It has been a rather uneasy transition for Bangalore from “pensioner’s paradise” or “garden city” to the information technology capital of India.

Longtime residents often complain of immigrants from other parts of the country ruining their paradise. Such complaints have been common in Mumbai, which has witnessed waves of immigration since the 1950s, but Bangalore old-timers tend to blame the city’s problems on the “IT fellows”.

It’s fair to say the city’s infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with the growing population. Traffic jams, as everywhere in the world, are incredibly annoying and travelling in Bangalore makes one wonder what exactly inspired Thomas Friedman to sing praises of this city in “The World is Flat”.

The much-maligned metro rail project is blamed for turning the city into an ugly mess. Gone are many of the broad tree-lined avenues and pretty neighbourhoods that gave the city a small town feel.

But isn’t the very existence of a metro system going to help people avoid the traffic in the future? Residents of Bangkok used to complain about the construction work on the sky rail and the elevated roads. Now, the toll roads and the sky rail are the pride and joy of Thailand’s capital.

In its zeal to become a global city, Bangalore should look eastwards. Kuala Lumpur, for example, has changed beyond recognition in the last ten years. This was a city which had a major problem with cockroaches before its makeover.

Auto drivers in Bangalore tend to overcharge and many of them have tampered meters. But there is a new air-conditioned bus service that connects many parts of the city to its centre.

There are also some good taxi operators offering air- conditioned cabs. But one would never know it by talking to the residents.

Bangalore’s problem could just be the impatience of its residents or maybe their whining nature. The city is polluted and congested but surely India’s other metros are as bad, if not worse. I for one would love to have a “quit complaining” movement in this city.

For years, everybody grumbled about how bad, ugly and outdated the airport was. And then came the new and modern airport (which some say paid more attention to the needs of retailers than passengers) — one that was spacious and visually appealing.

But this being Bangalore, the whining brigade started complaining about how far the airport is from the city.

[PHOTO: Women walk past an elevated highway under construction in Bangalore in this May 8, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Arko Datta/Files]

Despite the Force India team taking second place at the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix there is no rethinking in the sports ministry on its view that Formula One is not enough of a sport.

Sports minister M.S. Gill congratulated Vijay Mallya on his team’s win but labelled Formula One as ‘expensive entertainment’.

The sports ministry has refused approval to the promoters of Formula 1 in India, JPSK Sports, to pay 1.7 billion rupees to the Formula One Administration for the proposed Indian Grand Prix of 2011.

The ministry has reasoned that the Formula One race “does not satisfy conditions which focus on human endeavour for excelling in competition with others, keeping in view the whole sports movement from Olympic downwards.”

It wrote to the promoters that Formula One is not purely sports, it is entertainment and the venture by JPSK Sports was a commercial initiative.

The sports ministry’s argument stands on two legs. Formula One is expensive entertainment and the outcome is determined by technology hence it is not ‘pure sports’.

Is sport supposed to be boring — that’s a question which can be posed at least rhetorically?

Sports like golf and tennis aren’t exactly cheap sports I can play in my backyard, assuming I had one.

As for human endeavour in Formula One, former world champion Michael Schumacher couldn’t return to the sport because of fitness concerns. Surely there is more to Formula One than just zippy cars and technology.

Technology and better training determine the outcome in all sports. Use of polyurethane swimsuits has been debated in swimming.

Commercialisation of sports has for long been debated. Cricket is probably one of the most commercialised sports in India.

Should we go back to some pristine version of the game when it was played on the village greens?

Cricket is heavily tilted in favour of batsmen because the gentry used to bat and the commoners used to bowl when the game was evolving, according to a school text book I chanced upon once.

Can any sport be divorced from its social context? Are there any sports in the country which can be called ‘purely sports’?

Commercialisation and flow of money in sports has surely helped sportsmen get by better.

Periodicals have carried stories of old sports warhorses living the last days of their lives in penury.

Sports certainly became respectable in the middle-class society I grew up in after they linked up with money.

Otherwise sports was for the academic losers and failures, seen as the cause as well as the effect.

India’s absence in most sporting arenas didn’t help either.

My six-storey school building did not even have a playground. It was built over for the science labs.

The Olympics, mentioned by the sports ministry, have allowed professional athletes to compete in certain sports like tennis since 1988.

Is the ministry’s view justified?

There was a television ad some time back where a village leader played by Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan cutely decrees that feuding villagers would be known by their mobile numbers rather than names denoting caste or community.

It’s an idea that no longer seems far-fetched.

This week, the finance minister allocated 1200 million rupees to  the Unique Identification Authority of India, headed by former Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani.

The project provides a unique identity number, something like the U.S. social security number, to India’s billion-plus citizens.

It involves setting up a database with the identification details of citizens.

“It also uses an advanced technology like biometrics on a scale which has not been used anywhere in the world,” said Nilekani.

The biometric details will make identification foolproof.

Multi-purpose National Identity Cards have already been issued to a million citizens under a test scheme in some districts.

These will be combined with the unique identification number scheme.

Once implemented, the project is expected to help the government identify beneficiaries of various welfare schemes and help security agencies.

It will also link the database to the election commission and the income tax department.

