What is also perhaps working in the Congress’ favour is the low profile of the JDS which is losing ground in its traditional pockets.

MYSURU: Congress that had almost slipped into coma after the worst-ever defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and the collapse of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government has started reaching out to people rather than sticking to conventional protests and raising slogans. This has been evident in the past two months.

Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and others announced their support to the government in containing the spread of the virus and during the lockdown period. The party made a strategic move by calling a meeting of the Kayaka Samaja (those in traditional occupations), farmers and opposition parties demanding that the government act. Chief Minister BS Yeddiyurappa, in no mood to give Congress the edge, announced the Rs 1,610 crore package.

New KPCC president DK Shivakumar seemed to have won brownie points at the height of the migrant crisis by giving away a cheque for Rs 1 cr on behalf of the party to the  KSRTC to meet the transportation charges of the workers and even volunteered to give Rs 2 cr more to meet their train fares. Shivakumar roped in both veterans and second rung leaders, as also the District Congress Committees and gave away essentials, food packets and raised funds from the sitting and defeated MLAs to donate it for Covid relief activities.

What is also perhaps working in the Congress’ favour is the low profile of the JDS which is losing ground in its traditional pockets. The Congress is now making efforts to draw public attention projecting itself as the only alternative. The party was careful not to back Tablighis nor press for allowing Ramadan prayers at Idgah fearing that the BJP may project it as anti- Hindus.

KPCC spokesperson M Lakshmana said the Congress has extended all cooperation to the government. 
BJP spokesperson G Madhusudhan said that the BJP was aware of the Congress move to take mileage giving a cheque for Rs 1 cr instead of contributing it to PM CARES or the CM Relief Fund. Madushudan said it is the government’s commitment to respond to those in traditional occupations and farmers, and not under pressure from the Congress. Political commentator Prof Muzzafar Asadi said that Yediyurappa hijacked the Opposition agenda and announced the package and on the other side he also complimented them for giving valid suggestions.

Bengaluru: Karnataka Tourism Minister C T Ravi on Wednesday hinted at the government permitting opening of gyms, fitness centres and golf courses after May 17 when the third phase of the COVID-19 induced lockdown comes to an end.

“Today I met the Chief Minister and discussed opening of fitness centres, golf courses and giving permission for hotels to provide service… to encourage revival of tourism at local level while maintaining social distancing,” he told reporters.

Stating that sportspersons’ fitness will take a hit if fitness centres are not opened, the Minister, who also holds the sports portfolio, said following the request by several of them, he brought it to the notice of the Chief Minister, who responded positively.

“CM has said we will give permissions to open gyms after May 17, while ensuring all safety precautions.

Also, golf is something where distance is usually maintained, they (golfers) too had come and submitted an appeal. I brought it to the notice of CM…we will give permission, ensuring safety,” he added.

With all tourism activities having come to a standstill and all bookings cancelled, following the coronavirus-driven lockdown, the tourism department is focusing on promoting local tourism with the concept of “Love Your Native”.

Ravi said he had drawn the Chief Minister’s attention to a “survival and revival” plan for the tourism sector and added that the mindset will have to change towards “Love Your Native” concept, aimed at encouraging local tourism.

“Then comes inter-district with the concept ‘Nodu baa Nammura’ (Come, See Our City). After that we will consider inter-state and international tourists, while maintaining safety and hygiene,” he said.

“We are also waiting for a central package. We expect tourism will get boost from it,” he added.

Bengaluru: Around 1,000 passengers arrived in Bengaluru from Delhi on Thursday on board the first train to Karnataka since limited rail services resumed in the country, officials said.

Soon after arrival at the Bengaluru City Railway Station, the passengers were screened for COVID-19 on the station premises itself, the officials said.

The train that left Delhi on Tuesday at 9.30 pm was scheduled to arrive at 6.40 am on Thursday but got delayed by 40 minutes.

According to a senior railway officer, the Bengaluru civic agency along with the Karnataka Health Department had set up 10 health check-up counters to screen the passengers.

The passengers were disembarked coach-wise as Railway Protection Force personnel kept a strict vigil on them.

