GENRE: Explainers

On January 13 2019, the President gave his nod and brought into law The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Fourth Amendment) Bill 2019. The Act amends Articles 15 and Article 16 of the Constitution, and adds clauses where the government can make special provisions for economically weaker sections (EWS) of citizens and provide them with reservations up to 10 percent in higher educational institutions including private aided or unaided institutions (other than minority education institutions) as well as in initial appointments in government services. In popular parlance, this is being bandied as 'upper-caste reservation.' Reservations or quotas, the dominant mode of…

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are game-changers in elections, with an entire nation hooked on, awaiting results from them. Since 1999, EVMs began to be deployed in elections, gradually replacing paper ballots in local, state and parliamentary polls. Since 2000, they have been used in three Lok Sabha elections and 113 Assembly polls. For the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Bharat Electronics Ltd and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd have delivered EVMs to 10.6 lakh polling stations across India. However, many political parties and technical experts continue to question the reliability of EVMs. Recently, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora fumed that EVMs…

“Sir, only Rs 10,500/- service charge for Khata and property tax. Quick and reliable service!” said a representative of a broker firm in Akshay Nagar, Begur. The firm facilitated the issuing of Khatas for apartments, while residents of West End Heights, an apartment complex of 1,830 units, were looking to get Khatas. But they decided they had to do something about the blatant corruption in the delivery of Khatas. What followed was a tale of how a group of aware and vocal citizens fought against the system and won, and received their Khata certificates without having to pay any bribes.…

With urban centres across the country generating around 1.45 lakh metric tonnes of solid waste a day, denizens are no strangers to lectures on segregating recyclables and composting organic waste. Increasing pressure on the urban environment is forcing the state to take cognisance and look for alternatives to deal with the mounting solid waste problem. Mid-2018, the Tamil Nadu government announced a ban on all single-use plastics starting January 1, 2019 in a bid to ease the pressures of pollution on the state. While there’s no denying that stringent laws and penal provisions are required to ensure compliance, these are…

Following the complete digitization of the cable TV network, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the regulatory body for broadcasting notified a regulatory framework for broadcasting and cable TV services in March 2017. The framework is applicable to services provided through Direct to Home (DTH) Systems, Cable TV Systems provided through Digital Addressable Systems (DAS), Head-end in the Sky (HITS) and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). These regulations are aimed at addressing various issues related to the sector. This regulatory framework included the following. Uniform Tariff for DTH & Cable TV Services: The Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order.…

With the Tamil Nadu government's partial ban on single-use plastic in place since January 1st, Citizen Matters spoke to Rajendra Ratnoo, IAS, one of the the three regional coordinators working to make the transition to a plastic-less state smooth and ensure the success of the ban. We asked him some of the questions raised most often by our readers. What happens to the existing single use plastic in possession with the people as on January 1st? The segregated collection of waste by the local body is already underway in many places. People can turn in the single use plastic they…

Here we are! The day that many naysayers said would never come. The day the Tamil Nadu government's ban on single use plastic goes into effect. With the Madras High Court rejecting a plea to stay the ban on December 27th, the first step has truly been taken. As Lao Tse famously said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Our solid waste management crisis is huge. Many issues remain to be acknowledged, leave alone addressed. Source segregation of garbage (mandatory since October 2, 2017), better door to door collection of segregated waste, forcing bulk generators…

Divya (name changed) was a successful 40-year-old HR professional from Bengaluru till such time as she lost her mother to a heart attack, suddenly, a few years ago. She herself was hospitalised a couple of weeks later, reason unknown. It was left to a psychiatrist to identify that she was suffering from depression. She was advised medication and grief counselling which she continues to this day. 'Accepting that I had depression was not easy. Anxiety attacks compounded the problem. I went through denial before I could finally accept that what I dealing with was an ailment which needed attention -…

When you heard on November 22 that effluents from an exploded boiler's sugar factory entered River Shimsha, did you hear some alarm bells too? There were some fears that the potassium-laced river waters would enter River Cauvery near Shivanasamudra, which would pollute the Bengaluru water supply network. Would they have come true? "The city's water supply would not be affected. The polluted waters would get diluted by the time it reaches the city," explained Vishwanath Srikantaiah, an expert on water-related issues. The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board officials were camping on the site and sending the water samples for testing. K.L.…

Fifteen years ago, Chennai had to rely on neighbouring metros such as Bengaluru to rehabilitate and reform the lives of drug addicts and alcoholics. But as the number of addiction cases increased, private rehabilitation centres mushroomed in the city. "There is a steep increase in people falling prey to alcoholism, drug abuse and other substances. We had admitted 111 cases in 2015-16 and 220 patients in 2016-17," says Dr V Sunil Kumar, a clinical psychologist and founder of  Mindzone, a private de-addiction centre in Adyar. However, while a barrage of information is available online when you search for de-addiction centres,…