EDITORS' PICK

For a city of over 12 million people, Bengaluru has eight million vehicles and this number is growing by 10% each year. There simply isn’t enough room for all these vehicles, and if we carry on with business as usual, the city will soon come to a standstill.  High up in the list of mobility-related issues is parking. The state government seems to have recognised this. This March, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) published a Draft Parking Policy for Bengaluru, seeking suggestions from the public. The document is candid about admitting past failures. It admits that at present,…

Distressing stories of the loss of both lives and livelihoods have been reported across the country during the month-long nationwide COVID lockdown. The other side of the story has been the efforts of NGOs, activists and ordinary citizens who had to plan and respond swiftly to help out as best as they could. Citizen Matters has launched the COVID Learning Series, surveying relief efforts as well as public services like medical care, waste management and transport in different cities to see what has worked where and why. We are collating this emerging knowledge in an effort to support civil society…

With orders from educational institutions and automobile industries, the month of April usually promises flourishing business for printing press owners. Like many others', their familiar flow of life has been rudely jolted this year, with the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. To put it simply in a nutshell, it amounts to an everyday loss of revenue of Rs 5.1 crore for the printing press economy in the city!  Printing is a booming business with more than 10,000 units in the city -- 7000 small and 3000 established presses, according to business experts. The COVID-triggered slump…

The budget for the FY 2020 – 21 has been presented through video conferencing due to the lockdown announced by the State Government.  Let us see the figures presented in the budget. The total budget is for Rs. 10897.58 crore which is 6.5% lower than the previous year’s budget. But the more important revelation in the budget document is the revised figures for the previous year 2019-20. The revenue receipts are just 60% of the budgeted figure. In other words, against the projection of Rs. 11,652.93 crore they have been able to raise only Rs. 7067.86 crore.  When its performance…

With just 170 positive cases of coronavirus disease in the state, Bihar as a whole and Patna in particular (barring the two contamination zones of Khajpura and Sultanganj) are comparatively well suited, when it comes to relaxing lockdown rules to enable some economic activity as per the Centre’s guidelines. But whatever partial relaxation has been allowed has brought little relief to the poor of Patna, which is not surprising given the many inconsistencies in the guidelines. For instance, the guidelines allows plumbers, electricians, carpenters, daily wages workers and highway dhabas to ply their business. But with all other shops being…

The residents of Electronic City, which is not even within BBMP limits, are becoming guinea pigs for the Palike’s misguided attempts at ‘scientific waste management’. BBMP has signed an agreement to set up an incineration-based Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant at Chikkanagamangala, a stone's throw away from Electronic City. Problems with the existing plant The project is coming up at a site that currently houses a composting plant running under BBMP’s direct supervision. This plant processes wet waste from 44 BBMP wards. Operational since May 2018, it soon led to stench and fly menace in the locality. Last July, the National Green…

With a spike in positive cases being reported across the country, India is working towards containment of COVID-19 on a war footing. The number of COVID-19 positive patients across India breached 22,000 mark with more than 700 deaths. (as on 23rd April, 21:30 PM) The National Health Profile of 2019 indicates that among the various major communicable diseases reported in 2018 across India, acute respiratory diseases had the highest share of cases. Experts suggest that people with medical conditions such as respiratory illness are at high risk of developing serious complications related to COVID-19. This suggests that our population is…

M Kadar Mohideen was chuffed over the expansion of his small eatery Midnight Biriyani. Just a week before the lockdown, he had opened the new Arumbakkam outlet and was looking forward to thriving business. But his hopes were dashed as the lockdown was announced.  Being a new entrant in the food business in Chennai, Kadar is worried whether he will be able to recoup the heavy losses. He is unwilling to partner with delivery agents owing to the uncertainty, but he wants to ensure that none of his employees go hungry, which pushed him to sell fruits and vegetables. Kadar…

As we cover the COVID-19 outbreak and the effect it has had on various sectors and communities, we also asked our readers -- individuals, citizen groups and RWAs -- to explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In this article, a resident of CR park in Delhi narrates how her community has adapted to challenges of the times, how members of the community are helping each other, how they are reaching out to senior citizens and making sure that everyone comes out of it, together, as a family.  It all started with a WhatsApp…

Odisha is primarily a rural economy, with 83% of the state’s population living in rural areas as per the 2011 census, and dependent for their livelihood primarily on agriculture and allied activities. Not surprisingly, the state's first steps have been to open up activities in agriculture, rural housing and MGNREGA work. Around 20% of Bhubaneswar’s daily wage labourers working in both the formal and informal sectors have returned to their villages while those left behind remain dependent for their survival on the cooked food and rations, besides groceries and vegetables being provided by the city authorities. Daily wage labourers who…