Belgaum (Karnataka), Nov 20 : Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister B. Shankaranand died at a private hospital here this morning.

He was 84. Shankaranand had been suffering from heart disease for quite some time. According to hospital sources, he had been put on ventilator support after developing breathing complications three days ago.

Shankranand, a Gandhi family loyalist represented the Chikkodi (Reserve) constituency in the Lok Sabha for eight times in a row from 1967 to 1991.

He had also served in the cabinets of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao and had handled the ministries of petroleum and health.

Bangalore, Nov 20 - The Karnataka government has to walk a tightrope so that the state gets over its Bangalore-centric development without hurting the nation's IT capital. It hopes to do this through the new Karnataka Urban Renewal Mission, on the lines of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The task is not easy, though.

The state has to find a whopping Rs. 100,000 crore (Rs. 1,000 billion /$21.5 billion) to improve living conditions of nearly 18 million residents of 237 towns. The state's total population is estimated at around 57 million.

Bangalore, Nov 18 : A church in north Karnataka has been vandalized and a cross, doors and windows have been damaged, police and church authorities said Wednesday.

Vasanthkumar, the priest at the church in Humnabad in Bidar district, about 700 km from here, told reporters that the attack must have taken place late Tuesday and the damage was noticed Wednesday.

"It looks like a deliberate act of desecration as nothing has been stolen," Vasanthkumar said.

He said the cross on top the church, the main door and windows have been damaged.

Bangalore, Nov 18 : Rival factions in Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were Wednesday told by the party central leaders to stop airing their differences in the media, with the state party chief warning that indiscipline would not be tolerated in future.

Bangalore, Nov 18 : As the world celebrates International Men's Day Thursday, a Bangalore-based group wants an end to stereotyping male gender, and says men too get hurt, both emotionally and physically. The group is demanding justice for various social abuses against men.

Bangalore, Nov 17 : Karnataka Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy Tuesday welcomed the decision of the Andhra Pradesh government to seek a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into his mining empire's alleged irregularities.

"I welcome it. My company has been following all rules and regulations and it is like a white paper," Janardhana Reddy, who recently led a revolt against Bharatiya Janata Party's first Chief Minister in Karnataka B. S. Yeddyurappa, told reporters here.

Bangalore, Nov 17 : They all have a common story to narrate - stigma and discrimination by the society because of their profession and the disease with which they are infected.

Tales of suffering and discrimination were narrated by Bangalore's sex workers when they came together Tuesday at a programme at Town Hall here.

Bangalore, Nov 17 : Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa Tuesday inducted Jagadish Shettar, who has resigned as the assembly speaker, into his ministry as part of the deal to buy peace with dissidents seeking his removal.

The 54-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party leader from north Karnataka was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor H. R. Bhardwaj at his official residence Raj Bhavan here.

Bangalore, Nov 16 - Karnataka Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar, a prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in the state, is set to return to active politics at a time when the party's first government in southern India is battling dissidence.

The 44-year-old Shettar, whose family has been associated with BJP's predecessor Jana Sangh, will join Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa's cabinet Tuesday or Wednesday after resigning as speaker Monday.

The amiable leader from north Karnataka district of Dharwad, 420 km from here, became an unlikely hero of the dissidents led by mining magnates and minister-brothers G. Janardhana Reddy and G. Karunakara Reddy.

Bangalore, Nov 15 - It's free for all in Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the state government even though it just about survived a dissident assault to unseat Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa.

One of the first actions of dissident leader and Tourism and Infrastructure Minister G. Janardhana Reddy, after BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj announced an end to the Karnataka crisis Nov 8, was to revive a controversial proposal for a high speed rail link (HSRL) from Bangalore city centre to the international airport, 35 km away.

Belgaum (Karnataka), Nov. 14 : Cash-strapped carrier Air India will be receiving its first tranche of equity of eight billion rupees by December, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Saturday.

“We are looking at equity infusion of 8 billions to Air India in the next two months. That would be initial tranche and as we have said we would be monitoring the monthly progress before we move into the next tranche of giving equity support,” Patel said.

Belgaum (Karnataka), Nov 14 : Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Saturday said flights will resume operations from the Sambra airport here in three months.

At present, no airline is operating from the airport, some 500 km from the Bengaluru greenfield airport, because of low load factor.

"I got complaints that the flights used to operate from here have all stopped services. But within three months, we will see Belgaum is again connected to air services," the minister said at the launch of an aerospace precision engineering special economic zone.

Belgaum (Karnataka), Nov 14 - The government will infuse Rs. 800 crore of equity into the cash-strapped national carrier Air India in two months, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here Saturday.

"We are looking at equity infusion into Air India in two months," he told reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the country's first aerospace precision engineering special economic zone here.

"We will be monitoring the monthly progress (of Air India) as we move to the next tranche of equity support."

Bangalore, Nov 13 : Chairman of the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), Nanndan Nilekani, on Friday made it clear that there is no chance for getting the number of his/her choice in UID, the Computer would throw up a random 16-digit number and there is no way you can change it.

Delivering the "Vision 2020 - Leadership Series" lecture in the BangaloreIT. Biz 2009 conference here, Nilekani said: "No special number. Take the number you get, number will be numeric; it will be 16-digit number.”

Bangalore, Nov 13 : The Karnataka High Court Friday allowed a woman to go with her Muslim husband as the state police sought more time to complete their probe into reports of non-Muslim women being lured by Muslim youth with the intention to convert them to Islam.

"There is no 'love jihad' and I had gone with my boyfriend on my own," Siljaraj told reporters as she left the court premises with her lover whom she married. Earlier on Oct 21, the court had sent Siljaraj to her parents' custody for three weeks.

Bangalore, Nov 13 : PD Jose, chairperson, placement cell of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has said that the institute has placed its 349 students in a record time of five days.

Despite the economic slowdown, a significant number of companies came in large numbers for the placements, he said.

Karkala (Karnataka) Nov 13 : Karnataka Police on Friday launched a massive anti Naxal operation in the four districts of the Malnad region.

The operation led by Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Gopal Hosur involved more than 2,000 personnel of the Anti- Naxal Force (ANF), District Armed Reserve, and State Reserve Police Force.

Security forces have cordoned off over 30,000 square kilometers of dense forest, to conduct the day night operation. This is a first of a kind anti Naxal operation in the state.

Bangalore, Nov 12 : In a clear sign that the impact of the slowdown is behind, multinationals flocked to Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) to offer placements to the entire batch of 348 first year students of the two-year post-graduate programme in management.

"For the first time, niche consulting firms such as Wolff Olins and Global E-Procure came calling to recruit our students for internships in 2010 summer," IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra told IANS Thursday.

Bangalore, Nov 12 : Infosys Technologies will acquire the US-based insurance business process solutions provider McCamish Systems for $38 million (Rs. 1.77 billion/Rs. 177 crore) in an all-cash deal, the IT bellwether said Thursday.

In a regulatory filing, the global software major said it would pay an additional $20 million (Rs. 930 million/Rs. 93 crore) to the back office firm if it achieved certain financial targets in the future.

Bangalore, Nov 11 : Global meltdown and the flash floods in north Karnataka have forced the organisers of BangaloreIT. Biz 2009, a premier IT event, to shift the venue to a hotel from the sprawling Bangalore Palace grounds and shorten it by two days.

"As a sympathetic gesture to the flood-hit people in the state, we have decided to keep the BangaloreIT. Biz 2009 low-profile," said Karnataka IT and biotechnology minister K. Subramanya Naidu Wednesday at the event's inaugural function.