Future of Capitalism

murali772 - 7-MAY-2010

''The public trust in business and its leaders has never been lower. To restore trust, it is time for business leaders to embrace their own version of the doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, which shapes a common understanding of the role of business in society and the conduct expected of business leaders,'' wrote Nitin Nohria ( who has been named to take over as the Dean of the prestigious Harvard Business School) recently after critiquing the failure of leadership in the recent economic and corporate turmoil.

''Developing, adopting, and institutionalizing such an oath is not going to be easy. But there is no better or more important moment to try—because at stake is the very legitimacy of business leaders and the future of capitalism,'' he warned. His passion for the idea led to HBS students adopting a voluntary MBA oath.

For the full report in the TOI, click here

Building bye laws

psaram42 - 26-APR-2010

 The comprehensive Building bye laws of 2003 available as a pdf document  is impressive which tries to set the rules in a professional way for preserving heritage Bangalore. However the BJP government thought in its wisdom that it is very stringent and some minor deviations are in the public interest. I built my house in 1986 fully complaint to the set backs specified, and some thing more than specified and built a duplex building exclusively for one family. However I built a toilet at a corner outside which was not as per the rule book. However such akramas are now Sakrama. This according to me is a step in the forward direction. 

"Water and a City" - discussions following the screening

murali772 - 26-APR-2010

The movie brought out the scenario fairly well, but which most on Praja are quite aware of.

During the discussions that followed, I brought up the matter of the reported 40% odd losses, largely on account of the inefficiencies/ mismanagement in distribution (compared to less than 10% in an efficient system), and followed it up with a suggestion "if the kind of contract entered into between Mysore City Corporation and JUSCO, was not the way to address the issue?".

Prof Mohan Kumar (Civil Engg Dept, IISc) responded saying a study/ survey had been conducted by L&T and Anglian Waters (or, one of the other foreign players - I am not quite sure which) a few years back covering some parts of Bangalore (I thought I heard the name Fraser Town mentioned) at a cost of Rs 32 crores - did he mention World Bank funded?. He did not mention if any work was actually undertaken. But, went on to add that it raised all kinds of technical issues, like "how do you replace the pipes in an area like Avenue road, etc?"

Electricity distribution and Pruning of road side trees

psaram42 - 23-APR-2010

 During rainy season the road side trees are usually in the news. The whirlwinds are the culprits in up rooting of many trees.  The pruning of the road side trees is another chore that the BBMP has to do due to the over head domestic electricity distribution system currently being followed in the city.

The adieu to the Majestic bus stand!

srinidhi - 20-APR-2010

"Kempe Gowda or Majestic bus station may soon become history as the government has initiated the process of decentralization of the bus terminals.

Street improvements - Problems aplenty

Naveen - 14-APR-2010

Roads in most Indian cities are a complete mess, literally. When do we see them graduate to some sort of orderliness, if ever ? The reasons for this pathetic state of roads, heavy congestion & poor transport infrastructure are many. Most of us believe that the authorities alone are responsible & lack expertise. However, apart from this, there are many other reasons :

1) City officials are unable to acquire land uniformly throughout a street for maintaining width symmetrically because there are numerous establishments & private parties or individuals that contest such acquisition in courts - army land between Mekhri circle & Rajgopal rd & on ORR on the northwest (near Peenya) are examples, as is the traders agitation along CMH rd.

2) Where roads are of uniform width, 'No Parking' is difficult to enforce or indiscriminate parking is allowed due to the nature of activities on the road, or private vehicles park anyway & usually obstruct movement of traffic - examples are Sampige rd & Margosa rd in Malleswaram, 80ft & 100ft roads in Indiranagar & Koramangala that have numerous retail outlets.

Local Trains vs Circular Rail For Bangalore

Sanjeev - 8-APR-2010

Analysis of  last three months discussion and media briefing by Shri MoS K H Muniyappa and CM Yeddiyurappa  shows  that MoS is favouring Circular Rail and CM is talking of Local Trains similar to Mumbai.

Now we will see one more round of study by SWR / Railways for Circular Railway and wasting time on this. RITES study on  Local Trains is not considered by MoS K H Muniyappa and no one is talking of this.

Do any one have the details on Circular Rail what MoS K H Muniyappa is talking.  We from Praja need  to do some serious work so that both proposal Local Trains and Circular Train services are sanctioned for Bangalore.

Town Planning –Principles Summary

psaram42 - 3-APR-2010

 Town planning principles are age old. Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) who visited Bangalore in his days, classified the towns in three main categories depending on three stages of development:- 

1. Primary
2. Secondary
3. Tertiary 

Here is a Lewis Mum ford book  “The city in history: its origins, its transformations, and its prospects” review :- 

Bus stands on the outskirts to decongest traffic

muthusubs - 2-APR-2010

 Building bus stands on the outskirts of a city is a concept which has been widely developed throughout Tamil Nadu. None of the inter-state buses today enter the interiors of towns like Madurai, Tirunelveli, Dharmapuri and even Chennai has its bus stand quite far away from the main city centre though the city has expanded beyond the present bus stand.

Mysore Road - Choke Point 1 - Guddadahalli Junction

Srivatsava - 2-APR-2010

The BBMP has propsed that the stretch from Sirsi Circle to Gali Anjaneya Temple on Mysore Road be widened. This involves chopping trees all along the stretch. These are already well-known plans from the news reports and praja discussions. There are a couple of estimates on the number of trees to be chopped some saying 50 and some 100+. But, lets not be get into the numbers. Whats important is to find ways to solve the bottleneck without chopping the trees, if any available.

Mysore Road starts from KR Market. Vehicles zip across from Town hall on the flyover for about 2.5 kms, pass over the Sirsi Circle, and get struck at the ramp of the flyover. Why ? There is a choke point immediately after the flyover (about 150mts away).