Karnataka First

‘Bengaluru ‘47: Forgotten Stories of Freedom’ will be held at RBANM’s High School from August 14 to 23

After leaders of the Indian freedom movement adopted the Swaraj Flag featuring the charkha in 1931, the colonial government banned it’s carrying and hoisting. In an act of defiance, freedom fighters across the country hoisted the flag. In Karnataka, N.V. Krishnamachari was a prominent figure in the flag resistance. Despite a brutal lathi charge by British forces on protesters during the satyagraha, Krishnamachari continued to carry the flag defiantly.

A photo of the bloodstained flag, which is today housed at Vidhana Soudha, will be showcased at “Bengaluru ‘47: Forgotten Stories of Freedom”, an exhibition that will be held at RBANM’s High School from August 14 to 23. The exhibition, organised by the INTACH Bengaluru Chapter, together with RBANM’s Educational Charities, #ReclaimConstitution, and 1Shanthiroad, will showcase artefacts related to the Indian freedom movement and highlight lesser-known stories of Bengaluru’s role in the freedom struggle.

Bengaluru’s role in freedom struggle

“Ordinary Bengalureans participated in the freedom movement in several ways — from massive protests by students, workers, and others; to buying khadi and burning foreign-made cloth; to calling for the entry of all castes into temples; to printing and distributing pamphlets. Through interviews, archival newspaper clippings, maps, pamphlets, and other materials, this exhibition provides a glimpse of the atmosphere on the streets of Bengaluru, and an insight into the lives of people who experienced those tumultuous times,” the organisers said.

The exhibition will feature several artefacts, including a facsimile of S.K. Kareem Khan’s autobiographical note, in which he recounts the freedom struggle in Karnataka and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. It will also display a Tamra Patra (copper plate), charkhas belonging to N.V. Krishnamachari, and a photograph of his bloodstained flag.

As part of the event, a spinning workshop will be held on August 16 by The Art of Spinning. Other events include a storytelling session for adults on August 18 by Vikram Sridhar, a talk by historian Ramachandra Guha titled “R. Gopalaswamy Iyer and Dalits in Princely Mysore” on August 19, and an evening with T.M. Krishna on August 22.

Midnight flag hoisting

The RBANM’s High School grounds will also witness the fourth edition of the Midnight Flag Hoisting on August 15, organised by #SatyamevaJayate, a collective of progressive artists and citizens.

“Hoisting the flag at midnight on August 15 was a tradition followed by freedom fighters since 1947, and in Bengaluru, Sajjan Rao Circle and Mysore Bank Circle were traditionally the spots for midnight flag hoisting. #SatyamevaJayate wants to keep this tradition alive after having revived it in 2023,” the organisers said.

The run-up to the flag hoisting will feature performances by artists including Scyrn (heavy metal), Alva Kuuto (Tulu rock), Navya Rudrappa (sitar), Dr. Haider Saif (poetry and Sufi), and Punit Pania (stand-up comedy). The students of RBANM’s institutions will present performances that capture the school’s connection to the freedom struggle movement in Bengaluru.

The entry to the event is free and open to all, starting at 5 p.m. on August 14, and will conclude with the hoisting of the flag at the stroke of midnight on August 15.

A counter to RSS

“Soon after Independence, the RSS wanted to hold a mega conclave. However, they did not find any takers until the Mysore Congress Council of Ministers stepped in. In the mega rally that took place in Bengaluru, then chief of the Hindu Mahasabha B.S. Moonje abused Gandhiji in indescribable language. Not one Congressman objected, except Roomale Channabasappa, who wrote a strongly worded response to Moonje’s vitriolic speech. It was shortly after the RSS rally that Gandhiji was assassinated.”

This revealing passage is an excerpt from an autobiographical note written by S.K. Kareem Khan, a freedom fighter and folklorist from Karnataka, who passed away 20 years ago in 2006. The note will be on display at ‘Bengaluru ‘47’.

“Worried about the negative impact casteist forces were having on the minds of young people, Dr. (Narayan Subrao) Hardikar set out to revive the Congress Seva Dal. He was supported by Rumale Channabasappa, T. Siddalingaiah, Kareem Khan, Haranahalli Ramaswamy, and Sardar Venkataramayya,” his note further reads.

