Articles by Ashwin Mahesh

Over the years, I have had one debate repeatedly - is 'solving public problems' worth anything politically? I think so, and pretty much all of what I think is political in my life revolves around this thinking. I like the idea of solving problems, I believe it excites those who try, and is a real contribution to tackling the problems the country faces. That's why, day in and day out, I talk about problems and their solutions - especially in cities. The argument I have heard the most against this, is that this is not political enough. Winning elections takes…

In recent years there has been a lot of talk about how Bangalore will run out of water soon. I find that strange, in a city where we get as much rain as piped water supply, and in a region with an abundance of water bodies. We could easily create one more Cauvery - and that would be enough to sustain the next 10 million people added to the metropolitan area, not just in Bangalore, but in surrounding towns and cities too - if we simply did all the right things. 1. Watershed improvement and local supply from the region’s…

Republic Day is a good time to think about citizenship, and the responsibilities it carries. The basic premise of a democracy is that the people imagine it, create it, shape it and sustain it. There are no 'others'. But in fact, what we find is that most people go about their lives without any of this. There are many reasons for this, but one important reason is misconception about what is needed. A lot of people think doing things for the public good is a 'major' commitment, and that they cannot achieve much by giving a few hours a week.…

It's too early to say that Swachh Bharat is failing. But it's getting late to say what it will take to make it work, and so far there is no sign of those things. 1. Get rid of the broom, and replace it with a pair of buckets—one for wet waste and the other for dry waste. Segregation at source is key to any garbage management plan. The PM's symbolic efforts with the broom did help signal an important focus that India needs, but getting the imagery right going forward will help even more. 2. Pass the Dumping Saaku law.…

I was surprised to see news reports that the Women's Right Commission (WRC) chief has written to the DGP and the Home Minister asking the State to discourage the Kiss of Love protest, because she felt it was uncivilised. In some ways, it shows how little she understands what her own job is. The WRC is intended to be a progressive body. If all that is required in a commission like this is that it should merely reflect whatever is going on in society, we would not need it at all. Child rights, women's rights, gender rights, dalit rights, minority…

A rising spate of regulations in the education sector is slowly choking the supply. And Education departments around the country are catching up to Revenue and Transport departments in their levels of corruption. The irony is that the Education department officials turn a blind eye to the government schools, which often don't meet even the most basic regulatory standards. Unfortunately, parents whose kids are in private schools are not sufficiently worried about this. They believe that schools should be forced to keep fees as low as possible, while delivering quality education. They also believe that their children's schools will pay…

A surge of promotions by e-retailers brought out the brick and mortal merchants in full force. They are demanding that the government should do something to make sure that the deep discounts from e-commerce companies are not life-threatening to the old retailers. There is a concern that some of the discounts from deep-pocketed web sites are 'below cost' sales, which are anti-competitive. (a) Direct intervention by government would be wrong. There is a Competition Commission of India, which is the appropriate body to look into unfair trade practices, and it should be left to the CCI to deal with this…

In most democracies around the world, citizens have forgotten that there was once a time when their governments did not exist. At such times, other citizens - much like themselves - banded together to create governments in their own imagination. They debated what their countries should look like, framed Constitutions and laws, and put together various kinds of Republics in which we live now. 'Creating' government is taught in our history books like a one-time event, but in fact it is something that needs constant renewal. Of course it is not sensible to re-imagine everything every year, and some things…

18 corporators of BBMP became members of the first Metropolitan Planning Committee of the Bangalore region. This is an important and hard-won step forward in getting a proper planning body for the city. There are many drawbacks in the way the MPC has been constituted, but at least we have an institution that is supposed to do the planning now. Making it work effectively is another ballgame altogether, and we must work with the State government to properly devolve powers to this body and give it some real teeth to fix the city. Around the country, only a few MPCs…

I was at T John College on Saturday, speaking to students of media and journalism from different institutions, who were attending a seminar at the college. A lot of the young men and women in these colleges are quite hopeful of making an impact through their work, and helping to build a better society and country through their roles as watchdogs and reporters. But they are also running into a delusion. By their own admission, media is not a well-liked profession. The public has a dim view of what the media does, and thinks that a lot of it is…