The Shepherd International Academy project takes off in Manglauru suburbs

Bengaluru, Jul 7: There seems no impact of Covid-19 on kharif crop sowing in Karnataka with the current year actually being ahead of previous years, according to an official here on Monday.

"In agriculture, as far as sowing is concerned, there is no impact of COVID-19," Agriculture Commissioner Brijesh Kumar Dikshit told IANS. One of the reasons, according to Dikshit, is that people in rural areas are aware, but not scared of the pandemic.

"In rural India, coronavirus is there. People are aware, not scared. They are taking precautions, but don't have any phobia," he said.

Another reason was that by June the number of infections in Karnataka was not as high as other states, when a lot of sowing was done, he said.

By the end of June, Karnataka saw 15,242 Covid-19 cases. Of that, 7,074 were active.

The sowing is ahead of previous year as it's mostly dependent on weather. "It's ahead of previous years. Agriculture is directed by weather and rains had been slightly earlier this year," he said.

According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, at 185 mm the state received 14 mm less rain in June against the normal 199 mm. "It's like a normal year, or slightly a good year," he said.

Some crops will be sown in the last fortnight of July and few more will extend up to August 15. "The last two weeks will be critical and on July 31 we should be able to tell whether we are short or ahead," he said.

According to preliminary indications, the Commissioner said the area under agriculture is increasing this year, which could also be because that labourers might have come back.

Mangaluru: As many as 22 students of Shakti PU College wrote second PUC exams and from that 8 students passed 
with distinction, 14 students passed with first class, and achieved 100% results in 
science and commerce streams.

Students from science & commerce dept. PRIYA VIONA DSILVA, SANKALPA 
GIRISH, SHARATH KUMAR, KATHIJA RAHIFA, K.T. THARUN AYYAPPA, 
RAHIL UMAR FARUK, TUSHAR S, KDEEJA SHAHAMA, passed with distinction.

Akshaya Acharya, B Anil Kumar, S Writhwik K.T., K.S. Varun, Madhuraj PC, Nazila 
Fathima, Pratheek S, Rajath R Gujaran, Uruthik, Riza Basheer, Saania Eraam, Shreya 
Somanna, P.B. Sayyed Mohammed Moosa, Viba S, passed with first class,

College Director Dr. K.C. Naik, Secretary Sanjith Naik, Advisory chairman Ramesh K, 
College development Officer Prakiyath Rai, College Principal Prabhakar J.S. and 
Shakthi Residential College principal Vidya G Kamath, praised all the students for their 
performance and also to their teaching staff, who put their efforts and hard works to 
bring their students to this level.

Bengaluru, Feb 14: Bengaluru Police on Friday said that it has busted a gang engaged in e-commerce fraud over the online marketplace who were involved in 200 of the 316 cheating cases registered last year.

"We registered 316 cases for cheating through online marketplaces last year. We have busted a gang operating from Rajasthan's Bharatpur and arrested 5 people. They are responsible for 200 out of 316 cases. We are questioning the accused," Bhaskar Rao, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru told reporters here.

Explaining their modus operandi, the Police Commissioner said, "There were fictitious buyers and sellers on the online marketplace. These people used to call up prospective buyers and sellers. The products that were shown were two-wheelers, four-wheelers, electronic items and furniture."

"People used to send their money to these fraudsters using their QR code. The fraudsters were operating from Bharatpur in Rajasthan. A police team of 15 was sent to the place from where they were operating. Rajasthan police gave us full cooperation and we were able to arrest five persons," he added.

Rao said that these fraudsters had an idea about the loopholes in the e-commerce sector and exploited them.
"Some of those arrested were employed in the e-commerce and banking business and they had an idea about the loopholes in this sector," he said.

"We warn the citizens to ensure that they verify the antecedents of the buyers and sellers in this sector before spending money on these platforms," he added.