Shree Renuka Sugars acquires Eqiupav Group in Brazil
4:15 PM Posted by ukmad
Belgaum based Shree Renuka Sugars is on a acquiring spree and today have finalized on a major second acquisition in Brazil of Eqiupav.
The deal is of the size of Rs.1500 crores and will be funded by internal accruals, warrants and debt.
It Outbid Hong Kong based Noble group in the deal.
Shree Renuka Sugars is a Belgaum based company with Murkumbi as its promoters with its registered office at Camp.
Source: Bloomberg
Belgaum Panjim NH4A expansion on its way
1:44 PM Posted by ukmad
Halga Cross to Anmod Goa Border – 84 kms road
Part of connecting Goa with Hyderabad via Belgaum (Halga cross)
Halga cross to Peeranwadi bypass of 11 kms
The most awaited road project which will help Belgaum in a great manner will be the Belgaum Panjim NH4A expansion and widening it to 4 lanes.
The NHAI has issued advertisements ion local papers to all the land owners and farmers on the route and has issued notices to them to get their objections if any, and the objections have to be filed in 21 days.
In total 33lakhs 94 thousand 729 sq mtrs of land will be acquired for the 4 laning of the road.
Out of 547 survey numbers advertised for acquisition 49 as government and remainder belong to private.
Farmers and land owners of Halga, M Vadgaon, Machhe, Mazgaon, Zadshaour, Desur, Angol, Peeranwadi will get affected. The road will also be going through Khanapur and Supa Talukas.
The 4 laning of road from Goa to Karnataka border has already begun and once this other stretch is ready Goa can be reached in a short time may be under two and half hours.(151 kms)
Work to begin will require at least another 3-4 months as compensation will have to paid and all other formalities will have to be completed. But as the process has been started, it should be a sigh of relief.
MSRTC Volvo service from Pune to Bangalore
10:08 AM Posted by ukmad
Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has introduced its ‘Shivneri’ Volvo AC bus service between Pune and Bengaluru from Thursday.
The bus will depart from MSRTC’s Swargate depot at 5.30 pm daily and will reach Bengaluru next day at 8.45 am.
Worst part you cannot book tickets on-line and the website mentions that one can alight at Belgaum but cannot board. This must be specific to on line booking only. Also I was unable to get the timings the bus would come arrive at Belgaum. One more fault I could not book a return ticket from Bangalore to Pune or Belgaum. Anyways people wishing can book it online here .
http://public.msrtcors.com/ticket_booking/index.php
The same bus will leave Bengaluru for Pune at 6.15 pm and reach here next morning at around 9.30 am.
The one-way journey from Pune to Bengaluru, which would cover Kolhapur-Kagal-Belgaum-Dharwad-Hubli-Haveri-Harihar-Davangiri-Chitradurg-Tumkur stations, would cost Rs 900 per passenger.
Blankets, mineral water and newspaper will be provided free of cost to the passengers to make their journey more comfortable.
Heat is on
11:21 AM Posted by ukmad
Its just over 15 days in February and the heat is on in Belgaum.
The maximum temperatures have seen a sudden rise of 5 Deg.
See the graphs for details.
Max temperature is now 35 and minimum is above 20.
At this time of the year this is above normal by 4 degrees.
This is just the beginning and we have the summer to still set in.
The sales of Fans in the past few days have increased many folds. With HESCOM continuing its hide and seek game of power supply people will be put face the heat to a greater extent.
Belgaum Trivia 7
11:01 AM Posted by ukmad
Movies as on 19-02-2010
7:38 AM Posted by ukmad
| Theater | Movie | Timings |
| Big Cinemas | My name is Khan | 12,3.15,6.30,9.45pm |
| Toh Baat Pakki | 12.45,3.45 | |
| Click | 6.45,9.30pm | |
| Nirmal | Ram (K) | 12.15pm,3.15,6.15,9.15 |
| Huns | Morya (K) | 12,3,6,9 |
| Arun | 12.30,2,4,7 | |
| Roopali | 3 Idiots | 12.15,3,6,9 |
| Balkrishna | Click | 12.30,3.30,6.30 |
| The Wolfman | 9.30pm | |
| Chitra | Porki (K) | 12,3,6,9 |
| Swaroop | Kedi (T) | 12.15,3.15,6.15,9.15 |
| Hira | toh Baat Pakki | 12,3,6,9 |
| Prakash | Maat Maatalli (K) | 12.15,3.15,.615,9.15 |
| Nartaki | My name is Khan | 12,3,6,9 |
| Santosh | Aaptrakhsak(K) | 12.15,3.15,6.15,9.15 |
| Globe | 12.15,1.45,3.45,6.45 | |
| Kindly check the exact timings with the theaters | ||
Belgaum based Harshad gives a new way to tweet with tDash
10:21 AM Posted by ukmad
tDash is a Browser-Based Dashboard for Twitter.