Khan, who was born in Sakleshpur, joined the Indian freedom movement and, deeply inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, wore khadi till the end of his life. Along with N.V. Krishnamachari, he participated in the Shivapura Dhwaja Satyagraha in 1938, where, defying British orders, the National Flag was hoisted. Khan used folklore and folk songs to mobilise people, especially the rural masses, for the cause of the freedom struggle.

While he always exhorted Indian Muslims to join the Indian National Congress instead of the Muslim League, his notes show how, ironically, after Independence, the Congress alienated the four Muslim leaders who had fought for freedom alongside them, and instead embraced leaders from the Muslim League. Despite that, he worked as a foot soldier of the party and campaigned for Congress leaders in the first election of 1952, going from village to village.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) is set to launch its maiden undergraduate school in August on a separate campus located about 27 kilometres from the institute’s main campus.

Dinesh Kumar, director-in-charge, IIM-B, said the institute would admit undergraduate students through the newly established Dorabji Tata School of Undergraduate Studies, supported by a grant from Tata Trusts.

“This is the first time in IIM-B’s history that it is admitting 17-year-old students. We are very nervous, as we have never handled this age category before. We have just got used to 20-year-olds,” Prof. Kumar quipped while delivering the welcome address at IIMBue 2026, a two-day leadership conclave organised by the alumni association of IIM-B (IIIMBAA) here on Saturday.

He said the objective was not merely to start another undergraduate programme, but to build a world-class institution inspired by the legacy of the ancient Nalanda University.

The school would initially offer two four-year, full-time residential programmes, including a B.Sc. (Honours) in Economics, commencing in August itself.

The curriculum would integrate data science, economics and business studies into an interdisciplinary framework designed to prepare students for a complex, data-intensive market environment.

IIM-B would admit 40 students to each of these courses.

Referring to a recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he said nearly 95% of artificial intelligence (AI) projects fail because organisations lack a proper understanding of the technology.

“The responsibility of institutions like IIM Bangalore is to ensure that people have the right understanding of these technologies so that they create value and impact,” he added.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Union Minister for Food Processing and Industries Chirag Paswan told the Lok Sabha that applications for 529 micro food processing enterprises have been submitted in Dakshina Kannada district.

Fish and marine products have been identified under the One District One Product (ODOP) approach of Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme, in 29 districts across India, including Dakshina Kannada.

Union Minister for Food Processing and Industries Chirag Paswan told the Lok Sabha on July 30 that, under the branding and marketing component of the scheme, grant of up to 50% of the eligible project cost is provided to groups of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), co-operatives, self-help groups (SHGs), and State or regional Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) of micro food processing enterprises to develop a common umbrella brand at the State or regional level. However, no proposal for branding and marketing has been received for Dakshin Kannada.

Replying to an unstarred question by Captain Brijesh Chowta, Member of Parliament from Dakshina Kannada, the Minister said that applications for 529 micro food processing enterprises have been submitted in Dakshina Kannada, and loans for 393 micro food processing were sanctioned with project cost of ₹69.78 crore, and subsidy of ₹21.54 crore has been approved. Out of this, loans for 13 micro food processing enterprises have been sanctioned in marine products with project cost of ₹1.42 crore, and subsidy approved is ₹0.28 crore. He said 1,179 direct and indirect employment has been generated, and 100 enterprises have been formalised in the district. However, the ministry does not maintain separate data on operational units.

The PMFME Scheme is a Centrally sponsored scheme, under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan initiative, designed to address the challenges faced by micro-enterprises, and to enable increased access to credit and shared infrastructure, integrated supply chain, technology upgradation, marketing linkages and capacity building. The scheme provides support for credit-linked subsidy at the rate of 35% of eligible project cost, with maximum ₹10 lakh, for setting up of new or upgrading existing micro food processing enterprises. Support for common infrastructure and incubation centres has been provisioned to strengthen shared processing, quality testing, storage, packaging, and training facilities for micro food processing enterprises.

The scheme provides branding and marketing support to facilitate development of common brands, improved packaging, quality standardisation, and wider promotion of products. In addition, the scheme promotes end-to-end market linkages through buyer–seller meets, participation in fairs and exhibitions, and integration with organised retail and e-commerce platforms.

The assisted micro food processing enterprises are provided handhold support for formalisation of the unit, such as Udyam, FSSAI, and GST through District Resource Persons (DRPs), enabling enterprises to comply with regulatory requirements and access formal credit and organised markets, the Minister said.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The Ministry’s data shows that Karnataka’s operational toll plazas increased from 46 in 2021-22 to 52 in 2022-23, 54 in 2023-24, 60 in 2024-25, and 68 in 2025-26, marking an increase of nearly 48% over the five-year period.

