Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: Rapido to launch pink bike taxis in Karnataka in 2025, and more

Ride hailing service Rapido co-founder Pavan Guntupalli has announced that the company will launch pink taxis in Karnataka. The pink bike service, by women and for women, will help create 25,000 jobs within this year for women, he said at Global Investors Meet Karnataka 2025. 

Noting that 35% of the jobs created by the company are in smaller towns, Mr Guntupalli said the team is constantly looking for ways to increase the number of women entrepreneurs and jobs for women. 

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has set a target to administer vaccines to 1.84 lakh stray dogs across the city for multiple diseases under the Combined Vaccine programme. The BBMP claims that a civic body administering combined vaccines to strays is a first in the country. 

The initiative aims to curb the spread of deadly infectious diseases among stray dogs and prevent zoonotic diseases that could affect humans. Among the various fatal diseases affecting stray dogs, five are particularly dangerous. The Combined Vaccine is essential to shield stray dogs from these diseases and to prevent their transmission to humans, officials said.

The Karnataka Cabinet will take an appropriate decision on continuation or closure of nine new Universities including Mandya and Chamarajanagar established during the BJP tenure, said Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said. “The previous government had established new universities without providing appropriate land and necessary grants as per the rules in the State,” he said.

In particular, students of Mandya and Chamarajanagar district have expressed their opinion to continue higher education with Mysore University only. Therefore, enrollment in Mandya and Chamarajanagar universities has fallen and these universities had submitted an internal report to the government in this regard.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has alleged that Dakshina Kannada district administration and the police department have turned the district, particularly rivers in the coastal regulation zone (CRZ), into safe havens for illegal sand extraction with thousands of sand loads being extracted and transported overnight.