bangalore

I am here to apologize to all the Indians, the Kannadigas I’ve met in the last three weeks. Immediately upon meeting you, you either spoke to me in English, with the assumption that of course I wouldn’t be familiar with your language. Or, you asked if I spoke Hindi, and when you learned I didn’t, you jumped right into English with no apparent judgement. India, I am grateful for your linguistic abilities and I am sorry for my linguistic limitations.   I studied French for several years, but I am only fluent in English. Meanwhile, every single person I’ve met…

One usually associates art, and artistic aesthetics, only with people who have the money and the leisure to spare for it (I'm not talking about those who by art as an investment here). But if one looks carefully, one finds the artistic touch all around. Here's a peanut vendor whom I photographed. He's obviously got a lot of pamphlets from somewhere, and is usng them (we are so good at recycling and re-using!) as tiny cones to put the peanuts in, and give the customers.   How beautifully he's made the paper cones and stuck them into his wares! I…

The Samosa Mela at Shivajinagar is a study conducted as part of a CEPT-CPP Summer school on The Everyday City that was held in June 2016 at the IIM Bangalore campus. It was a collaborative effort between CEPT University, Ahmedabad and the Center for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore. As part of the two-week workshop, the participants worked in groups to identify & analyse the everyday activities on the streets in different locations in the city. The Samosa mela project was done by Drashti Amin, (Anant Institute of Architecture, Ahmedabad), Akshata Bhandiwad (CEPT University, Ahmedabad) & Suyash Bhardwaj (NIT, Surat). The…

Over the last two years I have written extensively about the emerging new idea of governance around the world. Historically in democracies, we paid a lot of attention to government FOR the people, and government OF the people, but it is only recently that there is more and more attention on self-governance and participatory democracies, ... what we might consider government BY the people themselves. But how exactly could this alternative work? What are its contours? Broadly, there are three pillars on which we can imagine this. a) We need to work WITH the government ... a lot of what…

Deepanjali Mishra. Pic: Pravir B. Sukanti and Bhagirathi Mishra are on cloud nine. Since May 28, when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the results for Grade 10 board examination, these Whitefield residents are elated. Their daughter, Deepanjali, has done exceptionally well, securing A1 score in all five subjects. “My parents were really happy because it was their dream that I score well in 10th,” she exclaims when asked for her reaction. Her father is employed as a plumber in a housing complex, where her mother works as a cook. Her uncle is an electrician. “I was able…

The Karnataka Lake ​Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) is on the look out for lake wardens, to work on a voluntary basis. The government order and other relevant information can be seen here.   The Karnataka Lake ​Conservation and Development Authority Act 2014 was constituted (vide Gazette Notification No.Samvyashae 07 Shasana 2012, Bangalore dated 07-Mar-2015) for Lake Conservation and Development. The Act finally came into force in March 2016, with the following mission:- To establish a strong system of well linked lakes and tanks free from organic and chemical pollutants, and- To intensify official concern and motivate community vigilance to the extent where pollution…

The idea of the 'Everyday city' is based on the concept of Everyday Urbanism that was proposed in 1999 by Margaret Crawford & others, wherein the city is seen above all as a social product and which focuses on informal urban spaces. They point out that it is not what the planning initiates for the city but what the people seem to generate as an outcome of their everyday needs. How relevant is this in the context of the Indian city? And, how does it work for Bangalore & other cities? What is the Everyday city here? Is it ...…

Oorvani Foundation and Datameet are happy to announce the launch of OpenCity.in - an urban public data portal. In cities across India, there is a lack of accessible and robust public data. Citizens often do not have access to quantitative information that helps them understand the state of their neighborhood and their city, as well as support their demands of the local government. Data when available is often lost within the hard disks of government or non-governmental organisations, documents hard disks or in individual silos. OpenCity.in is a repository of city-related public data from government sources, via RTI or open…

Hello, all. I apologize for my long absence (I vanish way too regularly, don't I?). I've been a bit busy with things like my board exams. However, I am now back, although my skills (as they are) are a little rusty, and I may have a little trouble stringing together grammatically accurate sentences ("I type new blog" is a grammatically sound sentence, is it not?). Anyway, to the blog. A week or two ago, I got an internship with a startup called cookifi (http:///cookifi.com if you want to check them out). Which is great and all, but it comes with…

In government, there has been a historical fear that private contractors will take public funds for a ride. And among the public, there is a historical fear that governments will award contracts to their preferred bidders, and make money through kickbacks. Both of these fears are quite genuine. To address this, many governments have passed laws on how public procurement should be carried out. Karnataka also has passed such a law, the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act, (KTPP). There are three broad rules under this act, which should provide the basis for better procurement, but as we will see…