Category Archives: Business & Economy

Here’s why TweenCraft is taking the meme Internet corner by storm

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All, World Opinion
A sample of animated works from Tweencraft | Photo Credit: Tweencraft
A sample of animated works from Tweencraft | Photo Credit: Tweencraft

This India-made animation app is easy to use and has struck a chord with netizens during the lockdown

The lockdown made almost everyone turn to their smartphones for entertainment. That, in turn, made a lot of content creators try out Indian-made TweenCraft, which has gone viral for its use of basic animation and voice modulation enabling users to create short dialogue-driven comic animation — most of which are memes.

A sample of animated works from Tweencraft | Photo Credit: Tweencraft
A sample of animated works from Tweencraft | Photo Credit: Tweencraft

Using TweenCraft, one can create animation story with basic learning about the edit features. Moreover it becomes a platform to create personal stories to share on social media. Stories can be created from scratch or simply picked from any story shared created earlier and re-edited to create a new one. The app allows editing rigs (bones) of the characters for performance of specific actions.

Mostly popular as forwards on WhatsApp and reposts on Instagram, TweenCraft’s most-discussed animation series are the ones that involve a mother’s sarcastic comments on exam results, lockdown preparation and bragging of boyfriends. Regional clips do well.

Dinesh Sen and Soni Sahu, of KalpKriti Inc., the company that developed Tweencraft
Dinesh Sen and Soni Sahu, of KalpKriti Inc., the company that developed Tweencraft

Bengaluru-based duo of KalpKriti Inc, Soni Sahu and Dinesh Sen has been working on this app over the last four years. Soni says, “Our story is as crazy as the TweenCraft app. We quit our jobs at Intel four-and-a-half years ago. Since then we are working full-time to build this app.” Working without any funding, the two says they have been “following a Buddhist monk’s lifestyle.”

“We are getting some business now,” explains Dinesh, “The last four months have been pretty good for us, giving us the much-needed morale boost. We grew from 300 daily active users to 15,000 without a marketing budget.”

A sample of animated works from Tweencraft, with the logo above | Photo Credit: Tweencraft
A sample of animated works from Tweencraft, with the logo above | Photo Credit: Tweencraft

With so many apps available, the duo was not sure about the response for the product. “We are satisfied with the outcome. People are loving it,” says Soni. “Creating the app on a limited budget was also a challenge. We were not in a position to hire experts. We did most of the coding and hired interns and freelancers to help us,” explains Dinesh, adding that the app started to gain traction around February 2020.

Reaching the masses

“During February 2020 we used to get around 200 new downloads every day. The magic of numbers actually started happening in May during the lockdown, when RJ Praveen (RedFM) tried our app. In a day our views jumped to 3,87,386 with 17,000 likes,” recalls Soni. The app, which used to get about 2,000 downloads a day in April saw over 6,000 downloads daily in May. The team says the app is currently free, but they plan to have some in-app ads for revenue. TweenCraft also have had businesses contact them to create ads.

A screenshot of a Tweencraft animation, taken on Facebook | Photo Credit: Tweencraft
A screenshot of a Tweencraft animation, taken on Facebook | Photo Credit: Tweencraft

TweenCraft user Mridusmita Chakraborty, a copywriter with a FM radio channel, says she chanced upon the comic animations while randomly scrolling through YouTube. Mridusmita, a Mass Communications student in Guwahati, Assam, specialising in Animation, instantly liked the comics. She says “I scrolled through the various videos but couldn’t find anything in Assamese. As a copy writer, I have a lot of thoughts and scripts which I can’t really use for radio. I downloaded [TweenCraft] and tried a few.”

Mridusmita adds, “I wrote about a conversation between a girl and her boyfriend. It got me a good number of likes and shares. The comments mostly said they relate to the mindless conversations and the girl’s thought blurbs. The sarcastic mother giving the girl a roasting about her exam results or the show she is watching is also popular. In Assam, Matric results are a big thing. Friends and family actually keep a track of those who appeared for the exams and do not miss making calls to enquire about results on D-Day.”