http://tdash.org/
Twitter is the most talked about site by even the media, and how can AAB get left behind. From Lalit Modi to Sashi Tharoor all make their comments on twitter. Day is not far when Pranab Babu will make his budget presentation on twitter. (eg. No tax hikes for this current fiscal other than a 20% increase in excise and direct taxes)
tDash has been developed by Belgaum based Harshad Joglekar who wanted to tweet but in a easy manner and not in the regular Twitter format. And the best thing this gentleman is part of the ITBelgaum initiative.
The developers of tDash designed it to look similar to that of the Google Reader interface.
The key features of such an interface are:
The ability to mark tweets as read, and thus to narrow down the user’s attention to tweets that are as yet unread.
Sort incoming tweets into nice folders automatically
In-line expansion of conversations!
Support for Twitter lists
Automatic URL shortening via Bit.ly
Ability to upload images.
Plus it has Keyboard shortcuts to make it fun and easy to use and is safe because it allows you to sign in using the OAuth. No need to give out your password. It is great too that you will not be required to install any software it is web based.
So if you are looking for a new tool to use, try it out and let us know what you think.
It's an experiment, an attempt, to take Google Reader's organizational ability and apply it to Twitter.
It has been designed for Tweeple who continuously read Twitter. Developers have strove for a minimalistic design and for ease of use. There are keyboard shortcuts for just about everything; no more frequent lunges at the poor mouse.
It is entirely web-based. No need to install anything. For that matter, no need to uninstall anything if you get bored of it.
Apart from these there are many little gems hidden in tDash, such as,
Mark a tweet as Read. As soon as you select a tweet it gets marked as read and then it magically gets out of your waythe next time you view that folder. (If you still want to read it again, there is an option for that).
Support for Twitter Lists. It's a great way to organise them tweeple. Too big to explain here.
Login via Oauth. Play safe. Enough said.
URL shortening.
Keyboard shortcuts
Here is a quick reference to the keyboard shortcuts available to you. What squeak? Oh yes, that was your mouse sighing a relief.
Key | Action |
|---|---|
Space | Select next unread tweet. If nothing to select in current folder, jumps to next folder |
n,N,j or J | Select next tweet |
p,P,k or K | Select previous tweet |
s, S | Enter / edit your status |
r, R | Reply to currently selected Tweet |
f, F | Mark currently selected Tweet as favourite |
t, T | Retweet the currently selected Tweet |
u, U | Update (fetch new tweets) |
A small Interview with the developer Harshad Joglekar:
What really inspired you to make this app?
Call me selfish, but I am most inspired by ideas that directly solve some problem affecting me. Of course, in the process, I also hope that the idea solves a similar problem that others might have and hence serve a wider audience. The idea for tDash followed the same pattern.
2009 was the year that Twitter became really popular outside its early-adopter circle. I was hooked immediately after trying it for few days. The best thing about Twitter is that it is quick and easy, and it forces you to write short, succinct messages (max 140 chars), unlike other social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook and the latest one on the radar, Google Buzz.
As I used Twitter more I realized that it would be more useful if messages (or Tweets as they are popularly called) would be organized in some way rather than as a long flat list.
tDash is a result of my experiment with that problem.
You have a out of the box thinking, what do you eat or drink for that?
Do I think out of the box? Now that you mention, perhaps I do have that tendency.. But hey, I can't reveal what I eat or drink for that. I will be lynched at home!
I do like to read a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction, classics as well as page-turners, especially humor. Perhaps that provides some food for thought :)
Oh, and one more thing. I have a lot of interest in observational astronomy. Apart from the great time we have on field trips which we call star parties, I think it also shapes a person's perspective.
This app looks good but what about monetization?
