PEOPLE

Amrendra Kumar, a twenty nine year old Ph.D student of Public Policy at IIM Bangalore stunned the audience at a conference on "Integrated Solid Waste Management- Waste Generated v/s Managed" at Municipalika 2011 by claiming that within a year he could make India as clean as Switzerland.  A native of Patna, Bihar, Amrendra completed an integrated degree in Physics from IIT-Kanpur and is been pursuing his Ph.D at IIM-B. Branding himself a "missionary", he wants to clean up India through his organisation Clean Credit, which believes that "Cash is Trash". Amrendra lays out his plans for a clean India in…

3 years ago, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Population First launched the Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity. Their objective is to annually recognize and reward gender just perspectives, stories and analyses by various newsmedia between 1st July of the previous year and 30th June of the current year. Comprising of regional and national awards, they are given in each category including print, internet, audio (radio) and audio-visual (television) media. Apart from this, there are also all India awards for similar efforts in advertising. Importantly, the awards include various vernacular tongues in addition to Urdu, Hindi and English. National…

The members of Achieve Academy have organised an event called "Cycle On Bangalore - A fight against Pollution", a cycling trail, on January 16, 2011. A participation of 500 members has been set as our target. We have also received a confirmation of 200 members.. Route: Madhavan Ground to Vidhan Soudha via, Ashoka pillar, Double road, Kanteerava Stadium, Cubbon Park ands return. The event starts at 7AM.Please participate in large numbers and help spread the awareness of pollution to a wider extent. For registrations and more information contact:Dimple - 9916602447 Vittal - 9611328858 Online registrations can be done through this…

He is dynamic, well-built and tall. Like many who enter public life after a successful industry career, he has many facets. He is an entrepreneur who founded BPL Mobile in the 90s, a firm that some would call a benchmark for India's telecom revolution. Since 2005, he is a venture-capitalist, and runs Jupiter Capital, with its offices behind Kids Kemp, off M G Road, Bengaluru. And he was a former president of India's largest and oldest chamber of commerce, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).  We have become a single agenda city of traffic, traffic, traffic. Pic:…

 Found the year already inscribed on a rock: Let 2011 rock on! ⊕

Excerpts from a recent conversation that Citizen Matters had with Shanti Raghavan (SR) and Dipesh Sutariya (DS), the enthusiastic, committed and unassuming co-founders of EnAble India. This 11 year old non-profit, NGO based in Koramangala is famous for its employment assistance services to those with mental, physical, visual and auditory challenges. Enable India co-founder Dipesh Sutariya. Pic: Pushpa Achanta. Shanti Raghavan was awarded the best individual working for the cause of persons with disabilities by the ministry of social justice and empowerment on December 3rd on world disability day, this year. Can you trace your journey from working in the…

"Bangalore is not a garden city any more!" is a common refrain that I have been hearing for over 3 years. It is definitely not the cool town that we had visited a few times during summer in the mid 1980's, escaping the scorching Chennai heat. (Apparently, it was still a pleasant place when my husband started his career here over a decade ago). This situation reminds me of the song Ayyayyo Bengaluru lamenting this city's deterioration rendered during the first edition of Namma Jathre (Freedom Festival) in Cubbon Park in 2006. So what are the reasons for this live…

It's called Saaku. It has picked up quickly this week and is a mini-rage on twitter as Bengaluru hit Friday weekend night on December 10th. Bangaloreans online are now chirping away to reach asking more and more people to join the Saaku rally against corruption on Saturday morning. Swarathma, one of the city's leading rock bands, has thrown its support for the rally. Pic: Saaku.in Walkers will start from Kanteerava Stadium at 930 and converge to Shantinagar Grounds at 1030 am, next to the Hockey Stadium, for meeting and a rally.Tweeted EndhirenV2dot0, at around 11pm, when this article was getting…

Looking at Manjula Sridhar, you may mistake the BTM Layout resident for yet another technology professional. Not quite. Pic courtesy: Manjula Sridhar. As a Program Manager at Lucent, she was appointed the Distinguished Member of Technology (DMTS) in India. She was recipient of the Lucent Innovator Award and Bell Labs President Gold Award, and has filed many patents in wireless security and network management areas. She was Co-Founder and CTO at Aujas Networks. Now working for a large telecom MNC as Director, Market Analyses Datacom, she is also an avid cyclist and endurance athlete. She has participated in dozens of…

Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, is a well known NGO based in south Bangalore which supports the physically and visually challenged through various initiatives and programmes. Lesser known is the Trust's involvement and promotion of games like cricket and chess for the differently abled.  In end September 2010, Citizen Matters had a telephonic conversation with Chandrashekar K N who heads the sports desk at Samarthanam. A former blind cricketer (as he called himself) this enthusiastic thirty year old was the first student at Samarthanam when it was founded in 1997. He has been with the organization since then. Chandrasekhar has…