It is nice to see reports that Britain is taking intiative to rope in countries like USA, India, and China to act on global warming. Recently, former World Bank chief economist Mr. Nicholas Stern reported that climate change could push world temperatures up by 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) over the next century. This, in turn causes severe floods and harsh droughts and potentially displacing as many as 200 million people around the globe. US, under President George Bush had pulled out of Kyoto protocol for environmental protection. This, in turn provided an easy exit for several other countries that are less developed economically.
It is imperative that the international community act together in controlling the global emmissions that are likely to displace millions of people over the next few decades and bring in uncertainity to the future of Mother Earth.

According to local news papers, Dengue fever has taken several lives during the past few weeks and shows no signs of recession. Several states are reported to have deaths due to Dengue including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, and Kerala. The fever is caused by masquito bite, and may be fatal in some cases. There appears to be no major initiative from the government machinary to contain the spread of the disease.
Further, Chicken Guinea is still rampant in several states of India including AP, Karnataka, and Kerala. Please see this previous note on Chicken Guinea
It is time that the government raises up to the requirement, and allocate more resources to contain the spread of these diseases.

Further to the previous post, Bangalore bandh was called for two primary reasons:
1. To stress teaching Kannada (local language in the state of Karnataka) in schools,
2. To strenghten the solidarity with border districts of Karnataka that are in territorial dispute from neiboring states, particularly Maharashtra.

Coming to the local language issue, the schools in Bangalore (and elsewhere in Karnataka) tend to teach in English. This is primarily because the students will have better career opportunities if they had studied in English. But, being official local language, the state is particular about teaching Kannada as the primary medium of instruction in majority of schools. This has been an issue since several decades, and keeps shooting-up every now and then.

On the dispute of border districts, majority of residents said to originally belong to neighboring districts, but the areas were attached to Karnataka during partition. This too has been very old and delicate issue, and only time can resolve the issue.

Today, a bundh was observed throughout the state of Karnataka. Bangalore, being capital of Karnataka state too observed total bundh. By the way, what is meant by the term "bundh" or "bandh"? It is a popular term used in India that represents general strike by a section of society. Usually, all shops, commercial establishments, offices are closed either willingly, or forcefully by the striking section of society. Bundhs are usually sponsored by political parties or powerful employees unions, or sometimes by followers of popular film stars.
A bundth often results in loss of productivity, and severe inconvenience to the public. Though, bundhs are not legal, almost all political parties resort to bundh at some time or the other to push their view point.
As far as today bandh is concerned, most people do not know the reason for bandh. However, it is nice to drive on bangalore roads today. Usually, all roads in Bangalore are clogged with vehicular traffic.