Puttur girl Anusha N bags 'IRIS -2018 Grand Award’; to participate in USA science fair

Bengaluru, May 15 Reformed underworld don N Muthappa Rai died battling cancer at a private hospital here on Friday, hospital sources said.

Rai, 68, was suffering from brain cancer for the past one year and was admitted at Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road, where he died at 2.30 am, the sources said. Rai is survived by two sons.

Born into a Tulu-speaking Bunt family in Dakshina Kannada''s Puttur town, Rai entered the crime world at a very young age.

Karnataka police issued arrest warrants against Rai in eight cases, including murder and conspiracy.

In 2002, Rai was deported to India from the United Arab Emirates. On arrival, he was questioned by various investigation agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), and by the Karnataka police. He was later acquitted due to the lack of evidences.

In his reformed years, Rai founded charitable organisation ''Jaya Karnataka''.

Rai has appeared in Tulu film ''Kanchilda Baale'' in 2011 and Kannada film ''Katari Veera Surasundarangi'' in 2012.

Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma wanted to make a movie based on Rai''s life. The film roped in actor Vivek Oberoi for the lead role and was shot in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Mumbai, Dubai and London. However, it has not been released due to production delays.

Rai was enthusiastic about the film and even celebrated his birthday with Varma and Oberoi.

After his cancer diagnosis, Rai withdrew from public life and resigned from Jaya Karnataka.

His last rites are likely to be performed at Bidadi on Friday, family sources said.

Bengaluru, Jan 24: Middle East based prestigious LuLu Group has come forward to invest $300 million in Karnataka in the retail, logistics and hospitality sectors.

As part of this, the first LuLu mall will commence operations in Bengaluru’s Rajajinagar area by August.

LuLu’s first mall in India, in Cochin, is seen as a huge success. It’s not clear how that mall is doing financially, but it became so popular that it had an adverse effect on almost every other mall in the city.

Lulu’s investment plan for Karnataka was communicated during a discussion between chief minister BS Yediyurappa and Yusuff Ali MA, chairman and managing director of Lulu Group, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The company will also set up two five-star hotels in Bengaluru through Twenty14 Holdings, its hospitality arm, and a modern logistics centre in the Uttara Kannada region.

Lulu Group’s retail initiative Tablez brought Toys `R’ Us, one of the world’s largest toy store chains, to Bengaluru in 2017. Started in the Phoenix Mall in Whitefield, it competes with Reliance-owned Hamleys.

Tablez has also brought in other international brands such as American ice cream parlour chain Cold Stone Creamery, South Africa based flame-grilled chicken concept Galito’s, and Tablez’ own brand Bloomsbury’s, a boutique cafe and bakery. It has also launched Spanish fashion brands Springfield and Women ’secret.

Bengaluru, Jun 20: Amid calls for boycott of Chinese products in the backdrop of Indo-China border face-off, former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy sought to know from the BJP government in Karnataka the status of the "Compete with China" policy brought during the previous JDS-Congress rule.

Boycotting Chinese products was not easy like sloganeering but required a creative policy and the coalition government's initiative was a model for it, he said in a series of tweets.

"After the border skirmish, some people got the realisation to boycott the Chinese products but during my tenure (as chief minister) a serious thought was given to it," the JDS leader said.

He was apparently referring to growing clamour for boycott of China-made products after a violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh left 20 Indian Army personnel dead early this week.

Mr Kumaraswamy said he had brought the Compete With China policy to effectively deal with the neighbouring country.

"My government's objective was to offer jobs to the local residents, snatch away market opportunities for China and discard the Chinese products."

"However, what has the present government done to our scheme? It is not known whether it is still continuing or not," Mr Kumaraswamy said.

The Kumarswamy government had identified clusters and earmarked Rs 2,000 crore for their development.