GENRE: In Focus

This February, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) published the Draft Bengaluru Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Policy. On inviting public suggestions and objections on the draft policy, BMRCL got just 32 responses. To put this number in perspective, Bengaluru’s total population is approximately 120 lakh, of which the working population is around 55 lakh (46 percent). Adding to this, the 5-19 age group which also needs to commute, would peg commuter numbers in the city at an estimated 77 lakhs (about 64 percent of the total population). But, only 28 lakh use public transportation. Obviously, the commuter numbers are…

It literally took an international outcry to force the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to step in and try to find a solution to the rising mountain of waste that is East Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill. At a time when Swachh Bharat is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus and debates rage over climate change, the PMO has stepped in to seek help from experts to grapple with the challenge posed by the country’s tallest mountain of waste. On July 10th, it issued a 12-page Global Request for Proposal (RFP) for tackling this problem. An IIT Kanpur alumnus and  Principal Scientific Advisor to…

The months preceding the Lok Sabha election this year was a season of sops. Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled several projects and announced more. But a sit-in protest of 200-odd farmers put a spanner in the works for one such big announcement. The farmers have been protesting against land acquisition and inadequate compensation for the proposed site for Noida International Greenfield Airport project since October 2018.  The proposed airport, 70 km away from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, New Delhi, estimated to cost Rs. 16,000 crore, was believed to be the government’s showpiece ahead of the elections. Although the state…

The National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill 2019 was passed by the Rajya Sabha last week and now awaits passage in the Lok Sabha, where it has been reintroduced with the changes based on recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, to which it had been earlier referred by the lower house. While the Health Minister described the Bill as an achievement of the government that will enable greater access to quality medical education and highly trained professionals, the medical fraternity clearly does not seem to subscribe to that, as evident from the widespread dissent and protests…

As school reopens after a break, Arjun is rather upset for still being in the first bench. "Why am I so short?" he asks, "Others in the class who are younger than me are taller. They sit behind me." What Arjun does not realise, perhaps, is that he is among the many short children who, by 2022, will comprise almost 31.4% of the under-fives in the country. But why are so many kids so short? Is it just genetics? Not really. Arjun is stunted rather than short. His physical stature is a key indicator of child malnutrition, indicating that a boy…

On June 18, 2019, the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) sent a team of personnel and machinery to reclaim a 5-acre plot along the Dadri-Surajpur-Chalera (DSC) road in Sector 48 (Map 1 below). The plot, a part of the Barola village agricultural land, was acquired for developing NOIDA in 1976. The Authority claims that most landowners took compensation for the loss of their land. Since the official master plan of the city (NOIDA Master Plan 2031) shows the plot as a ‘green belt’, the marble market that sprouted there in early 2000s, alongside some old and new pucca residences,…

“The beauty of Shimla lies in its conceptualisation by the Britishers,” says Dr Ravinder Dhiman, a Shimla-based history researcher. “Primarily, it was modelled as a hill station for their summer recess. Yet most features and facilities built by them were similar to the Smart City concepts currently being drawn up. But in the existing conditions, these smart city concepts sound utterly unrealistic and highly impracticable”. Shimla is one of the 30 urban centres chosen under the Smart City Mission launched by PM Narendra Modi in 2015. The Rs 2,905 crore project, which has been approved by the centre, aims at…

Jagraon, a small township about 50 kilometres from Ludhiana Railway Terminus, has nothing much to distinguish it from other such towns on National Highway 5, except for an infamous, but very important bridge named after it. Till July 14 2016, when it was barred for traffic by the Railways, the original British-built Jagraon bridge, along with a parallel single lane bridge built in 1970 to accommodate the increasing traffic, was the lifeline for commuters in Ludhiana, Punjab's largest city and industrial hub, which once led to the city being bestowed with the title, Manchester of the East. Built as simple…

Just like many students, I switched schools after 10th standard, and in the first week at my new school, I experienced a culture shock of sorts. Till 10th standard, I went to Prakriya Green Wisdom School, which had a very strict health-food-only policy. All the students ate in the school canteen that prepared simple meals from organic, minimally-processed material – some of which was even grown on campus.  The menu included dosa, idli, or poha for snack, roti or rice with sambar, a salad, a vegetable dish, buttermilk and payasam for lunch. Birthdays were celebrated with chikkis; chocolates or any…

Fifty-six-year-old Seema Adgaonkar glides through swampy mangroves in ankle-deep muck. The fragrance of Avicennia marina (the grey mangrove), the most widely-spread mangrove species in Mumbai, makes the trail pleasant despite the 36 degree Celsius hot and humid conditions. Adgaonkar relishes the scent as she walks in a single file with a forest guard and two helpers, towards one of the mangrove nurseries they set up on the city’s coastline. She gives the team instructions on where to plant saplings along the course and shares tips to identify some of the species with their regional and scientific names. “You’ve to know everything that…