2-day-old baby operated for complex heart problem in Mangaluru

Bengaluru, May 22: Karnataka Congress delegation met Chief Election Commissioner, Dr B Basavaraju in Bengaluru, urging him to guide Karnataka Government to conduct local body elections and not to allow State government to nominate their party men to the local bodies.

The delegation was led by Congress leader Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar.

"They (State government) wants to postpone the election, they have a lot of other provisions. We are demanding to protect the law, the government doesn't have the power to interfere in the system. We will not allow the state government to nominate their party men.

The CM and his entire team is responsible for this, they are killing the democracy and Panchayati Raj system of the State," said Shivakumar while speaking to the reporters.

The local body elections were scheduled to take place in the month of March or April, which were postponed in view of the COVID-19 crisis.

However, the date for conducting the local body elections has not been decided yet.

Bengaluru, Jul 25: The Karnataka government on Saturday announced a waiver of crematorium fees for those who succumb to the COVID-19 infection in Bengaluru and said the city civic body would bear the cost.

It said that from now on, families of the COVID deceased need not pay any fees fixed by the city civic body- Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)- across 12 electric crematoriums in the city.

"There were reports in the media about difficulties faced in performing the last rites of those who died due to COVID-19 infections. Aimed at resolving those difficulties, certain decisions have been taken," Revenue Minister R Ashoka said.

He told reporters here that BBMP had fixed Rs 250 as the cremation fee, Rs 100 for the ash collection pot and Rs 900 for the bier (bamboo stretcher on which the body is carried), all of which have been waived for COVID deaths.

"So it will be a waiver of Rs 1,250 per cremation. The BBMP will bear this cost," he added.

Ashoka also announced Rs 500 per body incentive for the personnel who conduct the last rites of COVID victims.

"This is in recognition of their services at a time when family members of the deceased are not ready to touch the body and not ready to take the body in some cases," he said.

Noting that the government has identified 23 acres of land at five places around Bengaluru for burial or cremation of COVID victims, Ashoka locals in all these areas are protesting against it.

Appealing to the people for cooperation during these difficult times, he said the government's intention was to ensure respectful burial or cremation for the deceased.

"Obstructing it is not right, it is not Indian tradition," he said.

Pointing out that it takes almost a day's time for a COVID victim's body to be handed over for burial or cremation, he said "scientifically, according to experts and doctors, the virus will not remain alive for more than three hours.

...Also, bodies are either burnt or buried eight feet below. So there will not be any problem for those living in nearby areas and it will not spread infection. Cooperate with humanity," he said.

"These lands identified are for all religions and communities and once the pandemic subsides, can be used for other deaths as well," he said.

Bangalore , Mar 24: Bizom, India's leading retail intelligence platform, announced free subscription of its retailer app and tele-ordering solutions for consumer businesses in India and other emerging economies. Both solutions enable retailers to send their orders directly to the brand.
In COVID-19 times of social distancing and prophylactic measures, brands are conscious about the safety of their salespersons. Also, retailers don't want travelling salespeople to enter their premises. Consequently, many retail stores are facing stockout situations of fast-moving product categories. Bizom's self-ordering solutions help brands to avoid stockouts of their products.
Bizom trends, which analyses consumption and demand for consumer brands, showed how a near-complete shutdown during the Janta Curfew followed panic buying in early March. The asymmetrical demand and a lack of salespeople for order-taking are driving the industry towards social-distancing-based store-stocking mechanisms.
Bizom provides social-distancing-based store-stocking solutions for consumer businesses. They include the Bizom Retailer App and the Bizom Tele-ordering.
The Bizom Retailer App enables self-ordering for a brand's key retail outlets and can be implemented in under two weeks. The mobile app, a B2B shopping app, is a simple installation for retailers. It lists and groups the brand's products as per its product categories. The app's interface is no different from that of leading e-commerce apps. All the user has to do is select the preferred SKUs and add them to their shopping carts.
The app also allows brands to customize the app to meet the requirements of their continually changing product categories. For instance, if an SKU runs out of stock, the brand can disable the given SKU from the app.
With the Bizom Retailer App, brands can take orders directly from retailers instead of the traditional order-taking approach, which requires high-touch from a salesperson. Some of the key features of the app are, the ability to provide product information directly through retailers including SKUs, competitor comparison and pricing.
It also enables self-ordering from the retailer to maintain the flow of products as per demand, enables scheme rollout information through a notification on the app rather than through salespeople, tracks delivery of goods to the retailer and enables incentive payments to retailers directly rather than through distributor claims.
With Bizom Tele-ordering, as the sales teams go remote, the tele-ordering solution will become useful for brands who want to get salespeople to take orders from retailers, remotely. It ensures continued service to outlets despite not being physically present in the market.
Here, salespeople can discuss product requirements with retailers and enter orders based on specific outlet types (grocery, chemist etc.), outlet class (Class A, Class B etc.) or based on their beat or as per a distributor.
The key features of the Bizom Tele-ordering solution are, its ability to help salespeople collect orders from retailers remotely and enter it for fulfilment into Bizom using a tool, the flexibility offered to salespeople for remote servicing of retailers as per outlet type, beat, distributor area etc., secondary schemes get applied automatically, variable discounts will get applied as applicable at an SKU level.
"At Bizom, we are conscious of our responsibility to help brands run faster during these COVID-19 times. Our solutions of Bizom Retailer App and Bizom Tele-ordering have been built to ensure that brands can leverage this situation of low direct touch with retailers to enable a better way of working, remotely. I am trying to help brands go live in a few days so that they, in turn, can serve consumers better during these testing times," said Lalit Bhise, CEO, Bizom.