PRESS RELEASE

File pic. Pic: Kedar Nadella Over the last year several Indian cities have witnessed rapid growth of app-based, on-demand cab services such as Uber, Ola, TaxiForSure etc. These services have prompted debate among policy makers, users and other stakeholders on their efficacy, reliability, sustainability and impact on environment, and on black and yellow taxi/regular cabs/public transport. This can be seen in the recent launch of the City Taxi Scheme 2015.   EMBARQ India is conducting a detailed research study to understand the impact of such services. This research can guide regulators/government to frame policies for the sustainability of aggregator models…

We, Natalie Sridhar who has completed her bachelors in psychology from the US, Mohammed Fazil an ex-Cisco employee, and Deepa Mahesh, an ex-Target employee are currently Teach for India fellows, teaching Grades three and four at the Kadugodi Govternment School.  We have been in this system for the last four months and realise there are many things that the school needs support with.  Infrastructure needs Drinking Water: Water supply is an issue because the pump for the borewell keeps going out of order. The school also needs a water purifying system to make the water drinkable for the kids. Toilets: We have…

A snapshot from the rally. Pic: Beedhi Vyaparigala Okkuta Two hundred street vendors of HSR Layout Street Vendors’ Union and representatives of the Bruhat Bengaluru Beedi Vyapari Sanghatanegala Okkuta (A Federation of Street Vendor Unions in Bangalore) took part in a rally in HSR Layout to raise awareness on waste management and proper disposal of waste. The ‘Swacchata Andolana’ was an initiative of the Union and the Federation (with support from the BBMP). In addition to disbursing material on waste management awareness, they are cleared three blackspots in the area, i.e. a garbage dump on 27th main, one at Agara…

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is calling on engineers, designers, the scientific and innovation community, persons with disabilities, humanitarians, manufacturers, investors and entrepreneurs to join forces in the ‘Enable Makeathon’ to develop affordable solutions for challenges faced by persons with disabilities in rural areas. Image source: Nihal Kashinath, IoTBLR The Enable Makeathon is a 60-day programme taking place between November 2015 and January 2016. It consists of an ‘Online Track’ for teams from all around the world, and an ‘Onsite Track’ with a series of events in Bengaluru. Teams will work towards finding innovative solutions to nine…

On October 31st 2015, a group of friends will be running from Freedom Park in Bengaluru to Chintamani, near Chikkaballapur. The following day, November 1st, they will make their way back to Bengaluru, once again on foot. Across the two days, they will cover a distance equivalent to that of seven half-marathons (a half-marathon marathon equals 21.097 kilometres). But this is no average run… it is an opportunity to raise funds to support the farmers in Chintamani. Some members of the team that will run during Ride2Light 2.0. Pic: Siddarth Dudheria Citizen Matters spoke to Siddarth Dudheria, a product manager…

In late September, a young woman from Bengaluru woke up in the wee hours of the night with a rumbling stomach. As she munched away to fill her stomach, she thought of the many people in the city who probably went to sleep on an empty stomach. Thus began Feed Your Neighbour (FYN), a campaign started by Mahita Fernandez, a young entrepreneur, to eradicate Bengaluru’s hunger. For those who are still in the dark about the initiative, here’s a quick introduction. FYN calls for Bengalureans to cook five additional meals at their home between October 12th and 22nd, and drop…

Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike released a manifesto on Saturday, October 17th. Here goes the text of the manifesto: Next to their workplace and home, Benglureans spend most of their time on the road, travelling. Bangaloreans spend a lot of time and money in order to travel for education, work and leisure due to the lack of an effective transport system. Our transport system is so costly that some people cannot afford even the bus and choose to walk, even long distances. A reliable, affordable and comfortable bus system will ensure that the 58 lakh bus commuters in Bangalore will travel…

“This Dusshera, my aim is to try and ease Bangalore’s hunger problem.” So begins Mahita Fernandez’ post on the Facebook group “Feed Your Neighbour”. Pic: facebook.com/groups/421419554714295 The idea for the initiative, Feed Your Neighbour (FYN), came to Mahita in the wee hours of a night when she woke up hungry. She says, “I woke up with a rumbling stomach around 3 am and felt thankful that I had food to eat. I then thought about the thousands in the city who are probably hungry and have nothing to eat. The very next morning, I put down the idea on paper…

Several citizens of Bengaluru gathered at the Mayor's office on September 23rd to protest against BBMP's failure to provide safe roads in the city. Dr Dominic Dixon, one of the organisers of the protest said, "Though civil society is paying taxes, BBMP does not do it's due diligence. We handed over a memorandum to the Chief Mininster, Mayor and BBMP Commissioner which lists out what action we want them to take. If they do not respond in seven days, we will take it further." Snapshots from the protest outside the BBMP office. Pic: Dr Dominic DixonCitizens handing over the memorandum…

Bengaluru. Snarling morning office traffic. A population of 10 million jostling for space. Boring office, same old chores. Two million working executives struggling for breath. Snail-paced late evening traffic back home. No small wonder that three-fourths of the respondents in a recent survey commented that they are deeply demotivated; They are not stimulated enough, either in their personal or professional lives. We could relate to these boring data points without too much difficulty – because we are part of Bangalore too, and we are going through the same rigmarole. Based on the idea that was thrown up by Benedict Paramanand,…