CITIZEN JOURNALISM

The ‘Women Start-up Programme’ was inaugurated by NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM Bangalore on January 23 (Monday), 2017. Altogether 50 aspiring women entrepreneurs from all over India have been selected for Stage 2 of the programme. NSRCEL, which is the entrepreneurship and incubation centre at IIMB, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, has initiated the Women Start-up Programme. The programme is designed to enthuse aspiring entrepreneurs-in-the-making to systematically think through their venture idea. It will equip women to develop entrepreneurial skill sets to help with the ideation stage and managerial skill sets that will help them start…

NERALU, a citizen-led tree festival, is being organised on 18th and 19th February 2017, at Natonal Gallery of Modern Arts (NGMA) and other city-wide venues. Come February, Bengaluru’s trees burst into spectacular blooms. The first of its kind in Bengaluru, Neralu, which means ‘shade’ in Kannada, is being planned to coincide with the blooming season in the city, and will bring together citizens to celebrate the garden city’s glorious natural heritage. Bound by a common love for trees, naturalists, ecologists, artists, technologists, storytellers, homemakers, photographers and many more citizens from all walks of life are working together to organise Neralu.…

We have a common psychology of living with the problem, not realising we are encountering one! So are the case of most pedestrians whose Right of Way has been infringed for various reasons. The first form of transportation was walking - from the time man was born, he has been walking. But with improvements in technology and innovations of automobiles, we do not give importance to walking any more. Now everyone has their personal vehicles. Number of these vehicles has been increasing every day! It has been reported that about 55.59 Lakh non-transport vehicles, that is cars and two-wheelers are…

Bengaluru is in the process of preparing yet another master plan. What does the process involve and what does it aim to achieve? To understand this, let us go back to the time when Kempegowda first founded our great city, Bengaluru.   Challenge: Bangalore was on a high plateau and had no water resources.   Only way it could host a city: Rain water harvesting, and lots of it. Best option to do it was through lakes, using them as water sinks. First thing on his agenda: Build many lakes, more than the population the city then had would require.…

The Real Estate Research Initiative of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB-RERI), with support from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), has launched a web-based portal - www.rajakaluve.org to enable Bangaloreans to know if their property is situated on a storm water drain or ‘raja kaluve’. Inaugurating the portal for public use, BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad, said: “This portal enables people ease of access to find details about storm water drains in one place.” Citizens need to have the survey number, village, hobli and taluk as per the schedule in the registration document to be able to use this portal.…

Bellandur is one of the largest wards in Bengaluru. Of late, it has been in news for inefficient garbage collection and burning of garbage in public places. A few months ago, a new garbage contract was awarded to Bellandur. The residents allege that the new system is unscientific and designed to fail. The monthly waste management expenditure for Bellandur ward till August 2016 was Rs 35 lakh. A new contract was awarded in September 2016 and the contract amount was revised to Rs 45 lakh per month. But the difference was not just in cost calculation. The entire system of…

Defence Colony Cooperative Housing Society Ltd (DCCHSL) & Defence Colony Residents Association (DECORA) JOINT BRIEFING 1. The Defence Colony Cooperative Housing Society Ltd (DCCHSL) was formed by serving and retired Defence Officers. In July 1964, the City Improvement Trust Board (CITB), acquired and transferred by a sale deed, the entire area now forming Defence Colony, to the society. This sale deed showed the boundaries of Defence Colony, both by description and in a site map, but did not mention the specific survey numbers of the land that had been acquired by the CITB before handing over to the society. 2.…

On Dec. 23, 2016, I conducted a “Walk-n-Talk” for the residents of the campus at Indian Institute of Managament, Bangalore (IIMB). Pic: Deepa Mohan Prof Shainesh, who is the Dean of Administration, and a keen birder himself, opened up the campus for two bird census events in Feb and Nov 2016, and he wanted to ensure that the residents on the campus also got to know more about the flora and avifauna in the place where they live. Group before setting off for the walk. Pic: Deepa Mohan Dr. Selvarajan Rajeswaran, who is doing a doctoral program at IIMB, was…

I've been thinking about our education system a lot (again) lately. Mainly, I've been trying to figure out what it is, exactly, that I dislike about it. After much introspection (read: "Ten minutes of trying to come up with something to write about"), I decided that it was, mainly, the fact that we have subjects. While subjects are great for breaking everything down into bite-sized pieces and allowing you to pass your exams, they don't really give you an appreciation for what you're learning. For instance, if I were to learn in Physics about Young's Double Slit Experiment, I'll be…

So what do you get when you have an eager reader with a ticking mind and time on her hands! - A Book Club! Reading has always been a pleasant diversion for me. In the 70s, during my childhood, (as for many children who spent their childhood in the 70s),  Enid Blyton took me through adventures, fantasies, enchanted lands and the most fascinating journeys across places that I could only fancy going to. This progressed, as one would imagine, to Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew mysteries and Mills and Boons. However, as the years rolled by, studies, marriage, children and work…