I develop tDash as hobby project. Other than my time it doesn't cost much to keep the service running. So, I am not worried about monetization at this stage.
Ad based revenues is an obvious option to monetize but I think it is tricky to keep the user experience intact with Ads.
Who else has helped you develop this app?
Mayank S, has helped me with coding the client side of the app. His contributions are available as open-source here: http://github.com/mayanks/persist-js
Apart from that, I get a lot of ideas and feedback from users of tDash themselves.
What are your future plans?
Converting some ideas that I have into products (mainly software), and in the process, helping solve some problems that the common man encounters. And having a good time along the way.
There is one idea already in the pipeline, but I can't talk about it until it's completely ready.
Rail budget and Belgaum ki aam Janta
12:41 PM Posted by ukmad
by Satish Kumar Sr. Engineer MINDSCAPE (IMG) (Dubai)
A bigger miscalculation and miss out from our public representatives need to be show casted.
In 1982 the former CM (Late) Shri Ram Krishan Hegde (from Sirsi) envisaged the growth for Northern Karnataka, drew attention of Rail road projects, Well K-Ride did not exist though, but there something terribly something gone wrong with infrastructure policy in North Karnataka particularly Belgaum.
Shri. Hegde had evinced and proposed the survey and execution of Belgaum Bagalkote Raichur line and Belguam- Dharwad line in his tenure, there was no state central partnership then so these proposals kept eating dust.
In the recent years we have been hearing Bagalkote- Kudchi line, I am shocked to see the viability of this project, reason being it was actually Belgaum Bagalkote proposed line, Major Cement distribution companies are based in Belgaum for covering North Karnataka region, the belt has spread across from Belgaum Yadwad, Lokapur, Bagalkote and the second belt is of Sedam, Shahbad Gulbarga region so since when the Belgaum Bagalkote Raichur line, took a shift to Kudchi Bagalkote Line God only knows, I pity the foresight of these elected representatives for such non viable projected mess up
I had earlier worked chalked a project for Belgaum Bagalkote line through Sambra as junction plus integrated freight corridor ( the station actually falls off Muchhandi /Ashte village on Belgaum- Gokak road ) and further towards Nesargi , Yargatti Lokapur and Bagalkote, further from there to Bagalkote Hungund till Raichur.
I have observed many times the freight loading earlier done at Belgaum is now carried from Desur mainly Cement and Fertilizer form Zuari Agro/Vasvdatta companies, the latest addition to this will be Dalmia Cement plant commissioning near Belgaum .
Why our district representative don't look forward for such viable and profitable projects, which would give a credible development to be around Belgaum.
Some of major advantages of Belgaum Baglakot Raichur line
1) Connecting of Border districts of Belgaum to main land of North West Karnataka.
2) New access to Raichur, Gulbarga and Hyderabad regions can be another corridor for development, by road Belgaum already serves as gateway to Goa now.
3) Tourism coverage of Sogal, Naveel teerth, Badami, Trogal forts and many more falling under this region.
4) East port linkage for coal supply form Goa port to RTPS (Raichur Thermal Power station).
5) Inland intra port connectivity of Visakhapatnam to Goa ( Naval facilitation for new base at Belgaum)
The second story of Belgaum Dharwad line via Kittur
It was surveyed and open for commissioning since last three government in the state, the key reason being if these line get implemented there will be major shift in all north bound trains from Bangalore terminating at Belgaum, to which the politicians of Hubli are opposed the fact to support this is, twin city Dharwad has to fight for rail extension of many trains terminating at Hubli. What is the use of having SWR head quarter at Hubli though serves no purpose of development of Northern Karnataka.
KRIDE ( a joint venture of State/Central Govt (projects are done cost sharing basis) Karnataka Rail Infrastructure development Establishment) evinced interest in this proposal but MR Bommai Jr. again twisted the seen on Belgaum Dharwad line via Bailhongal , a delay of another decade may be now.
The blind MP and MLAS are driving we Belgaumites vision less and just hardly have vision for City.
Bidar being last bordering district of state getting connected to main land Karnataka through Gulbarga Bidar rail line, Why not Belgaum get similar treatment.
Small cities with quarter population as that of Belgaum have trains connecting to state capital, why are we deprived of same. The new project of Belgaum station renovation will only upgrade building and some recreation facilities, what about coach filling, powering and cleaning facilities? What about shunting lines for Rake facility?