Most TweenCraft users love to portray family drama through the app — from kitchen conversations to arguments between parents or the discussions of where to eat out. Namrata Kumari and her sister, who both use the app to portray their conversations with their dad about their spending habits, have earned many laughs. “The app is easy to use if you are creative in your dialogues,” says Namrata. “All we do is repeat what our dad says about going shopping or making online purchases. There are many who relate to our content and also offer suggestions on what we could feature.” Those unfamiliar with how to create their own videos can check out tutorial videos on the TweenCraft Desi channel on YouTube.

TweenCraft is available to Android users via the Play Store.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Tech / by Prabalika M Borah / Hyderabad – July 13th, 2020

Zoom to set up new tech centre in Bengaluru after it sees 6700% growth; hiring across various verticals to begin soon

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Zoom will also expand its existent Mumbai office, to almost triple its size, an official statement said.

A billboard of Zoom app. (Photo| AP)
A billboard of Zoom app. (Photo| AP)

Popular video conferencing app, Zoom which counts tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Jio as its rivals, will soon set up its first tech centre in Bengaluru to aid India and global operations, Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering for Zoom said.

The video conferencing platform will immediately begin hiring DevOps engineers, IT, Security, and Business Operations for its Bengaluru tech centre the video conferencing service saw a 6700 per cent growth in the country from January to April, 2020 during the COVID pandemic.

“Paid user base has increased by 4 times in India from January-April,” Sankarlingam added.

Zoom will also expand its existent Mumbai office, to almost triple its size, an official statement said. California headquartered firm has also data centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Without revealing the current employee strength, Zoom has in India, the company’s top management said that all the employees will continue to work from home.

“India is a strategically important country for Zoom and we expect to see continued growth and investment here. We are proud to provide our services for free to over 2,300 educational institutions in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, and look forward to continuing to work with the people and government of India hand-in-hand,” Eric S. Yuan, CEO of Zoom said.

“We plan to hire key employees for the technology center over the next few years, pulling from India’s highly-educated engineering talent pool. This facility will play a critical role in Zoom’s continued growth,” he added.

Zoom to focus on safety/ privacy issues in India

Delving on the security concerns raised by Indian government and activist groups while using Zoom app, the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Aparna Bawa said that the platform is working to ensure end-to-end encryption for all its users in India  and that following the advisories issued by MHA and cybersecurity regulator, Computer Emergency Response Team of India( CERT_ on May 29, Zoom has enhanced its security features. “ We are providing the ‘control your own data routing’ features wherein all our paid customers have the option to completely safeguard the data.”

CERT had earlier pointed out that meeting apps like Zoom, Microsoft Team, Cisco Webex are vulnerable to cyber attacks which may allow criminals to have an easy acess to sensitive information shared on these platforms.

Zoom’s top executives said that the advisories are a routine feature in a COVID pandemic environment where work from home has become a norm and hence the governments are advising on enhanced security features.

Founded in 2011, in San Jose, California, Zoom has been able to scale up its services to overseas markets besides US. The company’s Q1 revenues for the quarter ended April 30, 2020 saw a growth by 169% at $328.2 million and the number of daily active users jumped to 300 million in April from 10 million in January.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Business / by Bismah Malik / Express News Service / July 21st, 2020

CM launches purifier for airborne viruses

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

The product uses metal nano particles with coated reusable membranes and liquid nanofluids.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa inaugurates the Nano Corona Air Purifier-Cum-Steriliser at his official residence Krishna in Bengaluru on Friday
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa inaugurates the Nano Corona Air Purifier-Cum-Steriliser at his official residence Krishna in Bengaluru on Friday

Bengaluru :

A city-based start-up, incubated by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Nutan Labs has developed Nano Corona Air Purifier Cum Steriliser which purifies indoor air by killing Covid-19 virus and other pollutants. CM BS Yediyurappa, while launching the product at his home office ‘Krishna’, said: “This kind of technology will be useful to help combat the virus. In a first, we are using nano-material in liquid form for absorption of pollutant gases and pathogens.”

