Mumbai Is World’s Noisiest City

• Bus Locator. Finding the correct bus number and route for travel within the city just got a lot easier thanks to Mesn.org. The route finding website has been developed by the Mumbai Environmental Social Network and is available to download as software on Blackberry and Nokia phones and on Android operating systems. The project developers have recorded 1,000 bus stops using geographical positioning systems, so if a commuter wants to get from point A to point B, the site will also tell you the nearest bus stop. [Hindustan Times]

• Flood-free. The monsoon is finally here and with it the fear of flooding, but the BMC claims that the number of waterlogging spots in the city has come down to 255 from 267 because of newly constructed pumping stations. It believes that JVPD Scheme, Four Bungalows, Milan Subway, Versova, King’s Circle, Seven Bungalows, Nana Chowk, Tardeo, Mumbai Central and Mahalaxmi will not flood this year. [Hindustan Times]

• Noisy City. The Central Pollution Control Board has labeled Mumbai as the world’s noisiest city. Contributing factors include construction work and vehicular traffic. As per the Noise Pollution Regulation and Control Rules, the acceptable decibel limit for the day is 55 and 45 for the night, but most pneumatic drills used in foundation laying operate at 100db and cement mixers at 85db. [The Times of India]

• IPL First. A survey conducted by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations revealed that players would choose to play for IPL over playing for their countries. Of the players polled, 32 per cent said they would retire prematurely from international cricket to play only IPL and other T20 leagues, and 90 per cent were of the opinion that young players across the world will prefer the T20 format due to the massive IPL salaries. [The Times of India]

• Inequality. Trinidadian-Indian author VS Naipaul dismissed women authors as “unequal” in an interview with a British newspaper, Evening Standard. “I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think (it is) unequal to me,” said Naipaul. He attributed this to women’s “sentimentality, the narrow view of the world”. Naipaul went so far as to say that “inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too.” [Daily Mail]