COVER STORY | Citizen Matters

When red means stop (the junk food)!

September 3, 2019 Disha Manjhi

The new guidelines issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India places a mandate on packaged food companies to label high fat, high sugar and high salt content on the front of the package, using a traffic light signalling system.

Mitigating the curse of the car in Indian cities

September 2, 2019 Dattatraya T Devare

On one hand, there is a thirst for bigger and more expensive cars. On the other, there is the state’s inability to provide strong enough disincentives and efficient alternatives. Together these are destroying our cities and our communities slowly but steadily. What is the way out?

Anecdotes and nostalgia are all that remain around single screen theatres in Kolkata

August 31, 2019 Shoma A Chatterji

As old movie halls in the city pull down their shutters, one after the other, those close to the world of cinema are left ruing that iconic institutions and an entire culture of movie-watching will be lost to the future generations.

Amaravati capital city project: A sad tale of politics, finance and environmental neglect

August 30, 2019 Mayank Aggarwal

After World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank withdrew from the project, all construction in Amaravati has come to a halt. The new YSR Congress government has also announced its intention to probe into complaints of mismanagement in the project.

Catch 22 in Shimla: To save urban forests or stay safe?

August 30, 2019 Ashwani Sharma

Every year, heavy monsoon rains cause the uprooting or instability of many large trees, posing a risk to life and property. Then again, the same pretext is used for rampant illegal tree felling in the town, that has led to loss of 50-55% of its green cover over the last 30 years.

Can individual water metering help Indian cities avoid Doomsday?

August 29, 2019 Apekshita Varshney

Is there any scarce resource that we can enjoy for free or for a fixed sum, irrespective of the amounts we consume or use? If that’s not true for anything, why should it be so for water? As Indian cities stand perilously close to running dry, a look at whether water metering can help the cause of conservation

How a fire in Surat has shaken up the ‘coaching’ industry in Bhopal

August 28, 2019 Shuriah Niazi

Following a fire in a Surat coaching centre that claimed 24 lives, the Bhopal administration ordered an inspection of fire safety compliance at all coaching centres. Findings were alarming and notices have been issued to 200 coaching institutes and hostels.

The gaps in public transport that are pushing people towards private vehicles

August 27, 2019 Dattatraya T Devare

Citizens look for mainly three factors when it comes to public transportation: efficiency, accessibility, and affordability. Sadly, Indian cities have been ignoring all three, leading to an explosion of private vehicles on our streets and all the associated problems.

Adoption jokes are not ok, and here’s why

August 27, 2019 Mahesh V

Urban online gifting options are plenty today. But when a range of products meant for siblings deliberately calls one out as the ‘adopted’ one and makes adoption the stuff of jokes, should we just play along and accept it as ‘normal’ humour?

Guwahati’s garbage mess gets worse in the rains, calls for collective action

August 24, 2019 Hriday Ch Sarma

Monsoon has turned the streets of Guwahati into a serious health hazard for citizens, and this is why. Most importantly, the solution now lies as much in the hands of citizens as with city administrators.

Yeh dil maange more: Kolkata, New Town love their e-buses, but more needed for impact

August 22, 2019 Gurvinder Singh

40 electric buses planned for 11 routes in Kolkata were pressed into service earlier this year, while the satellite town of New Town has been successfully running 3 e-buses for more than one year. How have they been faring and what’s in the offing?

Flamingos in the city: Sabarmati project brings winged visitors to Ahmedabad

August 22, 2019 Binita Parikh

Huge flocks of flamingos as well as other species of birds are being spotted on the banks of Sabarmati, bang in the middle of the city, for the first time this season. Riverfront development officials say that cleaning and bioremediation of the river have made this possible.