speed of twenty frames per second or more.Yeah I should have just said a blur of motion. The gurus of kite flying would engage in a lugee, slice their opponents with a skill that made Jack the Ripper look like Mr. Bean, then capture the fallen kite in mid-air by entwining their manja with the trailing manja of the loser and then haul both kites in thru the maze. Skill? The progeny of Neil Armstrong and Sunita Williams could not do it, with joint parentage. You have to be born in Belgaum for that.
The person who drew the short straw [i.e. the smaller one who could be bullied] was given the kite to hoist. He took the kite twenty odd meters away, faced into the wind and when you yelled at him, he would leap into the air and throw it as high as he could. Houston, we have lift off. If the flier did not co-ordinate his hauling in of the string, (Manja) it was many attempts before the apple fell away from the ground. When it did, the hoister had to charge back to the flier and stand a few paces upwind of him with the firki. [If you have to ask what a firki is go listen to Britney Spears.] He had to be ready to give deel. i.e. feed out the manja as your kite soared higher and higher. You had to get it between the telephone and electric wires, then past the odd branch of the drumstick tree and finally past the television antennae that were the final guardians of the gates to the open skies.Then you got older and just flying a kite was not enough. Your manja had to have the finest glass on it to make it the sharpest. Your kite had to be responsive to little flicks and tichkis for aerial sorties. Your point man who held the firki had to be tuned in to you to know when you wanted deel and when he had to lapat (rewind). You engaged in aerial combat [ok Lugees] with squadrons of the Luftwaffe, from the buildings down the road, Jockeying for supremacy of the skies. Climbing high into the sun so that with one fell swoop the manja of lesser mortals gave way leaving their kite slowly floating away on the breeze. With a flood of chokra boys running after it, waving long sticks with a twig tied at the end to ensnare the vanquished. And when you where vanquished you hauled your precious manja in as fast as you could before it snagged on the antennae or telephone cables or trees that you had skillfully maneuvered thru on your way out. Your firki had to be in the hands of a master, to stop the manja you reeled in becoming one big gotala. This master would turn around and keep the tension on the manja by letting it pass between his legs while he spun the firki with both hands at a speed of twenty frames per second or more.Yeah I should have just said a blur of motion. The gurus of kite flying would engage in a lugee, slice their opponents with a skill that made Jack the Ripper look like Mr. Bean, then capture the fallen kite in mid-air by entwining their manja with the trailing manja of the loser and then haul both kites in thru the maze. Skill? The progeny of Neil Armstrong and Sunita Williams could not do it, with joint parentage. You have to be born in Belgaum for that.
AbitOfMe N, the author can be contacted on Orkut.
L K Advani Speech at the GIT silver jubilee
10:16 AM Posted by ukmad
These are some snippets of the speech delivered by Shri.L K Advani yesterday at the GIT college silver jubilee celebrations
.The speech was more political than anything else, what else can a politician say anyways.
"It gives me great pleasure to come to Belgaum — rather, Belagavi, its new name — to participate in the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Gogte Institute of Technology,
When a group from Belgaum comprising Shri Angadi, Shri Kulkarni, Prof. Rao and others met me a couple of months back to invite me for this function, the first question that struck me was: Why is a society dedicated to law education running an engineering college? The mystery was solved when I learnt more about the history of the Karnataka Law Society.
Tribute to Belgaum
I must make a special mention here of another great educational society based in Belgaum, which has made an immense contribution to the spread of higher and professional education in this state. I am referring to the Karnataka Lingayat Education (KLE) Society. I am very happy that its chairman, Shri Prabhakar Kore is in our midst today. Thanks to the vision and dedicated efforts of organizations like these, Belgaum has indeed emerged as the most important hub of higher education between two great centres of learning — Pune and Bangalore.
Friends, Belgaum is a beautiful city, also a very special city. It is here that Mahatma Gandhi presided over a session of the AICC in 1924 — the only time when he became the Congress president. It is here that Swami Vivekananda stayed for 12 days in meditation in 1892. I am told that the citizens of Belgaum have preserved the place where he stayed in the precincts of the beautifully renovated Ramakrishna Math in the city.
Not far from here is the town of Kittur, which was the karmabhoomi of Rani Chennamma. She is one of those heroes and heroines of India’s Freedom Struggle who sounded the bugle of rebellion against the British rule even before the 1857 War of Independence. I had visited Kittur during the course of my Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra in 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence. It was my Patriotic Pilgrimage, when I visited almost all the major places across the country that are associated with the heroes and martyrs of India’s glorious struggle for liberation from foreign rule.