The value of Belgaum being Divisional head Quarter is too low and having N Karnataka Regional commissioner office being based here is still having dearth of these entire basic rail infrastructure requirement. (Something like Chiraag tale Andhera)
The above facts are on the basis of news and articles and my own investigations and findings. This is to make aware and spread the right vision of Belgaumites to look forward for better future , and put across views to right authorities for better future planning of Belgaum.
Pareekshe takes on injustice movie shot near Belgaum
11:01 AM Posted by ukmad
The film, “Parikshe” or “Pareekshe” of the debutant director A R Ravindra is about the injustice and atrocities against lower caste people in North Karnataka.
Anu Prabhakar plays the lead character of Bangari, while there are several new faces. The most prominent among them is Yenagi Balappa, who plays the conscientious village headman.
Politician-producer Sanjay Patil, MLA, and Nataraj (both from Belgaum), Muniraj, Shantamma, Siddaraj Kalyankar, Master Kiran, C.S. Patil and Girish Jatti form the cast. MLA Sanjay Patil is a first tie producer as is the director.
Hemant Kumar provides the music while vocalist Sangeeta Katti, also from north Karnataka, is the only singer for the one song in the film. Sitaram Karant has scripted the story, while Shashidhar Bhat has written the dialogues using typical Kannada dialect akin to north Karnataka, particularly Belgaum district.
The film has been shot in the villages of Hannikere, Gajapati, Bairanahatti, Kukkadali and Bendigeri.
The movie traces the life of Bangari, a Dalit woman, who is subjected to discrimination and false accusations due to her caste.
Bangari faces the wrath of her family and villagers after the village doctor, whose advances she resists, spreads a rumor that she is affected by AIDS. There is a scene where Bangari helps an upper caste woman. Instead of gratitude, she is criticized for touching an upper caste woman.
The movie is all set to release in March.
Source: Rediff & The Hindu
Cable price war in Belgaum
4:40 PM Posted by ukmad
Cable wars are common in metros but Belgaum is now no different to this either. After four years of monopoly of cable distribution of Rdihi Vision one more cable network is trying to eat the market share, namely Vardaraj Cable network which has MOU with Siti Cable Bangalore.
Vardarj Cable is now available for only Rs.60 per month in which one can watch 60 channels and if you want to watch more than 200 channels one needs to buy a set top box and his monthly subscription will be Rs. 175.
On the other hand Ridhi Vision with its monopoly and monopolistic pricing charges anything between Rs.200 in city areas to Rs.300 in up market bungalow areas.
Ridhi Vision says that it has a subscription base of 50 thousand subscribers and Vardaraj has been able to get into 5000 cable homes and aims to get into 30 thousand in six months.
This price war will definitely be favorable for the consumer.
It is notable fact that four years ago Feroz Sait(MLA) had tired to open a cable network in competition to Ridhi Vision but later he had an agreement with Ridhi Vision. But this time Vardaraj is all set to give stiff competition. Vardraj also has a news bulletin in local languages.
Vardraj also plans to enter the rural market like Halga, Hindalga, Sulga, Machhe, Sambra, Muchandi where they would charge as low as Rs.70 a month. Ridhi Vision is already there in this market but they charge Rs.100.
In fact this cable war was visible in the recently held T20 championships in city. The Belgaum Premier League was shown live on Ridhi vision and Belgaum champions league was telecast live on Vardraj Cable network.
May what it be but healthy competition is always good for the consumers and the society. There have been instances of cable being cut and small incidents of beating up each others men but this all part of the game. For the people of Belgaum its another good reason to stay glued to the idiot box.
Source: Rajasthan Patrika
Old Belgaum for you
11:47 AM Posted by ukmad
Sahir Kittur has now become a historian for that matter as he is continuously on the search for old photos of Belgaum and here are some more from his search. (these photos were searched long back but due to Bandh stories this story got todays Mahurat)
- The Dhamni a best mode of transport till late 1960's
- Fort Moat now no water stands there
MNIK released today Monday 15th Feb
11:43 AM Posted by ukmad
Sharukh Khan & Kajol fans no more looking back, My name is khan has been released today at Big cinemas and Nartaki. An odd day indeed but what can be done.
BIG Cinemas – 12, 3.15,6.30 & 9.45pm.
