Good morning, Bengaluru!
☁️ Today’s weather: High: 28 ℃ | Low: 20 ℃ | Mostly cloudy with some light rain possible.
🧐 Did you know? The Town Hall, formerly known as Sir Puttanna Chetty Town Hall, was named after the first president of the Bangalore municipality.
👩💻 Unique digital startup
A startup from a teenager focuses on graphic design and computer literacy.
What’s it about? 15-year-old Siddhita Mohanty was fascinated with cartoons and their visuals. That inspired her to launch a new digital startup, Bloom Riddhi Siddhi when she was only 13. She’s also a certified Android app developer, game developer and junior robot developer.
- During the pandemic, she developed over 50 apps using block coding and over 1,000 3D designs. She’s also excelled at the International Life Skills and Global Etiquette Olympiad.
- With multiple years of experience, she now takes only 15-20 minutes to create a design. She enjoys designing furniture, room layouts, and decor the most.
Inspiration: Siddhita recognised the role that mental health plays in people’s well-being. Her experience with her family during the pandemic in dealing with stress and anxiety was an inspiration.
✊ IT sector protest
Over 300 employees protested in the city against the government’s proposed 14-hour workday.
What’s it about? Over 300 employees from IT companies protested at Freedom Park against the state government’s proposal to extend working hours for IT/ITES employees to 14 hours from the mandated 10 hours.
- The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) submitted a memorandum to the Labour Department. The KITU has asked the government to scrap the proposal.
- The KITU wants the government to amend the current labour laws applicable to the IT sector and regulate them to ensure that IT workers are cared for.
Union Strong: Over the past two weeks, IT employees across the state have criticised the government’s proposal and prepared for this protest. Over 10,000 people have registered with the union, and that’s expected to increase.
🏏 New cricket academy
BCCI Secretary Jay Shah shared the first images of the upcoming National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
What’s it about? The new state-of-the-art cricket academy is nearing completion. The new facilities will offer its playing grounds and training amenities to current and future cricketers.
- The academy will have 45 practice pitches, indoor cricket pitches, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and the latest sports science facilities and equipment.
- The grounds will also have several floodlights to help players practice during the evenings and night times.
Expansion: The new academy is an extension of the current one headed by VVS Laxman. The current academy is located near the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
👨💻 Cybercrime losses
Bengalureans lost over ₹800 crore to cybercrimes in the first six months of this year.
What’s it about? In the first six months of this year, Bengaluru citizens lost ₹845 crore to cybercriminals. Debit and credit fraud were the most common, accounting for over 1,400 of the 9,260 cases.
- The debit and credit card scams had a pattern – all calls were made using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. This hid the caller’s location with international numbers, making tracing them impossible.
- Over half of the victims used public wi-fi at hotels, lounges, and other public spaces before making the transactions. Public wi-fi networks are often unencrypted. It’s easy for people to intercept transmitted data.
Losing the fight: Existing awareness programmes haven’t been effective since even educated people have fallen victim to cybercrimes. Officials say unless there’s an all-out war against cybercrimes, more cases will be reported.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Would you go skydiving if given the chance?
- I would go skydiving if given the chance.
- I wouldn’t go skydiving if given the chance.
❓ Today’s Question
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What’s your favourite type of weather?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In Other News…
- Commuters demand additional safety measures following the suicide incident at the Doddakallasandra metro station.
- Bengaluru leads the state in the highest number of registered transplant centres.
- Political rallies and tree uprootings threw traffic out of gear across several parts of Bengaluru.
- A rise in bird injuries has been reported in the city due to heavy rains and strong winds.
- Drivers and vehicle owners have expressed their displeasure over the change in timings of the movement of heavy goods vehicles.
That’s it for today. Have a great day!