I am told that a Kittur Utsav is opening today. I send my hearty greetings on the occasion.
Belgaum is special for another reason. I said that, before Independence, the preference of the best students was to study law. Many of them later became leading lights of the Freedom Movement. Very few engineers rose to national prominence. However, there was one exception, and that person hailed from this state — Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visveswarayya. He was truly a visionary, who had realized the importance of dams and modern irrigation systems, steel plants and other industries, well-planned cities, etc.
I am happy to note that the Visveswarayya Technological University, to which all engineering colleges in the state including this one are affiliated, is located in Belgaum.
A truly inspiring example was seen yesterday when India launched its unmanned spaceship CHANDRAYAAN - I to the Moon. It is now on its way to the moon carrying India’s Tricolour to the Moon.
It is obvious that the answer — not the entire answer, perhaps, but a substantial part of the answer — lies in good education being made available to every Indian. Education is the key that unlocks an individual’s future, and also a nation’s future.
I wish to make a specific affirmation about Educational Reforms. Progress in the education sector is hampered by the remnants of the License-Quota-Raj system, which had held back India’s economic growth. Therefore, liberation of the education sector from unnecessary restrictions and outdated controls, while strengthening proper regulation, will be one of our top priorities. We will ensure big increase in the number of institutions, seats and facilities in all streams of higher and professional education."
Source: BJP Press ReleasePhoto as published in The Hindu
"It gives me great pleasure to come to Belgaum — rather, Belagavi, its new name — to participate in the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Gogte Institute of Technology,
When a group from Belgaum comprising Shri Angadi, Shri Kulkarni, Prof. Rao and others met me a couple of months back to invite me for this function, the first question that struck me was: Why is a society dedicated to law education running an engineering college? The mystery was solved when I learnt more about the history of the Karnataka Law Society.
Tribute to Belgaum
I must make a special mention here of another great educational society based in Belgaum, which has made an immense contribution to the spread of higher and professional education in this state. I am referring to the Karnataka Lingayat Education (KLE) Society. I am very happy that its chairman, Shri Prabhakar Kore is in our midst today. Thanks to the vision and dedicated efforts of organizations like these, Belgaum has indeed emerged as the most important hub of higher education between two great centres of learning — Pune and Bangalore.
Friends, Belgaum is a beautiful city, also a very special city. It is here that Mahatma Gandhi presided over a session of the AICC in 1924 — the only time when he became the Congress president. It is here that Swami Vivekananda stayed for 12 days in meditation in 1892. I am told that the citizens of Belgaum have preserved the place where he stayed in the precincts of the beautifully renovated Ramakrishna Math in the city.
Not far from here is the town of Kittur, which was the karmabhoomi of Rani Chennamma. She is one of those heroes and heroines of India’s Freedom Struggle who sounded the bugle of rebellion against the British rule even before the 1857 War of Independence. I had visited Kittur during the course of my Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra in 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence. It was my Patriotic Pilgrimage, when I visited almost all the major places across the country that are associated with the heroes and martyrs of India’s glorious struggle for liberation from foreign rule.
I am told that a Kittur Utsav is opening today. I send my hearty greetings on the occasion.
Belgaum is special for another reason. I said that, before Independence, the preference of the best students was to study law. Many of them later became leading lights of the Freedom Movement. Very few engineers rose to national prominence. However, there was one exception, and that person hailed from this state — Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visveswarayya. He was truly a visionary, who had realized the importance of dams and modern irrigation systems, steel plants and other industries, well-planned cities, etc.
I am happy to note that the Visveswarayya Technological University, to which all engineering colleges in the state including this one are affiliated, is located in Belgaum.
A truly inspiring example was seen yesterday when India launched its unmanned spaceship CHANDRAYAAN - I to the Moon. It is now on its way to the moon carrying India’s Tricolour to the Moon.
It is obvious that the answer — not the entire answer, perhaps, but a substantial part of the answer — lies in good education being made available to every Indian. Education is the key that unlocks an individual’s future, and also a nation’s future.
I wish to make a specific affirmation about Educational Reforms. Progress in the education sector is hampered by the remnants of the License-Quota-Raj system, which had held back India’s economic growth. Therefore, liberation of the education sector from unnecessary restrictions and outdated controls, while strengthening proper regulation, will be one of our top priorities. We will ensure big increase in the number of institutions, seats and facilities in all streams of higher and professional education."
