GENRE: Solutions

A group of 60 students and young professionals in Bengaluru have just embarked on an experiential programme in public policy launched by Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC), an organization that seeks to create transformative learning experiences to equip young people with skills that enable them to lead change in society. The programme cohort of 60 participants, selected from a pool of over 250 applicants from the city, is a diverse mix of lawyers, chartered accountants, artists, start-up evangelists, social sector professionals, and engineers who have had past educational stints in institutes such as IIMs, IITs, BITS Pilani, Azim Premji…

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.…

At Beyond Carlton, we understand the trauma that fire accident victims and their families go through. It takes a huge effort to overcome the pain, grief and stress for both the victim and the immediate family.Recognizing this Beyond Carlton has decided to offer a free counseling service as a means to reach out and hand-hold those who themselves have been, or are living with people affected by a fire-related tragedy.The process of recognizing and accepting shocking and extremely difficult situations is a slow painful one. With a counselor, it is possible to feel less alone, and more willing to look…

In the wake of the Indian government’s decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from the market, and ensuing restrictions on withdrawing money from banks, the common man has had to grapple with considerable liquidity challenges. More than three weeks since the announcement, those primarily using cash as trading currency are still facing a crunch. ATM queues, paucity of lower denomination notes, confusion over exchange and withdrawal policies linger. For a citizenry used to working with cash, this appears as an insurmountable hurdle. They are just at their wits’ end. The government, however, has been pitching…

Cycle Days are catching up fast in every locality in Bengaluru. The Open Streets concept that the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) has brought in through these Cycle Days has been one of the best things that has happened to the city in recent times. Yes, once upon a time when we were kids, the vehicular population in the city wasn't so dense. We were able to play kunta bille, jootaata and other games on the streets. However, today we are not even able to cross the roads without a traffic signal or police intervention.Vehicles rule the roads, and…

For most of us, typical cleaning sessions start with discarding our old and unwanted products from home. But what if you could convert old glass bottles to beautiful chandeliers or flower pots and jeans to bracelets? Would you still let go of it as easily? And what if I told you that by doing so, you would not only be honing your creative instincts but also doing a significant bit for the planet? This, in fact, is the very seed of what is one of the most eco-friendly trends in the city today, called Upcycling. In simplest terms, upcycling is…

My father once told me, “Son, once you find a good barber and an accountant, you should never change them”. Well, that has become quite difficult this last week – my trusted neighbourhood barber doesn’t accept cards and I don’t have cash to pay him! The recent announcement of the government to demonetize 500 and 1000 rupee notes has indeed caused a major upheaval in my life! Our family also knows that we might be unintentionally exacerbating the “Digital Divide” in recent days. We used to spend quite a bit of our household budget on the local grocer, but have…

At Sabari Terrace, an apartment community with 56 flats off the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) in Sholinganallur, we took the first steps towards segregation around five years ago. It started with the creation of a few humble compost pits within our premises - cement rings resting on the ground - where we would dump all our garden waste to begin with. We approached the guru of vermicomposting, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Ismail, and under his guidance started the process of composting our garden waste. Gradually over the next few weeks, months and years, we started approaching the families in the community,…

The Tree Lady, Nature Lover, Tree Evangelist... titles of eulogy sit lightly on Shobha Menon's shoulders. At first sight she gives away none of the tenacity and grit that has stood her in good stead in her determined fight to protect and increase the city's tree cover. The soft spoken Shobha chose to put the brakes on a long and successful stint in writing, to set up Nizhal (meaning shade in Tamil) in 2005. After a long (and often lonely) battle, she and her band of faithfuls can look back in happiness at the lovely Kotturpuram Tree Park, a 5-acre…

The floods of December 2015 have made the various departments of the Government think beyond conventional solutions for Disaster Management. As part of a long term plan, the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure and Financial Services Ltd (TNUIFSL) is currently floating a tender for an Early Warning System, that would typically predict the areas and levels of inundation depending on the rain forecast. This will take into account the level of moisture in the soil, which will increase the accuracy of the prediction. This is expected to take about 2-3 years. LiDAR mapping, a remote sensing method that uses light in…