The product uses metal nano particles with coated reusable membranes and liquid nanofluids. “In the first stage of nano filtration, we have coated noble metal nanoparticles of 10-20 nanometre each on sandwiched membranes or non-woven fibres. The nanoparticles eliminate the virus by disrupting the outer coating and damaging the genetic material (of 30-140 nanometre each) and ruptures it,” said Nuthan H S, CEO, Nutan Labs.

Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences & Research permitted the start-up to conduct real-time studies with COVID19 positive patients at the hospital’s isolation wards . It is claimed that the instrument purifies, sterilises and recirculates clean and sterile air in a rapid way without using much energy. Recently ‘Nutan Labs ‘ got the ‘Elevate Call 2 Award’ by Start-up Karnataka, Dept of IT- BT, Science and technology, Government of Karnataka.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 18th, 2020

Residents in Bengaluru join hands to rent ambulance on standby for 3700 families

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Records, All
For representational purposes (Photo | PTI)
For representational purposes (Photo | PTI)

Worried by multiple news reports of patients failing to get an ambulance or being charged exorbitant costs if they get one, the residents decided to gear up for an emergency.

After incidents where a shortage of ambulances led to the deaths of patients, a group of 37 residents welfare associations (RWAs) in Kanakapura in Bengaluru have rented an ambulance to cater to 3700 families.

Done under the banner of Change Makers of Kanakapura, the cost boils down to Rs 60 per month per family, with the vehicle on standby at Kanakapura road, Konankunte cross, with ICU trained nursing staff and driver at their beck and call.

“One resident who suffered a heart attack passed away as the hospital said their ambulance was preoccupied and could only reach him in an hour. In another case, a person who suffered a mild heart attack and was breathless could not get an ambulance because all hospitals feared it was COVID-19. Finally, the family had to drive him down in a car, where he was tested for COVID-19 and only after he turned negative was he sent for angioplasty,” said Abdul Aleem, member of the RWA federation.

Worried by multiple news reports of patients failing to get an ambulance or being charged exorbitant costs if they get one, the residents including apartment dwellers decided to gear up for an emergency.

The total cost is Rs 2 lakh per month and the ambulance is equipped with a ventilator, ambu bag, suction apparatus, bain circuit, PPE kits, cardiac monitor, infusion pump and oxygen cylinder provided by JK Ambulance Service.

It will cater to residents along the Sarakki signal to NICE road junction stretch. There will be 3 nursing staff on three 8-hour shifts and 2 drivers on 12-hour shifts.

They have even prepared for a scenario where a vehicle is required by more than one patient.

“In such a situation, the vendor has promised to give one more ambulance at the same time,” Aleem said, adding, “We will use it for all kinds of patients. If a patient is COVID positive or a suspect, the vehicle will be sanitized after transporting them. PPE kits will be provided to the patient and staff.”

This ambulance is a form of insurance for residents for the next six months, so they are not left helpless in case there is a medical emergency.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Ranjani Madhavan  / July 17th, 2020

With 10,100 beds, BIEC centre will be India’s biggest Covid-19 facility

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion
The Covid Care Centre at the sprawling Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) campus on Tumakuru Road. DH PHOTO/B H SHIVAKUMAR r
The Covid Care Centre at the sprawling Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) campus on Tumakuru Road. DH PHOTO/B H SHIVAKUMAR

The BBMP is preparing to open a massive Covid Care Centre (CCC) on the sprawling Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) campus on Tumakuru Road to combat the spiralling coronavirus cases.

Civic officials said the 10,100-bedded facility will be the country’s largest. New Delhi’s Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre currently holds the honour of being the world’s largest Covid care facility with 10,000 beds. The BIEC facility will accommodate asymptomatic Covid-19 patients or those with mild symptoms.

Initially, the BBMP planned to arrange 5,000 to 7,000 beds in BIEC’s five halls with two-metre distance between the beds. “But the latest standard operating procedure released by the Centre says one-metre distance between the beds is sufficient. So, we scaled up the capacity to 10,100 beds across five halls,” explained Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner (SWM), BBMP.