Source: BJP Press ReleasePhoto as published in The Hindu
Filled up potholes now a cause of worry
5:43 PM Posted by ukmad
Thanks to the visit of L K Advani, all potholes enroute from airport to GIT College were filled up in an emergency.
The potholes filled up on Congress road just show you how things are done in an emergency. The spot in the photo is in front of the main gate of Military Mahadev and the same spot was being filled up until 11 pm in the night yesterday.
May be due to unavailability of asphalt or some other undiscloseable fact the bolders have been just put in the potholes and now when the vehicles go over it, there is a great chance of slipping. I did slip a bit this afternoon over the same spot and many others might have as well. Now I say the earlier potholes were only better.
In addition, I heard about these politicians today some curses by the local public as they were made to wait for over 30 minutes until the caravan of Advani passed away. Traffic was blocked as the caravan of about 60 odd cars had to pass. The whole route from the airport to GIT was blocked for all traffic. I was quite lucky to get in to see the last 4 cars and then the blockade was cleared and I could go home.
Was anyone reading this in that blockade?
The potholes filled up on Congress road just show you how things are done in an emergency. The spot in the photo is in front of the main gate of Military Mahadev and the same spot was being filled up until 11 pm in the night yesterday.
May be due to unavailability of asphalt or some other undiscloseable fact the bolders have been just put in the potholes and now when the vehicles go over it, there is a great chance of slipping. I did slip a bit this afternoon over the same spot and many others might have as well. Now I say the earlier potholes were only better.
In addition, I heard about these politicians today some curses by the local public as they were made to wait for over 30 minutes until the caravan of Advani passed away. Traffic was blocked as the caravan of about 60 odd cars had to pass. The whole route from the airport to GIT was blocked for all traffic. I was quite lucky to get in to see the last 4 cars and then the blockade was cleared and I could go home.
Was anyone reading this in that blockade?
Splintered Vision
5:20 PM Posted by ukmad
The collision is likely to generate more heat than light. It is also likely to generate sound, as the two identify each other. The KRV man will probably see the MNS man and shout, “North Indian!” The MNS man, in utter confusion, will look around him and say, “Where?” Unfortunately for the poor fellow, little does he know that in Karnataka, he could well be mistaken for a north Indian? If he is correctly identified as a Maharashtrian, then things might get more exciting, since Karnataka and Maharashtra have a territorial dispute since 1956.
Maharashtra has been demanding that the Karnataka district of Belgaum should be given to it since the population is largely Marathi speaking. This in the past has led to a Marathi-speaking former mayor of Belgaum being beaten up by KRV men and aged tiger Bal Thackeray warning that Kannadigas in Mumbai would be forced to leave.
In a perfect world, our Kannada and Marathi chauvinists would annihilate each other, disappearing in a flash, and leaving the world a better place. That, however, somehow never happens. The local dada, like the local dog, never barks outside his street. Nor do they ever take on others their own size or kind. The Kannada chauvinist certainly is the MNS kind. The last time there were protests against ‘north Indians’, particularly from Bihar, seeking Railways jobs, was in February 2008 in Bangalore. Railway stations were vandalized, but no one was injured, so it did not make much of a splash.
This time, of course, we have all seen the coverage in the media. It is sad and worrying that two of India’s most important metropolises have loud and violent minorities who want to turn them into one-language, one-religion towns rather than world cities. These chauvinists are incapable of winning elections anywhere. However, they do manage to ruin innocent lives, and great cities. If Mumbai is for Marathis, and Bangalore for Kannadigas, and Chennai for Tamils, and so on across the country, then I guess India has no real existence outside Delhi.
Source: Hindustantimes
Disclaimer: This is being posted here only because I thought it fit with the present circumstances. Nor do I agree or disagree with the author.
A year in jail for committing no crime
5:18 PM Posted by ukmad
Despite the flesh and blood evidence of Rajiv's innocence, Sanjeev was not immediately released. NDTV covered the case and the media pressure seemed to have worked.
Source NDTV
Belgaum's Exact Opposite Point on Earth is in South Pacific Ocean
10:20 AM Posted by ukmad
AntiPodr, this site takes you current street address (or city name or zip code) and points you to a location on the Earth’s surface that is exactly opposite to you.
Belgaum's Exact Opposite Point on Earth is somewhere in South Pacific Ocean.Any takers for digging the tunnel.
