GENRE: Explainers

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast 2021 to be the hottest summer season in recent years in many parts of the country. On March 24th, Delhi recorded the hottest day of the month in  76 years. In fact, 2019 was the seventh warmest year in the history of humankind after 1901.  Summers in India are becoming increasingly unbearable and cities are finding it hard to cope with heat wave related incidents. A study by scientists at IIT Gandhinagar has forecast an eight fold rise in heat wave related incidents in the country if the global community fails to check…

With ever growing and rapidly changing Indian cities, the gamut of issues that are affecting them are not only growing, but are becoming very specific to the local context. Decision-makers and designers are rethinking urban design to make cities more liveable and public spaces more accessible and safe. Tactical urbanism is gaining popularity as a method to tackle these issues. What's tactical urbanism?  Tactical urbanism is all about action. It is also known as DIY urbanism, Planning-by-Doing, Urban Acupuncture, or Urban Prototyping. This approach refers to a city, organisational, and/or citizen-led approach to building neighbourhoods by using short-term, low-cost, and…

Cities, past and present, have been often created in the image of its rulers. Indian cities, in particular, have been witness to the rise and fall of dynasties and empires, reflected in their ever shifting character. However, amongst all its grand constructions for the people, there exists within the urban fabric a continuous patchwork of creations by the people.  While the concept of a planned city traces its roots to ancient civilisations like the Indus Valley, Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations, the scale of modern cities is unprecedented. Burgeoning populations and rising densities created the need for a visionary document to…

It is utopian to imagine a world without plastic, and it has its uses. At the same time, excessive utilisation of plastic without safeguards for disposal of waste can do immense harm. It is likely to cause various health issues affecting hormones, lungs, nerves, and the overall immune system. Sometimes, it may even lead to cancer. Over the years there has been a felt need for more information on how Chennai fares with regard to microplastic pollution in the air. To find out about this, a group of researchers from Pondicherry University embarked on a mission to estimate the strength…

The second, brutal wave of the pandemic in India has brought us face to face with tragedies and horrors that we probably never even encountered in the most fearsome of our nightmares. The intensity and surge in numbers is one thing, but what has left us most anguished and horrified is the unpreparedness of our governance, the dire straits of a neglected public health care system and the consequent stripping of dignity and rights of citizens — in life, illness and even death. And even as we live this dystopian reality, we are constantly battling another huge fight — the…

The second wave is not just more widespread and alarming, it has completely disrupted systems, and has put pressure on existing waste management operations. Volunteers are stretched chasing beds, ambulances, plasma and more. And the last thing on everyone’s mind is waste management.  News of housekeeping staff, sanitary workers and other informal waste workers testing positive are on the rise. As frontline workers, they are often at the receiving end, sometimes because of how we dispose of waste and sometimes because we don’t care what we dispose of. But in the current situation, there is the added risk of the…

March 24 2020. India entered a two-month long national lockdown as part of a strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. One year later, we are seeing a massive resurgence of cases. While the battle goes on in hospitals across India, there is another battle being fought on social media – The Battle Of Misinformation. This past year, we have seen numerous messages going viral on platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter – messages preaching some extremely ridiculous and imaginative home-remedies for protection against COVID. Because of widespread panic, and a certain desperation to act, people are falling prey to these…

With the advancement in solar power technology and the government's thrust on renewable energy, more and more people are starting to invest in solar power systems. Utilising the rooftop to instal solar panels to generate electricity However, there are many things to consider before the installation process. Understanding different factors such as technology, policy, permissions, etc involved in a project like this are important. Here are frequently asked questions on rooftop solar installation in Bengaluru: Technology How much space is required for installing rooftop solar? A typical 1 kWp (kilowatts peak) of solar system consisting of 3 panels needs roughly 70 Sqft…

Chennai-based freelance writer Divya Sainathan’s mother-in-law, R Gayathri, spent two weeks at the hospital for COVID treatment as she had 75% infection in both lungs. She needed 15 litres of oxygen per day at the time of her admission. It was brought down to 1 litre over two weeks. “At this point, we were asked to take her home, because the only service she needed at the hospital was oxygen. We were told to get an oxygen concentrator at home and monitor her SpO2 levels every two hours. If it fell below 92 for two hours, we were asked to…

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is devastating India with a huge chunk of the population testing positive for the virus, exacerbating the challenges of an inadequate and already-burdened healthcare system. Lack of sufficient healthcare equipment such as oxygen concentrators, ICUs and ventilators have left hundreds of serious patients scrounging for beds and medicines. In the light of the ongoing crisis, the apartment management software platform ADDA in collaboration with Citizen Matters, organised a webinar on the topic 'COVID Management in Residential Communities'. From (L-R): Vikram Rai, General Secretary of Bangalore Apartment Federation, Anish Nema, EC Member, Prestige Ferns Residency,…