Karnataka collected ₹4,779.37 crore in user fees from 68 operational toll plazas on National Highways during 2025-26, according to data. The State has witnessed a steady rise in both toll collections and the number of operational fee plazas over the past five years.

The figures were provided by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in a written reply to an unstarred question raised by Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on July 29.

Year	Toll collection	Toll plazas
2021-22	₹2,351.26 crore	46
2022-23	₹3,516.79 crore	52
2023-24	₹4,086.18 crore	54
2024-25	₹4,320.27 crore	60
2025-26	₹4,779.37 crore	68

The Ministry’s data shows that Karnataka’s operational toll plazas increased from 46 in 2021-22 to 52 in 2022-23, 54 in 2023-24, 60 in 2024-25, and 68 in 2025-26, marking an increase of nearly 48% over the five-year period.

Toll collections in the State also registered consistent growth during the same period. Karnataka collected ₹2,351.26 crore in 2021-22, which rose to ₹3,516.79 crore in 2022-23, ₹4,086.18 crore in 2023-24, ₹4,320.27 crore in 2024-25 and ₹4,779.37 crore in 2025-26. Overall, the State’s toll revenue has more than doubled over five years. Meanwhile, the Ministry further informed that user fee collection has been temporarily discontinued at one National Highway toll plaza in Karnataka due to public agitation and law-and-order issues.

Nationally, toll collections from National Highway and Expressway fee plazas reached ₹68,483 crore in 2025-26. Including revenue from the newly introduced Annual Pass scheme, the total collections stood at ₹70,278.18 crore during the financial year.

Karnataka among top five

Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest toll collection at ₹8,862.12 crore, followed by Rajasthan with ₹7,317.51 crore, Maharashtra with ₹7,053.71 crore, Gujarat with ₹6,352.38 crore, and Karnataka, which ranked among the top five with ₹4,779.37 crore.

The Ministry said information on expenditure incurred for operating toll plazas is not maintained centrally because fee plazas are operated under different implementation models. The operating costs are borne by the respective concessionaires or user fee collection agencies under their contractual agreements.

On toll policy, the Centre said it has undertaken several reforms over the past year to make toll collection more efficient while reducing the burden on road users.

Among the major changes is the introduction of an Annual Pass for non-commercial cars, jeeps and vans through a notification issued on June 17, 2025. The pass allows 200 crossings or one year’s validity, whichever is earlier, on payment of ₹3,000, revised to ₹3,075 for 2026-27.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The Jan AI Cafe will serve as a community AI adoption centre where people from the region can discover and build AI solutions for their daily lives with the help of community members.

Jan AI, an initiative by Head Held High Foundation to take AI to the rural people, has launched a ‘Jan AI Cafe’ at H.D. Kote in Mysuru district. It has been set up in a Millets Cafe run by women from the Jenukuraba community, in partnership with Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement.

The AI cafe will serve as a community AI adoption centre where people from the region can discover and build AI solutions for their daily lives with the help of community members trained by Jan AI.

A trusted space for local solutions

The Foundation has been looking at how communities could be empowered to own AI and use it to solve their problems. On top of building basic AI awareness among communities, to identify local problems and leverage the youth to solve them using AI, the initiative has been training ‘AI Ambassadors’ from local communities. So far, 18 young ambassadors have been trained in H.D. Kote who have identified several local problems and will start working on the solutions.

“When local solutions are needed, you can’t expect people to find them on the web. They need a trusted place to come to. That’s why we thought of a cafe,” said Madan Padaki, founder of Jan AI, at the launch of the AI cafe.

“Communities can come here, learn AI, use it, and if they face any problem, they can come back here to address it,” he added. According to Mr. Padaki, the first AI Cafe would focus largely on solutions for women, by women.

Tracking progress

To measure how communities are using AI, the initiative has partnered with Wipro to create an AI index. Metrics on how many people are using the solutions, what are they being used for and how, the economic value it generates across sectors, such as farming, healthcare, tourism, education, and women entrepreneurship, will be tracked and displayed at the cafes.

