EDITORS' PICK

The intentions were noble, but as usual got derailed by poor implementation. Bhopal’s smart bicycle service, first introduced two years back, is a typical example. The main reasons for the lukewarm public response to it were the initial high rental cost, inadequate number of cycles available and poor choice of location of the cycle rental stations. The government addressed the first issue recently by cutting the one-time registration fee for renting a bike. To encourage students, women and elderly people to rent a bicycle, the earlier one-size-fits-all fee of Rs 500 was cut to Rs 50 for college students and…

For about six years, Koramangala residents have been waiting for a new road - a shortcut - that connects Ejipura junction on the Intermediate Ring Road, with Agara on Outer Ring Road. Though there has been progress in the plan to connect the two arterial roads, residents will have to wait longer for the work to start. The project has been delayed since sections of the road are to pass through defence land. In August 2018, months before the Lok Sabha elections, former Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman agreed to part with 16.5 acres of defence land for 10 projects across…

In 2017, Tamil Nadu witnessed an alarming oubreak of Dengue, with a total of 6,546 cases recorded in Chennai alone. The high numbers prompted the state health department and the Greater Chennai Corporation to take proactive measures in handling the menace.  According to data provided by the health department of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), the city has been witnessing a declining trend in Dengue fever cases this year: a total of 196 cases were registered in August 2019, as against 213 cases in August 2018 and 1104 cases in the same month in 2017.   Validating the data, medical superintendent…

The sounds of Carnatic music on the radio fill a cramped room painted blue in a small lane of Mylapore. Photos of Hindu deities adorn the walls, and pieces of jackfruit wood and leather are strewn on the floor. Jesudas Anthony and his son Edwin Jesudas are working in this room, sitting amid hammers, nails, a wooden peg for tuning and castor oil for polishing. Outside, temple bells resound in this old residential neighbourhood of central Chennai. The two master craftsmen make the mridangam, a drum used as an accompaniment in Carnatic (south Indian classical) music. “My grandfather’s father started making mridangams…

A penalty of Rs 47,500 imposed on an auto driver in Bhubaneswar; another in Gurgaon fined Rs 32,500, both on multiple counts of violation; a whopping 2 lakh in fines to be shared by the driver and owner of a truck in Delhi for overloading and other violations, and the vehicles involved in these cases impounded till the penalised can pay the amounts... Over the past two weeks, since the amended Motor Vehicles Act came into effect on September 1, these and similar headlines have dominated news space. Stories of unheard-of penalty amounts have been reported and shared on social…

Every time MS Dhoni hammers the ball out of the boundary with his helicopter shot, workers at a medium-sized sports manufacturing unit in Jalandhar have an extra reason to cheer. For theirs are the hands that crafted the bat Dhoni has been using over the years.  "Our bats are also being used by Chris Gayle, Michael Clarke, deVilliers among others. Sachin Tendulkar too used our bats," says Jyoti Sharma, owner of Spartan Sports, with a hint of pride. “Dhoni's bat is made of English Cleft, a special type of willow wood imported from England. It has a more pronounced curve…

The Karnataka state women's team is battling it out in the ongoing National Women's Football Championship in Arunachal Pradesh. For the talented team and their captain Tanvie Hans, it's a constant struggle for opportunities, yet they give the game their best. In the concluding part of this series on women's football, we look at the professional women players. It’s Wednesday, which means that Brishti Bagchi, 25, only has three practices today. In less than two weeks, she will be on a plane headed to Madrid to play professional football, a dream she has had since she was a little girl.…

The timber mafia in Jharkhand. Rampant mining in Jharkhand and Goa. Overdependence on borewells and low groundwater recharge in Andhra Pradesh -- Deforestation, unsustainable land use practices and the slow but steady expansion of urbanised, industrial areas have led to nearly 30 per cent of India’s total land area undergoing degradation. Thus concern over desertification, which is expected to affect 900 million people in 100 countries (mostly in the global south) and which threatens almost 41 per cent of the total land area on the Earth, is a real concern for every citizen in this country. The 14th Conference of…

The last decade has seen an enormous growth in private vehicles in Chennai, with the city home to around 42 lakh two-wheelers and 88 lakh cars in the city according to data from the State Transport Department. The steady increase in number of vehicles has brought with it several problems such as congestion, air pollution and road accidents.  Waking up to the ballooning problems created by this explosion of vehicles as also the mobility needs of those who cannot afford private modes of transport, there have been efforts to improve public transport and add new modes for people to get…

It’s still dark out, the roads are as quiet as you’ll ever hear them in Bengaluru. The relative peace and quiet here is disturbed only by an energetic herd of 10 young girls. Monisha Mercelline leads this pack of girls - some barefoot, others in flip flops - to a dirt field by Sri Chamundeshari Park in Koramangala 8th Block. Monisha is a programme coordinator at the non-profit Maarga which works with children from slums. She had woken up around 4 am to round up the girls aged between 12 and 18, visiting each of their residences. “Initially, we used…