BBMP commissioner B H Anil Kumar said the centre is well-ventilated with enough toilets, nursing stations, kitchens, and other facilities necessary to attend to asymptomatic patients.

“We have decided to set up 10-bedded ICUs at every Covid Care Centre,” Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who visited the facility, said. “In BIEC alone, a 100-bedded ICU will be set up with all medical facilities, including oxygen supply. By Monday, 7,000 beds will be ready to occupy and the remaining 3,000 beds will be added in a week.”

The civic body has put up LED screens to beam entertainment programmes, especially for children and the elderly to help them overcome boredom. Good quality food has also been organised for patients with separate bins to dispose of the plates.

A bio-medical waste agency has been given the tender to clean the facility. The centre will have separate cabins with 40 beds and televisions sets in each cabin.

“High-tech toilets and washroom facilities have been provided at all the halls. Separate oxygen chambers have also been set up,” K Narasimhamurthy, joint commissioner, Dasarahalli Zone, explained.

Narayan said patients will be diverted to BIEC by the end of the week. “All medical staff have been relieved from their non-medical duty and directed to these clinical services. Additional trained staffers will also be deployed at these Covid centres. If there are any more complaints about the quality of food, the suppliers will lose the contract without notice,” the deputy chief minister cautioned.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / DHNS / July 06th, 2020

Building a safe haven

Business & Economy, Records, All

When their property in Banaswadi turned vacant after their tenant left, brothers Sandeep, Sachin and Ashish Jain tried to turn adversity into opportunity.

(From left) Ashish Jain, Sachin Jain and Sandeep Jain
(From left) Ashish Jain, Sachin Jain and Sandeep Jain

Bengaluru :

When their property in Banaswadi turned vacant after their tenant left, brothers Sandeep, Sachin and Ashish Jain tried to turn adversity into opportunity. They decided to help those struggling to find places to quarantine themselves. “Initially, there was a lot of confusion. People who couldn’t quarantine at home were having trouble finding a place. And we found that we had vacant rooms. We gave it out to those in need,” says Sandeep. The brothers run Global Wings Group, a multi-diversified business.

Now hosting doctors, nurses, and paramedics from government hospitals, the brothers have been working to help people with quarantining. “During the lockdown phase, most of the hotels were shut and there was no staff. We had to activate the properties in short notice. We used to get calls at odd hours and we had to take care of safety, security and hygienic food. Our team was placed at the airport too to coordinate with officials for quarantining,” says Sandeep.

Amid the crisis were also challenges, in terms of keeping the rooms clean or serving food. Sandeep, whose team was also serving meals to the needy at their restaurant Desi Masala, says, “Several of our workforce returned to their hometowns, so we had to manage with the staff we had.”  A stable back end machinery was put in place in association with BBMP. “We are working to help healthcare workers, police personnel, primary and secondary contacts and migrants from other cities. This also entailed ensuring timely meals. Whatever the challenge we faced, our goal was to pull this off,” says Sandeep, who is now partnering with over 20 local hotels to help people find places to quarantine.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 19th, 2020

Meet 22-year-old Prathap from Mandya, who has built over 600 drones, and is known as the Drone Scientist

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

We talk to Prathap NM from Mandya, popularly known as the Drone Scientist of India. He talks about his journey so far and the instances when his drones helped people in dire need.

Prathap N M with his drone during one of the expo
Prathap N M with his drone during one of the expo

Recently, when floods ravaged major parts of North Karnataka and people were stranded in different places, Prathap NM used the drone he made to provide food and relief materials to several affected areas. From Hipparagi Barrage to Janwada, a nearby village — he used his drone to help many. Thousands of people gathered to watch if this drone could really reach the right place. And when it did, both police personnel and the public cheered loudly for the 22-year-old. Originally from the Mandya district, Prathap is a BSc graduate from JSS College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mysuru.