The initiative plans to test-run five AI cafes in Mysuru district. According to Mr. Padaki, the next centre is being prepared in T. Narasipura with a plan to open in August.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

New research article highlights the need to understand and recognise the importance of Adivasi people’s connections, knowledge and skills in forest management.

Recommendations

Establishing a collaborative group including interested representatives from the Forest Department, Soliga elders, and researchers.

Recognising Soliga’s knowledge and skills to manage the landscape while understanding the importance of cultural rituals and ceremonies through which they learn and express gratitude towards nature.

Developing co-governance and co-management models, befitting local rules and regulations and the cultural context.

Building people’s capabilities to use modern techniques, such as GIS, for mapping sacred and cultural sites and other areas of importance for resource collection, as well as for monitoring, evaluation, and landscape management.

Developing reliable, sustainable, equitable, culturally appropriate incentivising mechanisms involving minimum transactional costs possible, in consultation with Soligas.

Wildlife conservation is typically achieved by excluding, evacuating or alienating the rights of indigenous people and local communities. A new research article published in the journal Ecosystems and People said this “fortress conservation approach” has led to uprooting, ongoing distress and despondency worldwide, and offers the Soligas in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary (BRTWS) as a prime conservation exemplar, where tribal people have been living with wild animals, especially tigers, leopards, elephants and managing forest resources for millennia.

It highlighted the need to understand and recognise the importance of Adivasi people’s connections, knowledge and skills in forest management.

The article, ‘Fortress conservation versus traditional forest management: The example of Soliga tribal people from the Western Ghats, India’ authored by Kamaljit K. Sanghaa, M. Balasubramanian, C. Madegowda, Siddappa Setty and Jeremy Russell-Smitha from Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia; Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru; and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru, was published on Monday, July 27.

Engagement over years

The researchers engaged formally and informally with Soliga elders to co-develop insights and solutions for both conservation and community needs through two workshops between 2022 and 2023, in addition to one-on-one talks with key elders in the community during their visits to the B.R. Hills since 2017.

Throughout the Western Ghats, Adivasi people and many local communities (approximately 5,000,000 Adivasi people just in Kerala and Karnataka as per 2011 Census data) have well-established, imbued relationships with the landscape, the researchers pointed out in the article.

Traditionally, the article said, Soligas managed the Biligiri area applying mosaic litter burning and small-scale swidden agriculture, without having to deal with noxious invasive weeds such as L. camara. People used to clear land for two to three years of cultivation, which subsequently enabled the colonisation of palatable grasses that served as food resources for various herbivores and, consequently, carnivores, especially tigers.

“The management of forests and related revered sacred and cultural values is integral to the Soligas’ way of life. They have hundreds of sacred and cultural places embedded within the Biligiri landscape with which people hold ongoing relationships through various customs, cultural practices, ceremonies and norms. Such an integrated coexistence of Soligas with the Biligiri landscape challenges prevailing conservation approaches, which typically rely on principles of human exclusion,” it said.

The article also noted that during workshops and informal conversations, Soliga elders expressed their aspirations to contribute to sustainable forest management outcomes.

“For example, Soligas have well-established local ‘podu’ level committees called ‘Sangha’ which are further grouped into ‘Taluka Sangha’, bringing all Soligas men and women together for decision-making. They have collectively prepared culturally relevant management plans with help from local NGOs that can be discussed with Forest Department authorities. On occasion, Soligas are asked to assist in managing wildfires, applying culturally relevant knowledge and skills. A few get the opportunity to work casually as forest guards,” it said.

Living with the wild

Occasionally, accidents involving wildlife are reported in the Biligiri hills, including annual encounters with tigers or elephants and leopard attacks on livestock. However, one of the perspectives cited in the article said, “We’ve been living with tigers for centuries. We know tiger and elephant behaviour, and they know ours. We know their smell and sound, and we do not go to those places. Many birds ring alarm bells, so we move to different areas. Monkeys and langurs give call sounds. These are life skills. We look after the forest and leave some things for the animals; for example, we do not take all the honey, we leave some for the animals. We worship the tiger, elephant and bison.”

“Involving tribal people with the knowledge and skills to manage their natural systems can offer a win-win situation for supporting people’s well-being and for governments to reduce management costs and protect wildlife in Protected Areas. The BRTWS example demonstrates the cost-effective practical advantages of a collaborative, community-based conservation approach for meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensuring the delivery of ecosystem services for local communities and wider society,” the researchers said.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)