Nartaki – 3, 6, 9 pm.
Who will bell the Auto drivers
11:10 AM Posted by ukmad
This site has seen some decent (indecent comments removed) discussions on various subjects of importance to all from Belgaum, Belgavi to cutting of trees.
The most significant problem Belgaumites are facing for all these years and to which no authority is looking to correct it is the Auto fares in Belgaum.
For the past three days Autos are off the road and they are holding the regular commuters to ransom for no wrong done by them. The autos are off the roads on the demand that the police should find the culprits behind the murder of their fellow driver Noor who was killed latter part of the week. Even on Friday the whole city there was tension on this issue, where as the police say that the murder was due to family matters and some people tried to give it a communal touch.
My question to all, why is that in Belgaum over so many years and so many great IAS and IPS officers in town no one could start the Autos by Fare meter prescribed by the government. Is it that Belgaum does not adhere to any laws of the land? Only the people sitting as MP's MLAs can answer this, as no one has tried to solve this most common and most important issue, which if solved can help all Belgaumites.
How many know the exact minimum auto fare? Take a guess! No one !!
the minimum auto fare for Belgaum city is Rs.12 for 2 kms and then Rs.6 per kilo meter.
I need one person who has traveled by paying Rs.12 the minimum fare. The minimum fare charged is Rs.15 straight forward.
Refusal to come near by, excess fare and rude behavior for which auto drivers can be punished under law is the daily practice by them,as there is “NO MAIKALAL” who will ask them.
Earlier attempts were made to impose auto by fare meters but the Auto drivers resented to it and the same could not be achieved.
The auto fare in Bangalore is Rs. 14 per 2 kms and then Rs.7 per km. In Mumbai the minium is Rs.9 per 1.5 km.
If by mistake any of the authorities responsible for this is reading this please try and travel by autos and see how horrible it is.
Most meters on the autos never work (except on the day at the RTO for passing) many don't have one as well. The police never try and stop and ask for a license of an auto driver, especially those running auto at night, who are young kids with no license.
The pre-paid auto at the railway station is also not working in a good manner due to the wrong intentions of the auto drivers.
My question to the auto drivers-
If there is a law why is not applicable to you in Belgaum?
Are these auto drivers not bound by law?
Some important points one should know:
1. For every Kilometer -Rs. 6-00 (for 3 passengers)
2. The Minimum Fare -Rs. 12-00 (for 3 passengers)
(for the first 2.00 Kms.)
3. Waiting charges for first Five Minutes- FREE
4. After Five Minutes For every Fiteen Minutes or part thereof - Rs. 1-00
5. Luggage charges for First 20Kgs.- FREE
6. After 20 Kgs. For every; 20 Kgs. Or part thereof - Rs. 2-00
7. Maximum passenger Luggage to be carried is - 50Kgs.
Fare at Night- One and half times of prescribed fare to be charged from 10.00 pm to 5.00 am.
And is there any “MAIKALAL” who will take this mater to conclusion.
God bless Belgaum.
Source: RTO Bangalore, RTO Mumbai
Angol road Then and Now
4:31 PM Posted by ukmad
Under the Then and Now series, in this particular story the time gap between Then and Now is hardly 4 days.
For development trees are chopped and made way for a more widened road on which we can ply our vehicles and emit more CO2 and the trees which used to absorb them have been cut.
THEN: photo taken on Angol Road on Tuesday 9th February
NOW: photo taken on same spot Angol Road on Saturday 13th February.
See the difference between the two images.
This is the tree which has been cut just near to the Shri Aai Kalavati Devi temple.
Najar milate hi hua asar sarab ke tarah
ki o haqiqat gujar gaye ek khawab ki tarah
hosh me jo aya to saya bhi na unaka
payadil ke chaman ke halat thi ujade bag ke tarah.
No flowers for youngsters on Valentines day
10:06 AM Posted by ukmad
After the most unhappening last week Sunday also seems to be getting some lime light as it is Valentines day and the Sri Ram Sena has warned the flower vendors across the city not to sell flowers to youngsters and hotels.
Sena said that it will not allow the youth to celebrate Valentine's day as it is not part of Indian culture. They also added that they wont intervene if celebrations do not hurt Hindu culture.
Sena activists would keep a vigil on the movements of youths. The Sena has asked social organizations, hotels and business firms not to organize functions.