“It’s heartening that everyone is maintaining discipline and seated inside. No chaos,” the South Western Railway public relations officer said.

These travellers will be taken to the quarantine centres as the state government has decided not to allow them mingle with anyone else till they complete 14 days in isolation and test negative for COVID-19, the officials said.

Around 15 buses belonging to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), a subsidiary of the state government, were deployed at the railway station to take these passengers to the quarantine centres.

Elaborate arrangements were made to receive these passengers. As many as 4,200 rooms were booked in 42 hotels around the Majestic Railway Station.

“We have reserved 90 hotels in and around the railway station. These are for institutional quarantine. The passengers willing to stay in these hotels will have to bear the cost. Separate arrangements have been made for those who don’t wish to stay in hotels,” the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Urban district G L Shivamurthy said in a video message.

He made it clear that everyone coming to Bengaluru will have to compulsorily remain quarantined for 14 days and undergo COVID-19 medical tests.

General public was not allowed to enter the railway station area.

Bengaluru: Google confirmed on Friday that an employee of its Bengaluru office has been diagnosed with COVID-19.

“The employee has been on quarantine since then, and we have asked colleagues who were in close contact with the employee to quarantine themselves and monitor their health,” the company said in a statement.

Karnataka Health Department officials said on Thursday the 26-year old man — the Google employee –, who had returned from Greece, has tested positive for coronavirus.

The patient who hails from Mumbai has been admitted and isolated at a hospital and his condition is stable, a department media bulletin had said.

“All (his) primary contacts have been traced and are asymptomatic,” it said. He had travelled from Greece to Mumbai on March 6, and came by flight to Bengaluru on March 8.

He had been to office here on March 9, during which he is said to have spoken to four of his close friends and gone back home within a few hours.

“He was hospitalised the same day. One brother of his is staying with him in Bengaluru..parents and wife are in Mumbai,” sources said.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus positive cases in Karnataka is six, including the Google employee, and the 76-year old man from Kalaburagi who passed away on Tuesday night.

A special session organised by BCIC Membership Expert Committee

St. Francis College, Koramangala

The only source of KNOWLEDGE is EXPERIENCE… Albert Einstein

Experiences and strategies shared by the thought leaders from across industries during the Levelling Up and Driving Business Growth sessions on overcoming the economic distress helped all the participants, gain insights into plans of action for their businesses.

The Bangalore Chamber for Industry and Commerce under the aegis of its Membership Expert Committee, organised a special session on Levelling Up! Driving Business Growth on 13^th of March 2020 at St. Francis College auditorium. Thought leaders from across the Chamber’s member organisations discussed the strategies and plans of action during the two panel discussions.

Driving Growth through Innovation and Partnerships was the first panel discussion led by Mr. Devesh Agarwal, President BCIC and Managing Director, Jesons Technologies Pvt. Ltd., with panellists including Mr. Augustus Azaraiah, IBM, Mr. Girish Nuli, Antara Software and Consulting, Mr. Ramesh Saligrama, Bosch Limited and Mr. Badrinath N.R, Singhvi, Dev & Unni LLP participated while Mr. Bharath Shivappa moderated the session. Leaders shared on how their organisations are able to see major positive strides being made through innovation and partnerships. They also discussed the macro strategies that allowed them to dream big, while leverage their existing and new relationships to achieve extended business objectives.

Sameera Fernandes, Co-Chair, Membership Expert Committee & Director – Strategy & Planning – St. Francis College Koramangala moderated the second panel discussion on “Building Future Ready Organisations”, led by Mr. T.R. Parasuraman, Sr. Vice President, BCIC and Jt. Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engines India Ltd., and panellists including Dr. L. Ravindran, Wealthmax Enterprises Management, Mr. Vineet Verma, Brigade Hospitality, Mr. Naresh Pagariya, Kwality Foods, Mr. B. Indushekar, Volvo Group, Dr. S. Devarajan, TVS Motors. This panel focused on the importance of process implementation across organisation to improve the overall contribution of employees in achieving the common shared business objective. The discussions also brought out the benefits of employee engagement and cross skilling to ensure that the teams are ready for the future challenges while working with well spread outsourcing strategies.

