bengaluru

On October 2nd, Prime Minister Modi announced Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Mission Clean India. In his speech, he appealed to Indians to devote 100 hours every year towards the cause of cleanliness. He also stated, “It is our social responsibility as citizens of India to help fulfil Gandhiji's vision of Clean India, by his 150th birth anniversary in 2019.” Since then, the media has been reporting of clean-up drives across the country, involving bigwigs from the industry, celebrities, politicians, NGOs and what not, almost on a daily basis. Why, some politicians even arranged for garbage to be littered, so that they had…

Author: Sieta Van Horck Bengaluru is full of such trash dumps, though the scenario might change for better in future. Pic:Sandro Miccoli Scenarios such as the picture above are, unfortunately, not uncommon for a person who is taking a stroll through the roads in Bengaluru. This made us wonder—what is happening to the garbage we throw every day? And how is garbage managed in Bengaluru? As you can see in the picture above, currently the system is neither environment friendly nor sustainable. Therefore, we decided that we will focus our project around waste management in Bangalore. This five-month project is…

I was sitting in the balcony and gazing at a copper pod tree on a Sunday afternoon. A tailor bird was busy collecting nesting material. Some butterflies fluttered around  looking for nectar. The resident squirrel came by to nibble a few grains from my balcony. The squirrel kept a watch on me, each time I moved, it went and hid itself behind the pots. Though these are routine sightings, they keep me entertained and refresh me when I need a break from the countless chores at home. Yes, I do get pleasant surprises too when something very different happens in…

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…

If you ask people about their local RWA or apartment association, they'll tell you a lot of uncharitable things. Words like 'bickering,' 'clueless,' 'no communication' etc. will dominate the response. And if you stop to think about it, you'll realise that there are a lot of parallels between this and how they think about politics and governance of the country itself. What's going on? First, solving public problems isn't the responsibility of a few people. For legal and practical reasons we have formed these things - RWAs, industry associations, religious trusts, ward committees, city councils, state legislatures, parliament - but…

Facts as outlined by Police on Vibgyor High school case: "Alleged act on July 2nd. Complaint received on 14th. Full co-operation by School during investigation. Two people in custody as of 16th. Investigation at 80% completion and they are likely to conclude by 18th." It implied they were very close to conclusion. July 17th: On request from Vibgyor parents and in a gesture of solidarity for the victim, Whitefield Rising requested all on the group to support a protest meeting organised by the parents. Their objective was to get Mr Rustam to answer the many questions they had. They had…

Property tax rates are very low. Yes, I said low  I know it is not a popular thing to say, but it's the truth. In Bangalore, we pay about 0.06 per cent of the value of a residential property in annual taxes, slightly more in some cases. In Seattle, just to pick a random point of comparison, the tax rate is between 0.8 and 1.1 per cent per year. That's 14 to 19 times higher. Council tax in the UK is in the same range, maybe even higher. There's an old saying that if you pay less (peanuts) you'll get…

Well - it’s time for some reflection on our part, while you are done with voting and busy with daily work. We trust you are the kind who will vote for a good candidate, not a traditional voter who will cling to a particular party all through your life. That’s why we put in hard work to compile a lot of data for you to decide which candidate is what. Let us confess: We are a small team. We don’t have the kind of manpower to chase each one of these candidates - still we feel we did our best.…

Even after the elections are notified, all the parties have kept their list of candidates in suspense. However, here is some gossip from the political corridors for you! Enjoy reading! What is Congress doing? Congress is experimenting in Bangalore North with ‘primaries’ where internal voting will be done by the party members and the winner will contest the elections. Primaries will be held between Rajeev Gowda, B L Shankar and others, on March 8. Rajeev Gowda is an ex-IIMB professor, who also headed IIMB’s Centre for Public Policy. B L Shankar is a veteran politician with relatively clean history and…

Akrama Sakrama is a complete fraud. There are many things wrong with this scheme. Sadly, Congress, BJP and JDS appear to be united in their attempts to destroy the city. Regularisation may be unavoidable, given the scale of what has happened so far, but if it's not done right even now, that will be an open invitation to let things carry on as they are in the future too.(a) The proposal does not include any penalty for the officials who connived in the illegalities. In fact, they have not even been identified.(b) There is virtually no transparency. Which are the…