GENRE: Voices

Here is the first story to kick off our month-long celebration of Madras Day! Happy Birthday Madras! Sriram V is 75 walks old!! A name synonymous with Chennai heritage, Sriram marked this milestone with a tour of Dare House, the distinguished Art Deco building on Parry's corner, which is the headquarters of the Murugappa group. (A list of all 75 walks can be found here) Meenakshi R: Between Walk 1 and Walk 75, tell us what has changed. Sriram V: I did my first walk in 1999, in Mylapore. In those days there was no social media or apps to…

This year, the government announced an increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for farmers, those national benefactors who are mostly forgotten. The MSP for 14 crops sown in the summer was increased. The price of paddy was hiked by 13 per cent to Rs 200 per quintal, the most important crop, while the MSP for cotton saw a hike of 28 per cent. This was called a “historic decision” by the government, but it immediately set off a ripple of fear among consumers in cities. Will inflation shoot up? Shall we now have to pay more taxes in order to maintain…

Bengaluru is a city which has far oustripped its original population for which it was designed. From a population of approximately 15 lakhs in the 1970s, to an estimated 110 lakhs today (source: Draft Revised Master Plan 2018), the city’s population has burgeoned beyond limits, and stands at the cusp of further explosive growth to 210 lakh plus by 2031 (the end year of RMP 2031). Transport planning for such a huge population is very important, and cannot depend on piecemeal solutions. That’s where elevated corridors come into picture. Modal shares and extrapolation Many conflicting numbers are being passed around…

It has been two years since the Metro was launched between Mysore Road and Byappanahalli. Since the day it opened, it has been my main transport to get to work. So much so that I can’t think of any other way of commuting to work! The issue since then has always been the last mile, the last 6kms from the station to the office. I decided to go with BMTC and the results have been mixed. On mornings, it would take anywhere between 20 mins and 45 mins for that distance, not considering traffic. Evenings, it took anywhere from 25…

Tamil Nadu will be banning single use plastic and other biodegradables from January 2019. Not wishing to impose restrictions on unprepared citizens, the state government has given itself and its people a good six months before the ban kicks in and plans to conduct back-to-back campaigns over this period. From sensitising shopkeepers and consumers about switching to biodegradable bags to campaigning against plastic in schools, the civic body is leaving no stone unturned to ensure successful implementation.   But, how are the people of the city reacting to the prospect of doing away with single-use plastic altogether? Responses have been mixed…

Plastic bans across various Indian states have been in the headlines for over a month now, with Maharashtra abandoning plastic and Tamil Nadu announcing plans to follow suit from January 2019. A partial ban on plastic is in place in five states  in India -- Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. Indian cities have joined others around the world in observing a plastic-free July, and there are various initiatives underway to spread awareness and encourage rejection of single-use plastic. However, in this much-needed discourse around plastic and its ill effects, there has been a notable lack of attention given…

When my son and daughter-in-law invited us to Singapore, we of course were happy to go stay with them. However I had my own reservation about the place, because I thought it was a concrete city. After seeing the beautiful Rockies of Canada with my son and daughter-in-law, I did not know what to expect in Singapore! As we travelled by the ultra-clean train from the airport early in the morning, I did see the city dotted with varieties of high-rise buildings. But I was surprised to see a lot of green pockets in between. My stay in Singapore was…

Kasavanahalli Development Forum(KDF) hosted a meeting of many Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and forums that represent more than 10,000+ citizens across Bellandur and passed a 'Bellandur Development Resolution 2018' to address the critical infrastructure issues in the ward. In Bellandur, the IT hub/SEZ ORR zone alone contributes to ~12% of IT Services GDP for the country, and 30% of Karnataka’s IT Revenues. In addition, Bellandur is one of the highest contributors of tax to BBMP with no proportional investment coming back in infrastructure. Citizens' right to life is being challenged, with no basic amenities of water, drainage, road infrastructure, public…

With Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s maiden budget reviving the pod taxi for five stretches in Bengaluru at a cost of Rs 1445 crores, several eyebrows have been raised in questions over what makes the government favour it as a possible solution to the city’s traffic nightmare. Interestingly, the idea of pod taxis isn't as new as one would imagine. Indian cities have seen similar experiments before: The Chembur - Wadala - Maharaja Chowk monorail project, the airport feeder metro built by the Delhi Metro as a PPP project which was subsequently converted into the orange line. Both have had their…

Travelling within Bengaluru City has become a chronic nightmare for all its citizens. Even as people grapple with never-ending traffic jams, the government has come up with various ideas to solve the issue, including the much debated elevated flyover and the pod taxi project. But are decision makers losing sight of the broader context and framework within which the traffic situation must be viewed? Is there a deep enough understanding of the nuances that need to be considered for the gridlock to be broken and the efficiency of solutions multiplied? Talking to Citizen Matters, Professor Ashish Verma deconstructs the overall…