“The Unique ID number, the number, not the card, is going to be the unifying attribute of all these cards. In other words, you may have four to five cards from different sources but all of them will have the same unique ID of yours that will act as a unifier,” Nilekani said.

However, there are misgivings about the project.

Tavleen Singh, writing for the Indian Express says the project may just add “to the massive infrastructure of our bureaucracy.”

“The BPL (below poverty line) folks that I know in Mumbai and Delhi do not have birth certificates, identity cards or any proof of nationality. Even if they did, they have no means of knowing how to access the benefits that accrue to them. Will a national identity card make their lives less difficult?”

“And, besides how will the card work in villages that do not have adequate supplies of electricity leave alone computers?” she asks.

Columnist Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar writes — “If the implementers have no interest in service delivery, can a smart card outsmart them?”

It’s an appealing idea to be able to put down a number instead of filling details in a form on one’s father, mother, locality and surname and be immediately slotted.

But having practically lived as a stateless citizen in my own country for a while (no voter id, no ration card, no permanent address, a bank account but on the office address) I am all for letting the state know that I exist, occasionally outside my office in my unofficial capacity as well.

But will everyone trust the government or the bureaucracy with all their details available at the click of a button?

Misuse of voters list to target communities during riots has been alleged. Data can leak.

Who for instance will or can have access to someone’s fingerprints on a biometric database?

In a situation where the government in general has less information about people than more, this question seems a forced one.

But with the first set of numbers to be issued by late 2010, this issue would need to be resolved.

Is Nilekani by uniting “databases in disconnected silos“, going to be our Harold Bluetooth, the eponymous Viking warrior after whose unifying efforts the  wireless technology is named, or a Big Brother?

A politician asks people to vote via SMS whether they want malls in villages. ‘No way’ — comes their response. 

“What an idea, Sirji,” says a beaming Abhishek Bachchan, appearing as the politician’s tech-savvy secretary in the popular TV campaign for mobile operator Idea Cellular.

‘What an idea’ indeed if people across India can vote for candidates via SMS in the April/May general election.

India is the fastest growing telecom market in the world — why can’t one vote via SMS? 

If I can transfer money or check my bank balance using my mobile phone, is voting-via-SMS impossible?

“Any mechanism used for electoral voting should ensure equal access for all,” says analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta.

“Voting is the one moment when we are all equal in democracy,” he adds.

Well yes, but in a country where over 700 million people are eligible to vote and more than half that number have access to mobile phones (375 million according to TRAI data), wouldn’t a voting-on-the-go option also help counter voter apathy.

Rajat Mukarji, head of Corporate Affairs at Idea Cellular, agrees.

Voting via SMS “on a principal level is within the realm of possibility as long as unique voter identities can be established,” says Mukarji.

If a proper screening process is put in place, the SMS vote can be a valid tool for democracy in India. After all, millions of Indians do use SMSes to decide the fate of reality show contestants on various TV channels.

As for voter apathy, appeals by Bollywood stars like Aamir Khan and that incessant ‘Jaago Re’ ad exhorting people to exercise their franchise have worked. At least for me.

I have got myself registered to vote, taking time to analyse which candidate will be the recipient of my precious ballot. 

Technology is certainly aiding me. Blogs and YouTube videos from candidates keep me informed about their campaign strategies and Google’s India election center keeps me in the loop about my constituency. 

Now all I have to do is cast my vote. Why can’t I vote via SMS? Am I asking for too much?

Well, if you use your mobile phone just to make calls, send text messages or click photographs — the iPhone 3G is not for you.But in case you are a tech freak who loves tinkering with gadgets, this Apple smartphone might be your dream come true.

Downloadable GPS, games, AIM, Facebook on the go and of course 24-hour access to the iTunes store are just some of its pluses, but at 30,000 rupees (give or take a few hundred) for the 8GB model, the iPhone certainly doesn’t come cheap.

Slight problem though. Added applications are great on a phone that provides basic features like message and business card forwarding and video recording.

Unfortunately, these very basic features are not available on Steve Jobs’ latest offering as default.

Chayan Hazra, 30, is one iPhone owner who says he is willing to switch brands if something better comes up.

“If Nokia comes up with a phone that allows you to download applications and has a touch screen I will switch to it in a heartbeat because I know it will have all the basic features that I have become accustomed to in addition to these cool new apps,” he said.

Hazra fits right into mobile service provider Airtel’s category of “Achievers - young working, corporate professionals,” a target segment for the iPhone.

An Airtel spokesperson said they are also focussing on the “Funster segment” — tech-savvy individuals between the ages 18-35.

But for 20-something Soheil Engineer, his newly-acquired iPhone 3G doesn’t really live up to its name since 3G technology is yet to make an entry in India.

“I want to be able to live stream my favourite television shows on my phone while I am on the move,” he said.

That left me wondering. Just how many people are interested in the iPhone?

Both Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel, the two iPhone 3G retailers in India, are not revealing how many of the much-hyped smartphones have been sold in India since its launch last month.

A grey market dealer in Mumbai said he has sold 25-30 iPhones in two weeks and uses one himself.

I am sure that’s not good news for Apple… Unless they reduce the price by at least 10,000 rupees and India heralds in 3G technology, I certainly won’t buy one. Would you?