IT fest in Belgaum from Friday
10:14 AM Posted by ukmad
The occasion would help ensure a unique opportunity for students to interact with not only their fellows studying in similar degree courses from across the country, but also experts from academia and industry. These interactions, as well as presentation of technical papers, would go a long way in the proper identification of career prospects.
Source The Hindu
Belgaum getting unwarranted face-lift
9:31 PM Posted by ukmad
Dividers painted, new Zebra crossings, which never existed, potholes filled up this time with asphalt.
This is no dream but the truth and all this is Thanks to L K Advani who is coming to the city on 23rd for the silver jubilee celebrations of GIT College.
The corporation and the cantonment board also are filing the potholes. Congress road has now become motor able as one side of the road has been repaired, not very nicely tough but to suffice for the moment, it seems just ok.
All the city has become a hoarding city with every alternate lamp post has a big 10 feet hoarding on it of the BJP from Chennamma circle to GIT college.
The dividers all over the city that were never looked at have seen a make over with painting and grass cutting being done and cleaning.
The visit of Advani might also see other BJP stalwarts from the state to visit the city and hence all this.
I request all the leaders to keep coming to our city on a monthly basis so that this facelift becomes warranted.
This is no dream but the truth and all this is Thanks to L K Advani who is coming to the city on 23rd for the silver jubilee celebrations of GIT College.
The corporation and the cantonment board also are filing the potholes. Congress road has now become motor able as one side of the road has been repaired, not very nicely tough but to suffice for the moment, it seems just ok.
All the city has become a hoarding city with every alternate lamp post has a big 10 feet hoarding on it of the BJP from Chennamma circle to GIT college.
The dividers all over the city that were never looked at have seen a make over with painting and grass cutting being done and cleaning.
The visit of Advani might also see other BJP stalwarts from the state to visit the city and hence all this.
I request all the leaders to keep coming to our city on a monthly basis so that this facelift becomes warranted.
Way to color the canvas: Stars of Belgaum: SACHIN UPADHYE
10:11 PM Posted by ukmad
This is my first artistic post. I am here to highlight to the world the hidden talent in Belgaum to the whole world. With the same endeavor, here is one story of Mr. SACHIN UPADHYE of MONA LISA FINE ART PRODUCTS, M-17, INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, UDYAMBAG, BELGAUM-590008. INDIASACHIN UPADHYE did his schooling from MVMS English School mechanical engineering diploma in Maratha Mandal polytechnic-Belgaum. He does not have any formal training in fine arts.
He learnt the basics from his father, who used to paint those days. In addition, the fact that he has many artist friends motivated and helped Sachin to understand the medium better. He began painting right from his childhood. He was into drawing and watercolors, so it is difficult to say ‘when and how’. It all began as a hobby and then into fulltime business, but he remembers starting ‘oil’ painting when he was 12 yrs old, since then he was hooked on to this medium.
He has paintings in collection, which
he has been doing since the age of 16 yrs.Just the fact that I need to express, I do it through this medium. ……. It is the process of emotionally discharging yourself.
He loves applying oil colors on canvas, without being conscious of its result or its salability. His paintings are all instinctive, spontaneous and imaginative. However, nature and things around have their own effects…
His father started this business of manufacturing painting canvas. Since they both shared the same hobby, it was natural for Sachin to join in.
His paintings h
ave been exhibited on many occasions, here are few: PARTICIPATED IN ART SOCIETY OF INDIA – MUMBAIEXHIBITED IN 1995 & 1996 – PAINTINGS SELECTED & DISPLAYEDPARTICIPATED IN PAINTING WORKSHOPS AT BELGAUM ORGANISED BY -
KANNADA SAHITYA & CULTURAL SOCIETY - 1996 & 1997
BEYNON SMITH SCHOOL OF ART – BGM - 1995
SAPTRANGA ART SOCIETY – 1994 & 1995
ONE MAN SHOW IN 2003 IN MILENNIUM GARDENS – BELGAUM
ONE MAN SHOW IN JUNE 2008 IN ART2DAY GALLERY- PUNE.
All his sell paintings on the site http://www.monalisaarts.com/
The other side of CARD acceptance by merchants
1:16 PM Posted by ukmad
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The credit /debit card usage for shopping in the past couple of years has increased tremendously, the main factor being ease and safety. No more carrying those huge amounts of cash in your pocket or purse, just one card can do it.With the coming of organized retail in India, this trend of card purchases has seen a triple digit growth.
