EDITORS' PICK

Urban commuting has become one of the most energy- and pollution-intensive activities in India, contributing to increased greenhouse gas emissions, finds a diagnostic analysis of key cities of India by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based think tank. The study, released at a seminar in Kolkata, made an assessment of the 14 most populous cities of India based on toxic emissions of particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2), and energy consumption from urban commuting practices. These cities include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad (henceforth called megacities); and Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi, Bhopal,…

The week-long celebration commemorating Madras Day, which falls on August 22, is a fun way to learn about the rich history of the city. A plethora of activities are held over the course of a week (indeed, these days, it is almost a month) that are informative and engaging. The most popular among them are the heritage walks that trace the historical roots of Chennai, formerly Madras. The Dravidian Historical Research Centre organised a Social Justice Heritage Tour led by the editor of Nakheeran Magazine, Govi Lenin. The tour traced the origins of the Dravidian social justice movement in the…

Clued in Indian travelers have often swooned over the variety of street food available in Kolkata. Even celebrity chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay, have talked and savoured street food in the City of Joy and it is not uncommon to find teams from international channels like BBC and CNN filming the food in the city. But a recent Taste of Travel survey conducted by Booking.com ** has brought Kolkata up in the ranks on India’s food map all over again. Kolkata was named the best city to explore mouth-watering street food followed by Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. The research was…

As the city gears up for celebrations of Madras Day (or Week), like every year I go back in my own time machine to reminisce about the city and in particular my locality. Fortunately, I have been living in the same locality - intersection of Anna Nagar West and Villivakkam - since my school days and have seen the rapid development and transformation of both areas. Long before 100 Feet Road became the link to all parts of the city, I remember casually hopping across this road to reach my school. The other prominent road was the New Avadi Road,…

The devastating floods in Kerala have ravaged life in the state, with 223 officially reported deaths and 10.28 lakh people stationed across 3274 relief camps, as shared by the state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The central government has described such unprecedented nature’s fury in the southern state as a ‘calamity of severe nature’. In what reaffirms faith in humanity, help has been pouring in from all quarters to god’s own country, and people have been pitching in to help the flood-stricken reconstruct their lives. Tamil Nadu shares the Mullaperiyar river with Kerala and has been a party to the century-long rivalry…

Many of us city folks are growing veggies on our terraces and balconies, greening our patch of concrete, staying as eco-positive as we can, but wait a moment… Are we really being gentle on the earth, all the way? Where did it come from – the red soil and the river sand that we use to grow our potted plants? The fact is, the soil and sand would have been mined or smuggled out from a rice field, river bed, forest or countryside, leaving them that much depleted. We do know that sand mining from river beds devastates not just…

I used public transport for the first time in the city this July, as I had to travel to Kempegowda Bus Station (Majestic BMTC City Bus Depot). As a complete newbie bus commuter in Bengaluru, I had an internship assignment to look at BMTC’s communication, and their interfaces and evaluate the overall usefulness. My mentor, from Co Media Lab, had suggested I use all mediums of communication available to me whether it be the BMTC app, Google Maps, or even physical brochures. A new perspective, he said, probably had a better chance of picking out certain gaps in the system,…

Election Commission of India (ECI) approved a proposal of a programme for Special Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls, by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka (CEO-KA). Of the nine listed activities in the letter, we the citizens should note the following: 1. House to house visit by BLOs 16 Jul to 10 Aug 2018 2. Rationalisation of Polling Stations 27 Aug to 15 Sep 2018 3. Publication of integrated electoral rolls 10 Oct 2018 4. Period for claims and objections 10 Oct to 20 Nov 2018 5. Disposal of claims and objections by 20 Dec 2018 6. Final publication of electoral…

Built in the 13th century, Delhi’s Qutb Minar, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the tallest minarets in the country, is facing stiff competition − from the height of a garbage dump in the national capital. In a recent report, a panel of India’s Parliament noted their observations on landfill sites in Delhi, writing that the “laissez-faire of the civic bodies of Delhi also gets reflected in the fact that the height of Ghazipur landfill site has reached as high as 65 metres which is just eight metres less than the height of the national monument Qutub Minar”. Ghazipur is…

Tamil Nadu has been a frontrunner in organ donation. Call it the collective effort between hospitals and not-for-profit organisations or the willingness of people, the state has the highest number of organ donors in India. The fact remains though that a majority of citizens are still ignorant about many aspects of donation, leaving a wide gap between organ availability and patients waiting for transplants. The NDTV-Fortis More To Give campaign indicated that an approximate 5 lakh people across the nation die each year, due to non availability of organs. The number reiterates the need to acknowledge citizens who are hesitant…