GENRE: In Focus

Smart cities need a vision. But perhaps more importantly, they need people who are able to draft that and take it to fruition. On February 28 2017, the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) of the Government of India asked states to create a professional municipal workforce and carry out merit-based recruitment of suitably qualified people. It also urged lateral entry of experts and professionals for specific posts and for a specified contract period in their bid to ensure "professionalization of municipal cadre" in the states. A similar thrust was evident even in the formulation of the implementation policy of the…

Committed to a greener planet and thinking of giving up sanitary pads for menstrual cups? Here are a few tips that will help you make that switch. Almost two years ago, I tried a menstrual cup for the first time. I was 24 years old and was a newbie to the world of cups. As excited as I was about trying a cup, I was also equally apprehensive. A hundred god-awful thoughts crossed my mind as I gathered the wits to “do the deed”. On the one hand, I was feeling guilty of not telling my mother that I was…

Remember when it was 'that time of the month' and you dreaded the lumpy sanitary pad which left you constantly stressed about staining your pants? Well, the world has moved on from all thing chunky to all things sleek, pads included, but it's still uncomfortable, causes rashes, leaks and leaves you stressed for the week. The biggest problem of the now long sleek pads, with extra absorbents and what-not, is the volume of garbage they generate. This, in addition to being expensive and uncomfortable. There is no safe way to dispose of these pads and tampons. They clog drain pipes,…

It’s been just over a month since the Jallikattu protests on Marina, and the issue has faded from the headlines. The sport is being held, albeit under certain regulations and with some changes, but there are some questions that still linger. One of the primary reasons cited by the educated, city-bred protester against the ban on Jallikattu had been the undesirable implications for native cattle breeds and the indirect impact on the milk we consume. But can the resumption of a sport really revive the native cattle industry and is it enough incentive for farmers to turn away from foreign…

Child sexual abuse needs to be handled sensibly. Pic courtesy: Child line India On February 20th, the aggrieved parents of a playschool-going child shared an alarming piece of information in social network sites. They briefly narrated the sad story of their three-and-half-year-old girl child having been the victim of sexual assault in her playschool in Bellandur. The parents alleged that a supervisor at the school had sexually assaulted the child. A case has been filed and the alleged culprit has been arrested within a day. Days later it has been learnt that several other children in the same play school…

This city of 11 million, formerly known as Bangalore, is home to India’s software giants and its startups, as well as multinationals such as Samsung, Oracle and Amazon. com. The growing tech sector symbolizes urban India’s upward mobility and economic vigor. But an existential threat hovers over all this new prosperity. Bengaluru is running out of water. A drought that has dropped reservoirs to dangerous levels is only part of the problem. The situation is made worse by rampant and unregulated extraction of groundwater, which is depleting underground aquifers. Anyone who can afford to drill a borewell to tap groundwater has done it, particularly in the…

Pic: Nikhil Reddy Ever since the Right to Education Act came into force, a lot of minority educational institutions in Bengaluru have taken shelter under Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, thus seeking exemption from admitting 25 per cent RTE quota students. Article 30 of the Indian Constitution provides constitutional status to the minority institutions and also provides them privileges and immunity, and exempts them from the State Act and Municipal Acts. According to the statistics available with the Minority Education section in the Department of Public Instructions, the number of minority educational institutions that are exempted from RTE this…

“If it’s not a one-way route, I close my eyes when we take a cab because the speed at which the oncoming vehicles zip past, I fear they might crash against us head-on” said US-based Krithika, while on vacation in Chennai. However, it is not only non-Chennaiites who feel this fear. Many residents, especially women who ride two-wheelers, report feeling tense while on the road. And they have good reason to, as we have seen in an earlier article highlighting the incidence of road fatalities and injuries in the city. But what makes Chennai roads so treacherous and what can…

The greatest challenge today before Indian cities, smart or not, is garbage. Walk through any neighbourhood in a big city and if you don’t spot at least one public bin overflowing with mixed waste, or mounds of the same dumped on the sidewalks or streets themselves, you are mighty impressed. And so I was when I recently spent a few hours in Manali, to understand the work being done by zonal officers and conservancy workers in the area. Chennai North is made up of five zones - Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Tondiarpet and Royapuram - spread over about 130 sq km.…

Even after five years of introducing the 25 per cent free education quota under the Right to Education Act, many hurdles have ensured that the implementation remains a problem. Continued malpractices observed in the implementation of the Act form the majority of them. During the first three years of implementing 25 per cent quota reservation, the major hurdle in the process was a large number of seats allotted remaining vacant. Officials say this was mainly because, single applicant would get admission in multiple schools and there was no system in place to prevent this from happening as the seat allocation…