chennai

மெட்ராஸ் நல்ல மெட்ராஸ்: தலையில் துண்டு, இடுப்பில் வேட்டி, செருப்பில்லாத  வெறும் கால் - 1967ல் ஒரு கிராமத்தான். அவருக்குப் பட்டணம் அவ்வளவு அந்நியமாக இருக்கிறது. சாலைகளையும், கட்டிடங்களையும், பார்த்து அப்படி வியக்கிறார். அங்குள்ள மனிதர்களைப் பார்த்து ஒரு கல்சுரல் ஷாக் அடைகிறார். விறுவிறுவென வெறும் காலில் நடக்கிறார். அண்ணா சாலையில், கூட்டத்தில் தடுமாறி விழுகிறார். பின்பு தலை தூக்கி "மெட்ராஸ்ஸ்ஸ் நல்ல மெட்ராஸ்ஸ்ஸ்!" என்று பாடிக் கொண்டே அன்றைய மெட்ராஸை  வலம் வருகிறார் நகைச்சுவை நடிகர் நாகேஷ். இந்த பாடல் அன்றைய மெட்ராஸை எதார்த்தமாகப் படம் பிடித்து இருக்கும்.

CAG, in association with Consumers International (CI), is presently working on a project, “Giving Poor Consumers Greater Voice in India”. The main objective of the project is to bring about behavioral change in a low-income community (Model Lane community, Royapuram),

A WhatsApp forward came the other day. The provenance was unknown and information scanty. It consisted of an image announcing a meeting under the aegis of CRRT (Chennai River Restoration Trust, a government-owned trust) and TNUIFSL (Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Ltd, a Public Limited Company).

Ponneri is currently a small town located north of Chennai which lies in the middle of lush fields and numerous water bodies. However, all of this will soon change. Last Saturday a colleague and I were able to go visit some of the areas around the planned smart city of Ponneri and envision the drastic changes that this area will undergo if the development plan goes through.

In 2015,the Modi government announced that 100 cities had been shortlisted to compete for funds under a new urban development initiative called the Smart Cities Mission. Since then, 20 cities, including Chennai, have won the first round of funds based on their proposals for smart projects in their city.  The idea of a smart city is a global idea with no universally accepted definition.

In 2014, Tamil Nadu had the highest number of road accidents in the country and the highest number of deaths. Media reports invariably say that Indian roads are considered some of most dangerous in the world. Considering all these alarming stories on the low level of road safety in India, I thought it would be interesting to look at how public opinion is shaped on the issue of road accidents and road safety. I looked at 204 print media articles on road safety in Tamil Nadu, in English and Tamil, that were published between October and December 2015.