Amith Hegde

18/09/2026

Tulu finally gets its due ❤️

Tulu accorded status as Karnataka's second official language

A language is not merely words; it is the memory, identity, culture, & soul of a people

It's the language of our Ancestors, our Daivas & Bhootas, our Pāddanās, our Folk Traditions, our Fields, our Hills, and our Seas

Tulunadu gets its rightful place in Karnataka’s magnificent cultural story

Mataregla Solmelu

25/08/2026

Why the Karnataka Parks Bill deserves a second look

The Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) (Amendment) Bill, 2026 has passed Cabinet with relatively little public debate. It permits up to 5% of any park or garden, including Cubbon Park and Lalbagh, to be alienated through sale, lease, gift, exchange or mortgage, for public utility projects.

Is 5% a small number? On paper, yes. In practice, perhaps not.

Points worth mulling over:

▪︎Five percent sounds administrative until you apply it. On Lalbagh, that is upward of 10 acres. On Cubbon Park, more still. Numbers presented as small are only small relative to something, and relative to what a park actually does for a city, this is not.

▪︎Bengaluru's infrastructure needs are real, and no one disputes that roads, metro lines and utilities matter. The Bill also builds in a safeguard: a high-level committee to evaluate proposed use before it proceeds, restricted to public authorities for public purposes. These provisions were not included carelessly, and it is only fair to say so.

▪︎A committee can function well and still be operating inside a framework that has already shifted. Once a statutory right to alienate exists, it tends to persist beyond the government that created it. The question is not only how carefully this exception is used, but what it becomes once it is no longer treated as exceptional.

▪︎Let’s not forget what a park is already doing. A park is not land in waiting. It is already at work for air quality, for biodiversity, for the quieter kind of relief a dense city needs. These are easy to underweigh because none of it shows up on a balance sheet.

▪︎Infrastructure decisions can often be revisited. This one largely cannot. Once green space is repurposed, it does not return to what it was, regardless of how the compensation or planning is structured. In one word, irreversible

▪︎Every generation makes a choice about what it protects for the next one. This Bill asks the current generation to make that call on a fairly permanent basis, on behalf of people who have no voice in the decision yet.

We should build better infrastructure around our parks wherever possible and not by gradually consuming them.

None of this is an argument against progress. It is an argument for building that progress around what we already have, rather than through it.


Protect responsibly

16/08/2026

With no elected body, loses hundreds of crores

Bengaluru lost grants worth Rs 964 crore under the 15th Finance Commission, and now, under the 16th Finance Commission, grants have increased, and Bengaluru may get approximately Rs 7,058 crore between 2026-27 and 2030-31

However, an elected body is necessary to claim these funds, and in its absence, Bengaluru may lose a large chunk of these funds as well. In 2026-27, if elections are not held, Bengaluru may lose grants worth Rs 907 crore

High time the is held

contributes a huge chunk to the central kitty, and we are squandering a key resource to better Bengaluru, especially the infrastructure and other issues, which can improve the 'Quality of Life' for every person living in Bengaluru

has also taken a hit owing to a lack of an elected council

Bengaluru civic polls: The city could lose Rs 907 crore in 2026-27 without an elected council, after missing Rs 964 crore under the 15th Finance Commission. Experts warn delayed elections could hurt civic development and funding across the city.

15/08/2023

Happy Independence Day 🇮🇳

26/02/2023

Brand refresh at Nokia

Changes its logo for the first time in 60 years

This comes with its updated company strategy

Refreshed company strategy
Nokia continues to execute against its three-phased strategy to deliver sustainable, profitable growth. Having completed the reset phase, Nokia will continue to accelerate while laying the foundation for the scale phase as an undisputed technology leader and having broadened its customer base. Today’s announcement supports Nokia’s long-term financial targets which were re-iterated with Q4 2022 financial results.
Nokia’s refreshed company strategy is focused on further acceleration across six pillars:

Grow market share with service providers, driven by continued technology leadership;

Expand the share of Enterprises within its customer mix;

Continue to manage its portfolio actively, to ensure a path to a leading position in all segments where it decides to compete;

Seize opportunities from sectors beyond mobile devices to monetize Nokia’s IP and continue to invest in R&D for Nokia Technologies;

Implement new business models, such as as-a-Service; and

Develop ESG into a competitive advantage and become the “trusted provider of choice” in the industry.

