Articles by News Desk

  The Bangalore Chapter of AID is organising a photography contest, based on the theme 'Soul, Space, Society'.  The competition is meant to give photographers the opportunity to take pictures of the Bangalore that they love with, fight with and are in love with. If their picture captures the essence of Bangalore in a unique way, then AID Bangalore will to showcase it.  Photographers are invited to submit their entries on AID's Facebook page. The last date to submit photographs is 1st March 2014.  The best photographs will be selected by AID Bangalore's judges panel and will be put on display at Thalam…

The High Court on Wednesday, February 19th, 2014, disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (WP 3676/2008) filed by Citizen Action Forum (CAF) and a few other civic groups in Bengaluru, that challenged the Draft Revised Master Plan (RMP) - 2015, prepared by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), that allowed commercial use of residential areas, through a land use category called "mixed residential." A division bench comprising Chief Justice DH Waghela and Justice BV Nagarathna issued a direction to the State government to amend the land use change rules of the BDA's Revised Master Plan to allow only the ancillary use…

Bangalore Political Action Committeee (BPAC) conducted a Google Hangout panel discussion on the budget, on February 14th, 2013. The panelists included BPAC President Kiran M Shaw, Vice-president TV Mohandas Pai, social entrepreneur Ashwin Mahesh and urbanist V Ravichandar. The debate was moderated by Revathy Ashok of BPAC. Mohandas Pai said though in terms of growth the average of the state is better than the national average, he wants to see a large vision in the budget to develop the entire region and industries in terms of infrastructure. He said he wasn't happy with the 7.2 % growth in service economy,…

Plan outlay - State Budget 2014-15. Chart courtesy: Budget document Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's pro-agricultural, pro-poor Budget seems to concentrate more on the rest of Karnataka, but it hasn't neglected Bangalore totally. The allocation to the city seems to focus more on addressing infrastructural problems than anything else. Two major elevated corridors - one to smoothen the airport traffic and another to ease the pressure on outer ring road, will be major step towards reducing travelling time for Northern and Western parts of the city. But these also mean that the city will lose some more precious green cover. The Budget…

The Ugly Indian (TUI) is an inspired community in its truest sense. One of the forerunners of large-scale citizen movement to clean up the streets of Bangalore, they have inspired large groups of people to take ownership of their locality and do their bit. It was only a matter of time before it picked up. Now the movement seems to have touched most of the educated elite in Bangalore. Several TUI-inspired spotfixing groups are getting formed across various localities of Bangalore. The groups that are currently in operation are: Whitefield Rising: All areas from Kundalahalli to ITPL Banaswadi Rising: Kammanahalla-Kasturi…

On February 8th, 2014, Bangalore Bus Prayaanikara Vedike, an organisation of bus commuters and civil society organizations, organised a planning meeting to discuss a campaign for affordable bus services in Bangalore. This was organised in response to the steep rise in bus fares over the last year and a half to almost 50%, increasing the economic hardship for Bangaloreans. If a garment worker or a pourakarmika, who earns Rs. 5,000 a month, buys a monthly pass for Rs. 725 (Rs. 925 for red board buses), she shells out 15-20% of her income just for commuting, which increases if more people…

                                  A young tree lover at Neralu. Pic credit: Suchi Govindarajan   NERALU, the crowd-funded 2-day Urban Tree Festival concluded at Cubbon Park on Sunday, the 9th of February 2014. Citizens of all ages participated enthusiastically in tree walks, and appreciated the specially curated movies and the display of Rumale Chennabasavaiah’s paintings of Bengaluru’s trees. Visitors listened to a range of talks by noted naturalists, ornithologists, and Urban Ecology experts. Children learnt about trees and their importance through a range of experiential activities such as…