Techie turned agriculturist Yathish Shetty’s online-portal for farmers

Chetana Nayak K
February 9, 2019

Considering the benefits brought by online platform to retailers, this techie-turned farmer’s portal not only brings organic produce directly to the consumers, but also claims to increase farmers profitability by doing away with 'middle-men'.

Having been employed in IT firms for close to a decade, Yathish Shetty Bondala says that he yearned to get back to farming. "I come from a agrarian background, so farming has always been my passion. Having learnt of the benefits of organic farming from my father, I was always keen on promotion of such crops,” Yathish said.

Followed by the demise of his father Padmanabha Shetty, Yathish in 2015 decided to quit from his job at Hewlett Packard (HP) and returned back to his native to continue farming only for self-satisfaction, he says. “We are able to raise high-quality yields of Pineapple, Tapioca, Drumsticks, Cucumber, Basella alba (Basale Soppu). We even took-up Beekeeping and were able to harvest honey aswell. All this by using only organic methods of cultivation and manure” he says.

However, during the course of interaction with other farmers in the locality, Yathish realised that unlike his venture, the other farmers were not able to get good returns for similar kind of produce. Having resided in big cities like Bengaluru himself, Yathish says he knew of urbanites preference to organic crops over their chemical based counterpart, so it was a bit puzzling. Soon, Yathish realised that gullible farmers were victims of middle-men or brokers, who used to misguide the producers with price, weighing, and demand pattern of the consumers. “There was absolute lack of transparency in the marketing process, the expectation of the middle-men from the farmers crops were very high, but they paid in a unfair manner and always walked away with Lion’s share of the income,” Yathish says.

In consultation with his Techie wife Shridevi D N and cousin Rajath Shetty, the trio initially launched a Whatsapp in 2016, ‘Tulu Nadu Organic Producers’ and aggregate the list of farmers and sellers (No Middlemen/Brokers). But in a matter of a year, the membership of the total participants drastically increased, Yathish and his team soon realised that they had to accommodate direct transaction and they had to evolve to a website to channelize the trade in a systematic manner. Subsequently on May 2018, they soon started the a portal https://www.localfarmers.in/ for collective marketing.

“We have kept a simple interface, where information of agricultural products are displayed, some of them in Kannada aswell. Here the farmer have the option of fixing the price, including the transportation expense and all the other relevant details. The buyers of both individuals or wholesale can choose and order online” the 33-year old says.

The selected product can be paid via Unified Payment Interface (UPI) interface and at present is available for delivery at South Bengaluru, Dakshina Kannada  and Udupi district. “We will map other areas for supply soon,” Yathish says. .

The site also has displayed few home-made products like Halwa, Paneer, spices (without preservatives) and farm products like Ghee, Honey, Fruits, compost are available. Alternatively, the names of the retailers and their local establishments are also displayed, the customers can directly purchase from the store. “The customers are not charged for displaying the product, but if the products is sold through the site, a processing fee of 2.5%-5% is charged. But if their transaction is offline, they have no commitment to us,” Yathish says.

Further the agro-based food aggregation site is awaiting approval of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) soon for displaying other variants of home-made products.

For now close 50 locals farmers, including from Dakshina Kannada, Kasargod, Udupi district have listed their produce and its ‘organic-stalls’ have already been featured at IT campuses such as Infosys, local parks and trade-fairs, that has generated a lot of enthusiasm.

In its pipeline, the self-funded venture plans to provide certification and training for farmers in computers, digital marketing tools and keep them abreast with the best practices of organic farming.

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News Network
March 26,2024

Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has detained two suspects in connection with the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case in Bengaluru, sources confirmed on Tuesday.

The preliminary probe has revealed that the two suspects were in direct contact with the suspected bomber.

The NIA sleuths have picked up the suspects from an area in the state capital. However, a statement is yet to be made by the NIA in this regard.

Even as the investigating agencies, both NIA and state special wing CCB teams have launched an extensive search operation in various states, the bomber has remained elusive. The authorities had obtained the bomber’s images and videos from CCTV footage on March 1, soon after the incident.

Sources said that the sleuths were suspecting that the bomber had come from Tamil Nadu and was staying in a neighbouring state for two months before carrying out the blast.

The hair samples of the accused were gathered from the hat of the accused which he abandoned in Bengaluru near a religious place. The authorities have sent the samples for the DNA testing and were hoping for a breakthrough.

The Rameshwaram Cafe bomb blast took place on March 1 on the International Technology Park Limited (ITPL) road in the Brookfield area. Low intensity Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was used to carry out the blast and nine persons were injured in the incident.