Nevertheless, there is another side to this so looking easy and safe mode of payment, the retailer's side.
A retailer or merchant establishment provides a facility for credit/debit card payments; he does it with a point of sale (POS) terminal. Also known as the swipe machines, these devices are installed and maintained by banks and they charge some fees from the merchants for providing this infrastructure. The merchant has to pay certain fees to the bank.
The usage trend of card purchases has now shifted even to smaller towns with almost all banks under core banking. Still you find that some merchants accept cards and few others do not. The main reason being the charge the banks charge for this service. Normally a Commission on the transacted amount is collected by the bank, which ranges from 1% to 2% depending upon the turnover. If your turnover is less you, pay more commission and some times a rental for that swiping machine of Rs.500 per month.
In a city like Belgaum, where still the usage of cards is very less compared to metros, some of these banks set a turnover target of Rs.2 lakh per month otherwise you pay a rental of Rs.500 per month. How could small merchants do a turnover of 2 lakhs only on card purchases.
The best thing many or all do not know is this. The retailer gets no benefit by keeping this machine with him. Look at this, you come and buy goods worth Rs.500 and you give your card for payment. The retailer takes your card and swipes the card gives you a charge slip, you sign it payment done. You are happy shopping but the retailer is not. Why? He just paid a commission of 2% on Rs.500 sale and he will also pay for the local call that the machine made to gather the card info and he will also pay for one more call to settle the transaction, after which the amount would be credited to the merchants account the next day. So on a sale of Rs.500 he looses, Rs.13.20 (11.20 Commission+2 for two local calls) and the money will be credited the next day into his account.
A few merchants when they cant afford to loose this money in this competitive world they started to charge this charge to the costumer; many of you might have paid like this.
The Credit Card Holder's association of India denounces this practice and makes it clear that the merchant is not authorized to do this. "In the US, there is a law that the type of payment should not have any impact on the price...
Unfortunately, in India, merchant establishments fall outside the purview of banking regulations," a senior banker voiced his concern.
Typically, there is a fee a merchant agrees to pay for a terminal. If a merchant tries to recover it from customers, they must walk out." So, if all this is illegal, what is the way out? A senior banker advises the customer who are asked to shell out this amount, to report such cases to the issuing bank. The bank can then blacklist the concerned outlet and can remove their terminals. Such cases should be reported to a consumer forum, since it is illegal to charge over the MRP for items.
Nevertheless, these banks charge you a rental of Rs.500/month and how is that merchants in non-metros would be able top cope up with this is needed to be seen. In the end, you could also see merchants denying accepting cards for payment. A merchant told this blog that, " We don’t benefit at all, and now that all banks have their ATMs buyers can withdraw cash an pay us. He also added that these banks charge heftily and by no means, this is a win-win situation for us. Banks need to look at the level of affairs on a local city scale and then device commission structures. Big merchants like malls have a national tie up with banks wherein they get less commission which sole merchants don’t, he added."
I would request all to comment your experiences in this regard.
Belgaum Foundry industry in bad shape
5:28 PM Posted by ukmad
Belgaum is recognized to be a reliable source of high precision, high volume and
economical castings. A significant percentage (almost 20%) of the foundry units at Belgaum has ISO 9000 certification and export casting.
The foundry industry at Belgaum caters to a wide variety of end-use applications Automotive/oil engines Pumps/valves Tractors/agricultural implements Food processing industry. The foundry industry at Belgaum came up primarily to cater to the needs of the automobile industry at Pune.
The Belgaum foundry industry is the first in Karnataka and the third largest in Asia. The production has decreased by 30% in last month. 8000 tonnes production has now come down to 6000 tonnes.
There are about 135 foundries in the industrial belt. More than 9000 workers work in them. The foundry industry has been seeing a tough time; the raw material prices have gone up by a whopping 200%. The demand has slowed down due to the meltdown, inflation has hit them hard, and now the industrialists say they at least need more than a year to come back on track.
To top the pie of hardships for these industrialists, now HESCOM is undertaking power cuts, which is causing much more production loss and cost escalation.
To the 9000+ workers, an additional 4000+ are involved in this industry in form of transporters, porters etc. All are feared what will happen to them if the same situation continues.
In the recent month, the prices of raw materials have seen a downtrend globally, which is one ray of light in this darkness. Globally metal and Commodity driven stocks are taking a beating, it is the case with them in India also.
Source: Esakal.com , Indianfoundry.com