He is popularly known as the Drone Scientist or the Youngest Scientist in India. A fitting name, we think, considering he thought about building drones when he was just 14 years old. When he was 16, he already had a drone in his hand ready to fly. “Have you seen an eagle, whose eyes are sharp and flight precise? It was this bird that inspired me to build a drone. The late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam also served as an inspiration as he achieved a lot in his lifetime. The first drone that I built was a basic one which could simply fly and capture some images. As I learnt more about technology and how drones can be helpful, I built bigger drones. To date, I have built around 600 drones,” he says.

In 2017, Prathap was recognised on several national as well as international platforms for his work. “I exhibited one of my drones at Skills India and won second place. I exhibited a self-made project called Drones in Cryptography. The Germans used cryptography to send coded messages about bombings, especially during the time of Adolf Hitler, the dictator. Usually, radar signals can trace drones, but if you send messages or signals through cryptography, you can neither detect them nor decode the encrypted message,” he explains. This young scientist has been invited to over 87 countries to showcase the different drones he has built.

When we ask him about the funding required to fuel his passion, he says, “I use very little money and a lot of e-waste to make my drones. Whenever I win competitions, I am awarded money which I save for the future. And as far as e-waste goes, a lot of it is generated and I get it from electrical shops in Mysuru, Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and a few other cities. For example, if there is a mixer-grinder that is defunct, I can remove the motor and use it in my drone. Similarly, I make use of chips and resistors from broken televisions to build my drones. It doesn’t matter what the prototype looks like. Proving the technical points of the drone is all that matters.”

DronePratap02BF05jul2020

Prathap used his drone to deliver food to people in the flood-hit North Karnataka region

Prathap has won young scientist awards from Japan and France and gold medals for his research on drones from Germany and the USA. among others. But he had to face several challenges before he could earn these recognitions. Being the son of a farmer, Prathap comes from a poor family and could hardly afford to buy good clothes for himself. “When I travelled to France for the first time, people were shocked and judged me for travelling in business class. However, this did not matter to me. One of the companies in France offered me an opportunity to work on their research project. I earned some money there and contributed to the improvement of my family’s financial condition. Currently, the drones I am building now are funded by the money that I earned in France,” he says happily.

Eagle 2.8, the saviour 
Prathap feels happy that his creation saved the life of a little girl in Africa. Narrating the series of events, he says, “Africa is home to many indigenous people and species. There is a dangerously poisonous snake called the black mamba in this country. In one year, around 22,000 people in a particular tribal area had died due to this snake’s bite. When I was in Sudan for a research project, an eight-year-old girl was bitten by this snake and needed urgent medical assistance. Usually, a person can survive for only 15 minutes after being bitten by this snake. I used a drone to send the antivenom to the place where she was, a place so remote that you won’t even be able to find its location on Google Maps. The place was 10 hours by road from where I was, so I used my Eagle 2.8 drone, which can cover 280 km per hour. The antivenom was delivered within eight and a half minutes. It was a very challenging task for me. Later, the child and her mother came all the way to Sudan to meet me and thanked me for saving her life. I was very happy that I could help.”

DronePratap03BF05jul2020

Prathap was given the Albert Einstein Innovation Medal from CeBIT in 2018 and secured the first place for his project Autopiloted drones

Prathap has also delivered a few lectures at IIT Bombay and IISc on how drones can be used in time-sensitive situations like transferring of organs during organ donation, blood transfer and other such purposes. Prathap says, “When my lecture was held in these institutes for the first time, only three or four people attended. But these few people told the others about me and my talks, so when the lectures were organised again, the hall was jam-packed.” Currently, Prathap is working to establish his own start-up that can involve youngsters to build drones or any other devices. According to him, there are several people out there who have the talent, but don’t have the degree. “I will employ such talents and bring out many innovative devices that can help the nation during disasters and wars and in the fields of defence, aviation and beyond. The aim is very simple, it is to use technology in the interest of our nation.”

source: http://www.edexlive.com / The New Indian Express edex live / Home> People> Drone / by Rashmi Patil, Edex Live / December 23rd, 2019

Technology to help doctors virtually consult patients

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology

This is also a way to help patients in quarantine get emotional support from counsellors and stay in touch with their families via video-conference.

Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu
Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu

Bengaluru :

Minister for Health and Family Welfare B Sriramulu launched ‘ICU Telecard’ on Thursday, a technology developed by CISCO to address the concerns of doctors treating Covid patients. The technology help doctors who have contracted the virus while on duty, allowing them to provide treatment to patients from a safe distance. It will also ensure that doctors don’t come in contact with patients in isolation wards and Covid ICU’s.

This is also a way to help patients in quarantine get emotional support from counsellors and stay in touch with their families via video-conference. Families will also be able to virtually take part in doctor consultations.  “This technology is a necessity in safeguarding the health of doctors, and should be implemented in all hospitals. We will discuss this in the task force meeting, and take decisions regarding technology required in Covid hospitals in the state. For now, we have installed the technology at Victoria Hospital and KC General hospital,” the minister said.

Sriramulu also addressed complaints regarding the delay in releasing of dead bodies that are yet to be tested, stating that the Chief Minister in a meeting on Wednesday has ordered for more testing labs to be set up. “We are also contemplating conducting plasma therapy in all districts,” he said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / July 03rd, 2020

From PhD in AI to fruit chips company, youngster takes a big leap

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment

Twenty-eight-year-old Bharadwaj Karanth’s company,Suvidha Foods and Beverages, procures fruits and vegetables directly from farmers and processes them into chips and dry fruits.

BharatwajBF28jun2020

Bengaluru :

A PhD in digital image processing is a long way from allied agricultural activities, but in a strange way, that is what this former lecturer ended up doing by setting up a company that can turn any fruit or vegetable into tasty chips.

Twenty-eight-year-old Bharadwaj Karanth’s company, Suvidha Foods and Beverages, procures fruits and vegetables directly from farmers and processes them into chips and dry fruits. Until two years ago, Karanth taught at a college in Sringeri, his hometown. “I realised that many of my students were moving out of here, leaving their parents behind because there are no employment opportunities for them. I have a PhD in a subject related to artificial intelligence, but to start a company in that field here… there is a shortage of skilled workers and power outages are common,” he said.

It hit him then that farmers found it extremely difficult to access markets, and that if there was some value addition to their farm produce, it would be a win-win situation for all. Two years ago, he founded Suvidha, which employs 18 people – mostly students who have an opportunity to remain in their hometown, and makes chips out of practically any fruit or vegetable.

“At present, we have banana, jackfruit, chikoo, beetroot, ladies finger, garlic, carrot, sweet potato, papaya chips and more,’’ he said. The first step is to remove the moisture content from the fruit or vegetable, followed by vacuum frying, which needs very little oil. Karanth says the whole process is natural, and that no colour additives are used.

“The nutritional value remains intact. It tastes just as fresh as the fruit (or vegetable), but it’s just crispy,” he said. For seasonal fruits such as jackfruit, the company has a cold storage facility so that production can continue throughout the year.

Karanth plans on expanding into manufacturing powdered spices, for which his home district Chikkamagaluru is famous.

Other plans on the anvil include the sale of products made from medicinal plants such as Amruthballi, which are abundant in the Western Ghats.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Ashwini M Sripad / Express News Service / June 28th, 2020

Mandya zila parishad bags national award

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All

“The credit goes to all those who strove hard to take the administration to the grassroots.”

Mysuru :

The Mandya zilla panchayat has won the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar (DDUPSP), a national award given by the Ministry of Panchayat Raj to the best performing ZPs across the country.

Mandya is the only district from Karnataka to bag the award which comes with a cash prize of Rs 50 lakh.

Expressing happiness, ZP CEO K Yalakki said, “The focus on improving the civic services in the district along with special attention to segregation of waste, plastic-free panchayats, social sector performance, e-governance and many other aspects helped us fare well,” he said.

MP Sumalatha Ambareesh said, “The credit goes to all those who strove hard to take the administration to the grassroots.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / June 18th, 2020