Just curious #7 – what frills?

Talking about swadeshi airlines, what exactly is service, and what are the so called “frills”?

An airline that takes pride in its all-business class service did pamper me on their 30 minute flights. Despite being rushed through it, I liked the glass of fruit juice, and half-lunch meal they served with lots of smile and grace. But, they were over 90 minutes late 2 out of 3 times I tried them. Whats worst, the expected time of departure moved out 10 minutes with each announcement.

As far as punctuality goes, I love the attempts they all make at passing the buck. “This delay is due to the late arrival of incoming aircraft” – that one is a classic, isn’t it. Who exactly operates that incoming aircraft of yours? “Congestion at XYZ airport” – oh yeah!? How about asking AAI for compensation? How about redoing schedules if you can’t keep them?

Hoarding nation

Identify these things pictured here? You are going to find them in almost every “old fashioned house on a plot in a public layout” of Bangalore.

Any thoughts on how much inefficiency and strain gazillions of these things could cause to water and electricity distribution systems? Water stored in these open internal tanks rarely gets utilized completely. After a day or so, most families flush these tanks clean. ‘Storing’ electricity in these batteries and converting DC to AC back again, how efficient are these omnipresent inverter/UPS things?

Out offline till July 22

Hopefully, you can get some dose of local developmental infotainment at Praja Bangalore :) Once I am back, I am anyway going to move over there for all geeky, cribbing, praising, pointing notes on Bangalore.

See you after 10 days.

Us and only Us: Praja

Well, no “us and them” post this one. With time, we all realize that there is no them, in the end its us and only us.

Yathaa Raja Tathaa Praja, so we read in certain ancient texts. Times have changed. In these modern democratic times, Yathaa Praja Tathaa Raja is more like it. Today, Raja only reflects Praja. The so called politicians and everyone else we blame no end only mirror our society and us.

Do you think we know and care enough about developments taking place in all our localities? Do you think the Praja truly participates in the way she is governed? We think not. What if we – the Praja – made efforts to know, care and participate? And it is not that our democratic leaders and appointed administrators don’t care at all. Many do, and they try, but lack of interest and participation from us makes their job a lot harder.

Praja.in aims to be a bridge between those who serve us and those amongst us who care and want to participate. Towards that, it aims to establish an Internet driven community to help make the connection at local levels. It wants to be a networking platform for active and concerned citizens of Bangalore.

No, Mono isn’t dead yet

[Cross posted on Praja]

It might be the one legged cousin of super glamorous Metro. But the Mono project isn’t dead if you thought so based on recent lack of news and updates on it. The Hindu reported that BMRC is close to making the call on picking a consultant for Mono. As expected, newspapers have more meat than BMRC website itself. However, BMRC has this cryptic sounding note on their news page right now:

THE SELECTION OF THE MONORAIL CONSULTANT IS STILL UNDER PROCESS. THE LETTERS WHICH HAVE BEEN PLACED IN THE WEBSITE ARE HEREBY WITHDRAWN. INCONVENIENCE REGRETTED.

Wonder what had happened there! Did they announce a winner and then withdraw it? Hope not.

Guide Me

Saw this slow moving truck (okay tractor, same thing) today. “Ah, why cant he drive on the left side, in the slower lane”. “God, is that allowed, load flowing all around the vehicle?”. “How do I overtake this huge, wide, slow thing now”. “Can’t see his rear number plate, isn’t that illegal?”.

Well, none of those angry geeky nerdy thoughts. When I see a truck carrying haystack like that, “Kaanton se kheench ke aanchal … aaj fir jeene kee tamanna hai …” is all that strikes me first :)

India, China and offshoring

Mahendra has already written what I had on mind for today. Did anyone else notice the difference between Forrester and IDC’s outlook on “India vs China on off-shoring“? There is striking contrast between “China’s diminishing role” and “Chinese cities to overtake Bangalore, Manila“.

While I wont repeat what Mahendra has already captured so well, I have a spin on it. Perhaps Forrester is trying to increase its business in China, where IDC is trying that in India. After all, why would a local offshore-r or outsource-r buy yet another report with rosy predictions!? Reports with words of caution and negative highlights are more likely to sell, isn’t it!?

Or is it the other way? ;)

How dirty is our petrol?

Reader Mr S S left a rather interesting and long comment (see quoted below) on this old but popular post on “cheating by petrol bunks“. If our petrol is so obviously freaking dirty, why does this not get enough coverage in main stream sting-operation hungry media? BTW, amidst all the positive publicity for Shell and Reliance outlets, could that rumor about Reliance willingly dispensing more petrol to build itself a name be true? Not so sure.

“Having worked in the sales and marketing dept of a PSU oil company , i can confidently say that 80% of all PSU dealers cheat- LPG, Petrol , Diesel.

They have thrived on by cheating customers , in most cases with the knowledge of officials. It was news to me after joining the job that a upto 50 ml of allowance (short delivery) is allowed by the weights and measures rule for every 10 litres dispensed from a pump. Add to that one of the most corrupt depts in india. The personal assets of inspectors of weights and measures dept in big cities would be testimony. Even the pump technicians in oil companies are High net worth individuals.”

Pump technicians and HNIs? Didn’t know that.

BMRDA and the SEZs

When I first heard about Nandagudi SEZ, I was confused. After all, Nandagudi is one of the five peripheral localities where BMRDA is planning to setup integrated townships. If you dont believe me, go to this BMRDA page for reference, it says Bidadi, Ramanagaram, Solur, Santhanur and Nandagudi. We know that work on Bidadi integrated township is in the works. BMRDA has invited bids etc. We were told that once they learn things a bit at Bidadi, similar bids would be invited for other four townships as well.

With that background, tell me if my confusion is valid. To top it further, I read last week that SEZ things are in progress for Ramangaram, Solur and Santhanur as well.

So what is it exactly? The SEZ on these peripheral towns are meant to be competition for BMRDA’s integrated townships? Or are they meant to complement? Or, are these peripheral SEZs a part of BMRDA’s peripheral plans themselves?