GENRE: In Focus

Three months have passed since the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was applied to housing societies/apartment associations, yet protests and confusion prevail. Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) collect monthly charges from residents, to provide goods/services for their common use. Now RWAs have to register under GST and pay tax on the monthly charges they collect; this tax burden is passed on to residents. So, instead of being the end consumer, the association is seen as a service provider to the residents. Association has to pay taxes to the vendor while buying the product, and then collect taxes from residents on maintenance…

Residents of Ennore along with environmentalists organized a human chain formation at Elliot’s beach on Saturday evening even as actor and probable new politician in the fray Kamal Haasan visited the Ennore creek, to know more about the ground reality of its ash pollution and encroachment. In contrast to the usual weekend scenes, Elliot’s beach at Besant Nagar was filled with more than 250 like-minded individuals – from kids to senior citizens – who were holding placards that explain the sorry state of Ennore Creek. Industrial effluents from the thermal power stations here and domestic sewage from North Chennai have…

Traffic congestion, waste management, economic inequality -- issues such as these have been bogging down Indian cities. But attempting piecemeal, inefficient solutions means that problems have only worsened. The ‘Smart Cities Mission’ (SCM) launched by Narendra Modi's government in 2015 aimed at tackling urban issues. The concept was to make cities smart - to do more with less, to use existing resources efficiently and to build on them. As per the SCM, cities should provide citizens essential infrastructure, decent quality of life, sustainable environment, and also apply smart solutions. Given the lofty objective, it is interesting to observe how the…

Somewhat surprisingly, Bengaluru’s Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for buses — the first of its kind in India — has been shortlisted with four other cities worldwide in the sustainable transportation category by the C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards in New York for climate-related initiatives. The city has been proverbially bogged down by traffic snarls and lack of public transport, including taxis and auto rickshaws, and there have been few visible signs of an improvement in the situation. Nagendra, chief systems manager in the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), said work on the project had started in 2015 and was officially launched in May 2016.…

It has been two decades, and yet the struggle does not seem to end. Parvathy, a resident of Saidapet, is 70 years old and is seen actively moving around her small shop. “Our joint family became a nuclear family after my two sons got married. It was tough, and then my husband passed away too. Life was even more difficult now and then with my savings, I started this small shop adjacent to my house to keep myself engaged. I long to see my sons but they are busy with their family,” says Parvathy while handing over toffees to two…

The Diwali sugar overload and dark warnings have swung back again for your annual consumption. Various government, parastatal and private organisations have already created lists of what you can do, what you can’t, and what you shouldn't. And these are relevant to every reveller in every city and town, as the nation gets ready to celebrate the annual festival of lights. Let’s look at the yearly log book of safety rules, along with other tips that have been handed down over the years like grandma’s homilies. DO Keep a blanket and a bucket of water or sand nearby as a…

I remember the day well. Several of us had received a Whatsapp message asking us to participate in a silent protest on Besant Nagar beach on February 26, 2017.  The message said the protest idea had been mooted by a group of women. I remember thinking to myself – Who are these women? Are they really going to do something? Maybe the message is a hoax... And I did not go. I wish I had gone to Besant Nagar beach that day. I would have witnessed the birth of an all-women initiative that calls itself VoiceOfPeople. No leader, no followers,…

Strengthening public healthcare is extremely crucial to providing quality healthcare for all. With that in mind, Chennai-based NGO Arappor Iyakkam initiated an initial study as a citizen audit of government hospitals and urban Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in Chennai. While it cannot be taken as representative of the healthcare system of Tamil Nadu, the study is a good representation of the government-administered public healthcare system of Chennai. Arappor’s study in the hospitals and PHCs describes the gaps in the availability of basic facilities, such as drinking water, toilet and hospital cleanliness, hospital staff’s service and attitude, bribery, and overall experience…

If recent news reports are to be believed, the Bangalore Metro is set to have coaches for women soon, according to Minister for Bengaluru Development and Town Planning K J George. The facility is expected to be implemented in 2019, when the total number of coaches will be increased from three to six. The demand for reservation had come from a section of women passengers, once the Purple Line (Mysore Road to Byappanahalli) became operational and ridership multiplied. BMRCL currently estimates that 40% of their nearly three lakh daily passengers are women, and plans to hold a survey to find…

Following the heavy floods in parts of Bengaluru last monsoon, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) took up the task of stormwater drain (SWD) encroachment clearance drive in August, 2016. It has been a year - the drive started in all earnestness but soon got stuck, because of interventions by affected parties and courts. Of course the system was designed to aid all these interventions. To identify encroachments, BBMP used 50-year-old village maps, as there were no new authentic surveys done in last five decades.But while sanctioning the building plans near stormwater drains, BBMP never had the habit of checking…