GENRE: Voices

Those of you who visited Puttenahalli Lake within the past few months may have noticed small platforms floating in the water. These are Artificial Floating Islands (AFIs) which we "launched" in June this year. The Vetiver and Canna planted in them are growing beautifully. PNLIT trustee Nupur, her husband Pranshu Jain together with our gardener, Jayanna, are the builders of five AFIs. With volunteers from Deloitte making two last Friday we now have seven AFIs.  Artificial floating islands at Puttenahalli lake A coot's nest in one of the floating islands   Deloitte volunteers with the AFIs they made, 25-Nov-2016   Artificial Floating Island…

Are you frustrated by traffic delays in Bengaluru? Do you know how much time you and others are wasting due to traffic jams! While everyone in Bengaluru complains about the traffic problems of the city, very few invest their personal time and capability to critically analyze problems and identify solutions.Volunteers from Whitefield Rising with the help of MapsHalli have found a way to analyze traffic problems. The idea is to use technology to analyze realtime Google traffic data to help Bengaluru traffic police, commuters, and city planners to take action.The team chose the Outer Ring Road section from Mahadevapura to…

Whitefield Habba is an initiative to bring together people belonging to diverse backgrounds and residing in different parts of BBMP's Mahadevapura Zone. To be held at Whitefield's oldest spot - Inner Circle ground - the fest is 'by the people, of the people and for the people' of the locality. Organized by citizens' group Whitefield Rising on the occasion of Karnataka Rajyotsava, the six-hour event will celebrate the rich culture, craftsand cuisines of the state. As the attached poster mentions, a variety of stalls, skits, songs, dances and games promise to make it a memorable event for the entire family. It is an opportunity to experience traditional entertainment like Dollu Kunita, Mallakhamba and Gardua Gumbe, alongside music by our Anglo-Indian settlers and art by recent migrants to…

It was supposed to be a quick route to get to South Bengaluru from the western part of the city, which it was during the 90s, when the portion of Ring Road linking Bannerghatta Road to Mysore Road opened. I was pursuing my post-graduation at a business school in JP Nagar then and would manage to reach Banashankari and JP Nagar that were next to the same road, in just half an hour from Vijayanagar even in the early 2000s. However, things started going downhill around 2003. My rides got longer. I relocated to Hyderabad in 2004 and was relieved…

Recently, in the midst of the furore over the Government of Karnataka’s ‘Steel Flyover’ announcement and the subsequent ‘BEDA’ protest that hogged headlines as well as social media space, the launch of a new railway station on Bengaluru’s map went quietly unnoticed. The brand new Hoodi Railway Station was inaugurated on September 29, 2016 by P C Mohan, Member of Parliament for Bengaluru Central Loksabha constituency, and MLA of Mahadevpura Arvind Limbavali and Sanjeev Agarwal, Deputy Regional Manager (DRM), South Western Railway. Pic: Khader Syed Hoodi is situated between K R Puram and Whitefield. It is home to Bengaluru’s IT…

Editor's note: We at Oorvani Foundation believe that it is important to give voice to all sides of a debate to make informed debates possible. Hence we provide space for multiple views, but the Foundation does not have any view of its own on any of the topics covered. Proposed elevated corridor network. Source: R K Misra As someone who wrote an article here on Citizen Matters supporting the Hebbal-Chalukya flyover, I wish to reply to this article by Prakash Belawadi and Naresh Narasimhan. To begin with, all the arguments I made on why civil society in Bengaluru should in…

The BMRDA Act was passed in the mid-1980s, to set up the Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, and to empower it to direct the planned development of the state capital region. Since its founding, however, the BMRDA has done nothing useful, because the state government has always preferred it that way. Why was the BMRDA set up, then, if no one wanted it to do anything? It's hard to be certain, but if I had to guess, I would say the answer lies with Ramakrishna Hegde. Hegde was an unusual Chief Minister, in one very important way that we are…

Editor's note: We at Oorvani Foundation believe that it is important to give voice to all sides of a debate to make informed debates possible. Hence we provide space for multiple views, but the Foundation does not have any view of its own on any of the topics covered. R K Misra's defence of the elevated corridors project, 'Elevated corridors will facilitate public transport' (Citizen Matters, 19 November 2016) is untenable because it is not supported by data or current expert opinion on sustainable urban mobility from anywhere in the world. Frankly, it seems out of date. The project in…

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…

The Bengaluru City Traffic Police has definitely made best use of technology, to make their task of enforcing rules and collecting fines easier, with the 'Enforcement Automation Centre', which issues/delivers traffic violation notices to ones doorstep. However there seem to be some aspects where improvement is possible, which will help an offender to understand their offence and pay up for it. First, the notice provides no information on the police station which has issued this notice. So, if the offender needs more information about the offence, they will first have to visit the closest traffic police station and enquire, during…