The question-answer session after each panel discussion witnessed passionate and concerned voices of the participants, while the panellists sharing their experience and their ideas for most of the questions raised. All-in-all, this special session served as a great eye-opener and a loud wake-up-call for the participants. Networking time, both before the start of the session and post completion was well utilised by the delegates through peer-to-peer interactions and exchange of views on various topics.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who held a high-level meeting to review the precautionary measures following India’s first COVID-19 death reported in Kalaburgi, announced the decision. 

BENGALURU: The state government has ordered the closure of all universities, malls, cinema halls, pubs, nightclubs and places of entertainment which encourage huge gatherings across the state from Saturday for the next one week to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who held a high-level meeting to review the precautionary measures following India’s first COVID-19 death reported in Kalaburgi, announced the decision. 

The CM said the decision has been taken in the public interest after consulting experts. The CM said universities too will be closed and people have been advised against traveling.

Schools are already declared closed except for students of class 7 to 9 who will attend school only for examinations. The CM on Friday said colleges too will be closed for a week. 

SSLC examinations will be conducted as scheduled. However, government offices will remain open and there will be no change in the ongoing legislative session. “The situation will be reviewed after one week,” the CM said.

Karnataka government has asked the IT and biotechnology companies to give a list of employees who travelled to COVID-19 affected countries after February 21.

BENGALURU: The Karnataka Health Department has traced a trail of 2,678 people who came in contact with the four positive coronavirus (COVID-19) people in the state, an official said on Tuesday.

“Four positive coronavirus cases identified in Bengaluru have left a trail of 2,678 people who came in contact with them,” the department’s Information, Education and Communication (IEC) special officer Suresh Shastri told IANS.

The four positive cases – a family of three and another man – have been quarantined.

A 46-year-old male with travel history to US via Dubai is the first positive coronavirus case in Karnataka, followed by a 47-year-old female, a contact of the first case and a 13-year-old girl, also a contact of the first case.

According to sources, the three are a family and the Health Department does not have the travel history of the woman and the girl.

Though the Health Department has traced 2,666 people who came in touch with the family, until now only two of the contacts of case one have displayed the virus symptoms, the woman and the girl.

The fourth positive case is a 50-year-old male with travel history to USA via London. The Health Department traced 12 people who came in touch with him but none of them have displayed coronavirus symptoms yet.

All the four positive coronavirus cases being monitored at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in the city are Indian citizens.

As of Tuesday, the number of persons admitted to the institute for selected isolated observation are six, followed by one each at hospitals in Hassan, Dakshina Kannada and Bagalkote.

“As of Monday, 446 samples of symptomatic persons have been sent for testing, of which 389 have returned negative,” said a statement issued by the Health Department said.

As many as 760 people are going through home quarantine across the state while 1,048 people have enrolled for observation.

Across the state, 95,151 passengers have been thermal-screened for the virus till now at the Kempegowda International Airport in the city and the Mangaluru International Airport.

Another 5,368 passengers were also checked for the virus at Karwar and Mangaluru seaports.

Aimed at reinforcing coronavirus prevention measures, the state government added three more Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) laboratories to receive and test coronavirus samples.

A medical college each in Mysuru, Hassan and Shivamogga are also testing the samples.

The state government also sent a bulk text message to all ASHA workers to create awareness about coronavirus among the masses and communities.

Karnataka government also asked the IT and biotechnology companies to give a list of employees who travelled to COVID-19 affected countries after February 21.

Masks, gloves, caps, hand-wash sanitisers and aprons have been stocked in sufficient quantity.

BENGALURU: Following a directive from the Railway Board to all zones, asking for quarantine wards to be put in place for treating patients with incidence of COVID-19, the South Western Railway Zone has decided to earmark 216 beds for the treatment of patients in Hubballi, Bengaluru and Mysuru Railway Divisions. This is an emergency precautionary measure being taken by the zonal officials.