To deliver these pillars Nokia has four key enablers: develop future-fit talent; invest in long-term research, especially in key domains such as 6G; digitalize its own operations to further improve agility and productivity; and refresh the brand.

Brand refresh
In line with its updated company strategy, Nokia is refreshing its brand to signal who it is today: a B2B technology innovation leader realizing the potential of digital in every industry. The new brand asserts the value Nokia brings in networking expertise, technology leadership, pioneering innovation and collaborative partnership.

The company’s new logo is emblematic of an energized, dynamic, and modern Nokia, demonstrating its values and purpose. It has been designed as a symbol of collaboration, which Nokia believes to be critical for realizing the exponential potential of networks: unlocking gains in sustainability, productivity, and accessibility.


📸 Nokia

22/02/2023

Need to beat information overload?
Critical thinking isn’t enough, we need to learn ‘critical ignoring’

The web is an informational paradise and a hellscape at the same time.

A boundless wealth of high-quality information is available at our fingertips right next to a ceaseless torrent of low-quality, distracting, false and manipulative information.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, all this should take a toll on our collective attention.

To regain control, we need cognitive strategies that help us reclaim at least some autonomy and shield us from the excesses, traps and information disorders of today’s attention economy.

Critical ignoring to make information management feasible

Critical ignoring is the ability to choose what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities. Critical ignoring is more than just not paying attention – it’s about practising mindful and healthy habits in the face of information overabundance.

🛠Tools for critical ignoring

Three main strategies exist for critical ignoring. Each one responds to a different type of noxious information.

✅ Self-nudging:
In the digital world, self-nudging aims to empower people to be citizen “choice architects” by designing their informational environments in ways that work best for them and that constrain their activities in beneficial ways.

✅ Lateral reading:
Lateral reading is a strategy that enables people to emulate how professional fact checkers establish the credibility of online information. It involves opening up new browser tabs to search for information about the organisation or individual behind a site before diving into its contents. Only after consulting the open web do skilled searchers gauge whether expending attention is worth it.

✅ Persistent refusal to feed the trolls:
The do-not-feed-the-trolls heuristic targets online trolls and other malicious users who harass, cyberbully or use other antisocial tactics. Trolls thrive on attention, and deliberate spreaders of dangerous disinformation often resort to trolling tactics.

The heuristic advises against directly responding to trolling. Resist debating or retaliating. Of course, this strategy of critical ignoring is only a first line of defence. It should be complemented by blocking and reporting trolls and by transparent platform content moderation policies including debunking.

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to ignore.” William James

What are the tools that you use to beat information overload?
Do share



Primary source of info from article (🔗 in comments)

14/02/2023

Remembering the brave soldiers who laid down their lives in the terrorist attack in Pulwama on this day in 2019

Their sacrifice will not be forgotten

26/01/2023

Happy Republic Day 🇮🇳

On 26th January 1950, India's Constitution replaced the British colonial Government of India Act (1935) as the country's governing text. This completed India's transition to a sovereign republic

12/01/2023

, one of India's great thinkers, spiritual & social

"Be true to yourself, & you will be true to the world." still as relevant & inspirational for the youth to take to new heights


📸ThomasHarrison

05/01/2023

More countries are paying people to move out of their overgrown cities

Remote work might incentivize moves, but will digital nomads really help revive the countryside?

Japan is paying families to move out of Tokyo. It’s offering households ¥1 million ($7,650) per child to leave the capital

It’s just the latest example of a worldwide effort to shift focus away from huge cities that are draining talent and investment from other regions.

The architects of resettlement schemes like Tokyo’s want to disincentivize people acting as so-called digital nomads—those often-moving workers who can plug in a laptop and do their job from anywhere. They are instead putting in place incentives that encourage workers to put down roots, engage locally, and actually help make changes in the places where they arrive.

Other places that pay city dwellers to move:

Regions of Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, as well as a number of US states, have all developed incentives to lure potential residents away from the big cities.

Many of them are directed only at those willing to put down roots.

Other schemes are designed to entice young people (some have an age limit, usually of 40) and their laptops to new homes, even if they turn out to be temporary.

India is facing this currently with a huge chunk of the population migrating towards just a few cities for jobs, or better business opportunities. How far are we from what’s happening around the world? Or are we already in this situation?

Do share your thoughts on how this would have a bearing on jobs, remote working, urban planning, the economy, and quality of life



Primary source of info from article (🔗 in comments)