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News Network
March 25,2024

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Bengaluru, Mar 25: Former Karnataka Minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy on Monday rejoined the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The Gangavati MLA, who is an accused in an illegal mining case, had formed the 'Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha' (KRPP) ahead of the state assembly polls last year, snapping his two-decade-old association with the BJP.

Reddy today merged his KRPP with the BJP as he, along with wife Aruna Lakshmi and some family members, joined the party in the presence of its veteran leader and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, state President B Y Vijayendra, and others.

Reddy had recently met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.

However, in the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls he had extended support to the Congress candidate.

Calling it a "home coming", Reddy explained that the move to merge KRPP with the BJP is to "make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister a third time".

"Amit Shah had invited me to Delhi and told me that -- there is no question of extending outside support (KRPP supporting BJP in LS polls) and instead I should join the BJP and work for it, as I took my political birth in the party. Accepting it, I'm joining the party," he said.

Praising Yediyurappa and the leader's contribution in his political growth, Reddy said he is happy that he will be working in the party now with the veteran leader's son Vijayendra.

"I will work as a common party worker along with other leaders under the leadership of Vijayendra. I have not come with any conditions or expectations. Whatever responsibility the party gives me, I will honestly work.

"BJP was always there in my blood, but due to some reasons I had gone out, but today I feel I have come back to my mother's lap. Looking at my brothers here, I don't feel like I'm coming back to the BJP office after 13 years," he added.

Welcoming Reddy back into the party, Vijayendra said his joining will strengthen BJP in the Kalyana Karnataka region.

"Liking Narendra Modi's leadership and accepting BJP's ideology, Reddy has rejoined the party. Reddy has said that Karnataka should have a larger contribution in making Modi PM once again -- to ensure that BJP and JD(S) alliance win all the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, he is merging his KRPP with BJP and is joining the party," he said.

Before the assembly polls last year, Reddy had been largely politically inactive for nearly 12 years since his arrest by the CBI for an alleged role in a mining scam. During this period, he had a brief stint ahead of the 2018 assembly polls when he campaigned for his close friend and former Minister B Sriramulu in Molakalmuru Assembly segment.

In the run up to the 2018 assembly polls, the then BJP national president Amit Shah, in response to a reporter's question, had distanced the party from him and stressed that "the BJP has nothing to do with Janardhana Reddy." Accused in a multi-crore illegal mining case, he has been out on bail since 2015. Several conditions were imposed by the top court in its order which includes prohibiting him from visiting Ballari in Karnataka and Ananthpur and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

Because of these restrictions, he had to contest the 2023 Assembly polls from Gangavati in Koppal district.

Expressing his displeasure about the way BJP had ignored him, Reddy had announced a new party last year and also took a dig at his brothers -- Karunakara Reddy and Somashekar Reddy -- and Sriramulu, as they remained with the BJP.

The three of them had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls, with Reddy's new party said to have impacted their performance in the election.

Sriramulu, a ST community leader and former Minister is now the BJP's candidate from the Bellary (Ballari) Lok Sabha constituency.

Reddy had played an instrumental role in strengthening the BJP in the Ballari district and is still believed to enjoy a considerable clout there as well as in adjoining districts like Chitradurga, Koppal and Raichur, which could be useful for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

Reddy and his brother-in-law B V Srinivas Reddy, managing director of Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC), were arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011.

The company is accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Ballari Reserve Forest area, spread over Ballari in Karnataka and the Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh.

Reddy first came to political limelight during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, when he campaigned for BJP leader, the late Sushma Swaraj, who had contested against Congress' Sonia Gandhi from Ballari.

Former Congress Minister T John's son Thomas John also joined the BJP today.

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News Network
March 26,2024

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Mangaluru: Officials from Cyber Economic and Narcotics Crime Police Station in Mangaluru have arrested a man for allegedly engaging in an online fraud by deceiving a person on the pretext of offering a part-time job. The arrested is Saddam Gauri alias Bavuri, 30, from Rajasthan.

City police commissioner Anupam Agrawal said the CEN police received a complaint regarding an online scam related to a part-time job offer.

Police registered a case under sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the IT Act, along with IPC Section 420. The complainant had received a link via WhatsApp from an unknown number, purportedly offering a part-time job opportunity.

Upon clicking the link, the complainant was instructed to complete certain tasks to earn money. However, during the process, the complainant incurred a loss of Rs 1.1 lakh.

Following an investigation into the matter, the CEN police successfully arrested the suspect and presented him before the court. In the course of arrest, police seized two mobile phones, eight debit cards, four bank cheque books, Aadhaar card, PAN card, and other relevant documents from the accused.

The arrest was made possible through the efforts of CEN station inspector Shyam Sundar and his team, under the guidance of City Crime Records Bureau (CCRB) ACP Ravish Nayak and DCP Siddharth Goyal.

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