Articles by Yogaraj S Mudalgi

Move over cricket and football, children and adults of Springfield apartments on Sarjapur Road have a new sport to try their hands on. The apartment conclave has recently installed indoor rock climbing wall in the premises. The 30 feet wall has holds arranged asymmetrically which climbers use to grip and climb. Rajat Bhargava, who is in charge of outdoor activities at Springfield says, "I wanted to introduce some unique out door activity and sport climbing seemed to be a good choice as it is an adventure sport." Outback India, which promotes adventure sports, set up the wall and have assigned…

Bangalore kids were at their creative best at the First Lego League Tournament 2010, a robot designing competition held at tech-major SAP Labs on Saturday 29th January. Bangalore's ‘Robo Pundits' from National Public School (NPS), Koramangala, scored 265 points beating Mumbai's score of 225. The next regional will be held at New Delhi. The competition is now between Bangalore and Delhi for the coveted opportunity to represent India at the finals in Atlanta, USA. Robo Pundits with their trophy. Pic courtesy: Robo Pundits The competition open to anyone in the age group of 9-16 and teams can have a maximum of…

Amrendra Kumar, a twenty nine year old Ph.D student of Public Policy at IIM Bangalore stunned the audience at a conference on "Integrated Solid Waste Management- Waste Generated v/s Managed" at Municipalika 2011 by claiming that within a year he could make India as clean as Switzerland.  A native of Patna, Bihar, Amrendra completed an integrated degree in Physics from IIT-Kanpur and is been pursuing his Ph.D at IIM-B. Branding himself a "missionary", he wants to clean up India through his organisation Clean Credit, which believes that "Cash is Trash". Amrendra lays out his plans for a clean India in…

Terming 'wholesale' construction of flyovers and underpasses and widening roads as ineffective, Praveen Sood, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said that following rules while driving using public transportation is a better way to handle the traffic woes of Bangalore. Sood was speaking as part of a talk on 'Role of citizens in traffic management' at the  Rastrothana Hall in 5th Block Jayanagar. RWAs can play active role in checking illegal parking. Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi 'Road discipline and etiquette key to regulating traffic' Sood lamented on the lack of discipline among drivers of motor vehicles in the city. "We…

The ninth edition of 'Municipalika', a three-day conference and exhibition on urban governance took place from 27 to 29 January at Palace Grounds. This is the first time Municipalika was held in Bengaluru. It saw more than 1200 delegates, 120 speakers from across the nation converging to share best practices in urban governance. Mayors of different towns and cities and delegates at the Municipalika. Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi Municipal Commissioners, Mayors, urban planners, policy makers and members of Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) from different towns and cities participated in the conferences organised by the Good Governance India Foundation (GGIF). The…

Nishanth Repello, 15- years-old, idolises Nadal and pursues tennis full time at the Bangalore Tennis Academy (BTA) in JP Nagar. He is currently ranked 28 in the under-16 at the national level. Playing tennis since he was nine, Nishanth is being schooled through National Institute of Open Schooling. He says it gives him the flexibility to travel widely for tournaments and still not miss out on education. "I will be travelling to Mysore and Chandigarh to play in National Level tennis tournaments soon but my studies won't be affected", says Nishanth. Nishanth Repello, 15, aims to follow in the footsteps…

The Karnataka bandh on Saturday disrupted normal life in Bengaluru.  On Friday, 21st January, Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj's gave his sanction to initate prosecution of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa of the BJP on allegations of the latter's involvement in several land scam cases. The party announced the bandh in protest. "Sixty six BMTC buses have been damaged across the city including one volvo bus and a Marco polo bus," said K S Vishwanath, Chief Traffic Manager (Operations) at BMTC.  "However there are no casualties reported on staff members", he said. BJP supporters being arrested by Bangalore City Police.…

BBMP contractors in charge of disposing garbage are dumping and burning waste in an abandoned quarry near Bengaluru's Begur Lake at Singasandra despite repeated complaints.  Prateek, 34 (name changed on request), a resident of Arattukulam Lake Point Tower  an apartment complex situated nearby, says  that close to 10 trucks dump and burn garbage at the abandoned quarry every day. Children playing amidst the burning rubble not realizing the health hazards. Pic: Lakepoint Tower apartment residents. A network engineer at Yahoo, Prateek says that about 65 families living in the apartment complex wake up to suffocating smoke of garbage burning not…

18-year old Aaron D'Souza, based in Bangalore, is Karnataka's fastest swimmer. He is currently in an intensive training programme in preparation for the London Olympics next year. D'Souza won 2 gold medals at the South Asian games in 2009 (Dhaka) and was a finalist in the 4x100 medley relay at the 2010 Asian Games (Guangzhou, China). Rani Rampal is India's unheralded hockey wondergirl. At 15, Rani has proved to be one of the best hockey players in India. She was the top goal scorer of the Women's Hockey World Cup in 2010. Few know that Rani was so impressive that…

A participant practising bouldering. Pic courtesy: BAR organisers. Adventure enthusiasts in Bangalore can now get ready for the first edition of Bangalore Adventure Race (BAR). The race being held on Saturday, January 8th promises to be a rush of adrenalin as it combines the thrill of cycling, kayaking and bouldering. It is a single-day format, multi-discipline, endurance and adventure race kicking off at Turahalli, a hillock off Kanakapura road, loops around Manchanbele lake and returns to Turahalli. The backbreaking 12-hour adventure begins at the crack of dawn at 4 am with teams of three participants each. The race will test…