According to an official release, seven locations — three of them under Bengaluru Division — have been identified to be converted as quarantine wards. These are the wards created: Multi Discipline Training Centre at Ashokapuram in Mysuru, Diesel Training Centre at Hubballi, Women Barrakcs of Railway Protection Force in Hubballi, Supervisors Training Centre in Bengaluru, Divisional PWay Training Centre near Bengaluru Cantonment and Indian Railway Institute for Disaster Management, Hejjala, at Ramanagara.

“The facility can be used for general public and in case of necessity, the state government can also use them,” the release said.These beds have been selected out of the 706 across 229 rooms in its training facilities. The remaining beds can be made use of in case of any emergency by rescheduling training programmes.  

As a precautionary measure, separate clinics have also been formed for patients having cough and fever, at Central Hospital in Hubballi, Railway Hospital in Mysuru and Railway Hospital in Bengaluru, it said. Medical help is also being extended at railway stations, to passengers who aren’t feeling well. Railways has also suspended biometric attendance for all its employees. Masks, gloves, caps, hand-wash sanitisers and aprons have been stocked in sufficient quantity.

Elaborating the steps being taken by the SWR zone, the release said the COVID-19 campaign for health education and awareness programme commenced three days ago by distributing handouts and educative materials with the aim of spreading awareness among passengers.

Video clips issued by Health department are being shown on CCTV for the benefit of the public. Educative messages on prevention of the virus are issued via social media by SWR using #cautionyespanickno.

Health department sources confirmed that the wife and daughter of the techie, who returned from USA to Bangalore on March 1, are the other two confirmed cases along with him.

Four patients tested positive for coronavirus in Bengaluru, tweeted Health Minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday morning. One of these cases is the techie who returned from USA to Bengaluru on March 1 and has been admitted in the isolation unit of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases.

Health department sources confirmed that the wife and daughter of the techie are the other two confirmed cases. The fourth case is another techie who returned from US and landed in Bengaluru International Airport.

“The family members of the patients are being kept in isolation and their health is being monitored. I urge citizens to take precautions and cooperate in preventing the spread of infection,” Sriramulu said in the tweet.

In a press release, the Indian Council for Medical Research said that in the past 24 hours, there has been one positive case from Kerala, two from Pune and three from Bengaluru. The state health department officials and RGICD doctors are either not responding to calls or are refusing to comment on the matter until 6 pm on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the man, who was under coronavirus quarantine at a district hospital in Mangaluru following his arrival from Dubai, and later left the premises, has been re-admitted to the facility after health department officials convinced him of the Centre’s instructions.

After a day of high drama, the passenger, who arrived at the International Airport here on Sunday night with a high fever, was admitted to the isolation ward of Wenlock hospital but left after arguing with the staff that he would take treatment at a private facility.

However, he was later traced to his home on Monday night after health department officials informed the police. After the district administration’s intervention, he agreed to co-operate with the treatment.
Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said that the patient’s samples have been collected and sent to a testing centre in Bengaluru.

She said that if passengers were not willing to be screened, they would be counselled first and then shifted to an isolation ward. “If they refuse to cooperate, they would have to be taken forcefully,” she said.

Swachh Device, a first of its kind workshop exclusively designed for the Journalist, News Editors and working professionals in the media industry was held on 7 March 2020 at the Chancery Pavilion.

Cyber-surveil lance is a bigger threat than ever. New forms of censorship are emerging, implemented by troll armies paid by authoritarian regimes. They include double switch, in which a journalist’s online account is taken over in order to disseminate fake news, smear the journalist, and censor
independently reported news and information. Journalists should protect themselves and their sources by keeping up-to-date on the latest digital security news and threats such as hacking, phishing, and
surveillance. Journalists should think about the information they are responsible for and what could happen if it falls into the wrong hands, and take measures to defend their accounts, devices,
communications, and online activity.

Swachh Device conference will offer a valuable platform to transfer knowledge from experts and educate the attendees on the techniques, skills and principles necessary to secure their devices.

Era3Q— the organizing team acknowledged their sincere thanks and appreciation to Shri Sanjay Sahay, IPS – Additional Director General of Police, Police Computer Wing, Govt. of Karnataka and Dr. Ananth Prabhu G for their valuable contribution and support for the conference.