Is Bengaluru women firendly?

Dear Bangalorean women and supportive spouses/family members,

Do you return home from work after dark every day and use a bus to get back?
Have you been reluctant to get into an auto, do you worry about select stretches of unlit roads while walking or driving? Or if you are a spouse, have you had the nagging feeling that your wife or daughter might be risking too much by returning home late?
If any of this has bothered you, and you feel as a Bangalorean, the city needs to accommodate girls and women better, then the most important event of the year 2010 is for you, on Dec 18th evening 4pm. Do not miss it, for anything.

Citizen Matters and JustFemme present
"Is Bengaluru women-friendly?"
A panel discussion Dec 18th, 4-5.30pm @ NGMA Auditorium, Palace Road, Bangalore
All are welcome.
The Bangalorean panelists (in alphabetical order)

Prakash Belawadi, a well-known journalist, theatre enthusiast and a filmmaker from Bengaluru. "Among the most significant markers of a civilised society is that it is conscious and sensible to the female half of itself", he says. Earlier this year, he ran for a Bengaluru city council seat on the Lok Satta party ticket.


Mithila Jha, an Urban Planner, currently working with BMTC. Over the past two years, she has been involved in projects seeking to popularise the Volvo bus services. She holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning from MIT, Cambridge, USA. Her interests are in marketing public transport and make it more accessible and user friendly.


Suneel Kumar (IPS), is Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) for Bangalore. He will speak from the vantage of the state police and law enforcement. C K Meena, an author and a long-time Bangalorean, known for witty columns on life in Bengaluru's ever-changing cityscape, has written two books of fiction - the semi-autobiographical Black Lentil Doughnuts and the crime thriller Dreams for the Dying.


Deepika Nagabushan, a freelance photographer who likes to capture people and stories. As an active member of Bangalore Photography Club she was recently involved with Frames of Mind 2010, a photo exhibition. She is a marketing communication professional working with Schneider Electric.


S T Ramesh (IPS), Director General of Police (Training), for Karnataka and is two-time winner of the Police Medal from the President of India. His successes range from seizures of illegal wildlife products and prison reforms to HIV-AIDS training for Karnataka police and being awarded a Doctor of Literature for his 'Reflections on Law enforcement'. He is currently focussed on the challenges to police training, including social issues and human rights.

Siri Srinivas, a gen-next sharpie, born and raised in Bengaluru, a recently graduated-engineer and working at a global financial major in the city.

Moderator
Vasanthi Hariprakash, is presently Special Correspondent at NDTV's Bangalore bureau and an award winning RJ and journalist. She has 16 years of media experience that spans across print, radio, online and visual media.


The panelists will be asked by the moderator to respond with their views on whether the city is friendly or not for women and why, from three vantage points: Transport, public spaces and cultural factors such as 'local vs outsider'. 


This is event is part of pEtE Maatu, city conversations in her own words, a three-day international film festival. Organisers: National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore Film Society and JustFemme.
Just Femme an online magazine for women in India, based out of Bangalore. Citizen Matters is Bangalore's own interactive community newsmagazine, published online and in print, as a south Bangalore fortnightly.
The National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru is at the intersection of Palace Road and Cunningham Road, south of Mount Carmel College.

Venue: NGMA, 49, Manikyavelu Mansion, Palace Road, Bengaluru, 560052. Dec 17-19 1130am-7pm.Tel: Tel: +91-9611106477

Crisis of Economics

Extremely interesting podcast on The Guardian. Is Economics in Crisis? Extremely important arguments are made here ranging from Mathematics In Economics to the idea of hatred of the government to the greatest of them all 'Keynes' and his continuing relevance. How does Economics deal with complex issues and how does it deal with simple issues? If the issues Economics deals with are more complex than what any other field of science that is shaped by other disciplines like Mathematics deals with, then does Economics have to reduce everything to Mathematical equations or move towards more simple but practical grasping of these more complex issues? Can Economic issues really be reduced to mathematics? Institutional economist Elinor Ostrom argues otherwise, that 'complexity' should not be a dirty word, and that we do infact need complex systems to simplify complex issues. Are numbers phony? Do they have no connection to objective reality? What would Keynes say about the stimulus package? Is Economics really that simple...or are academicians making it seem really complex to maintain a so called scientific image of the discipline, when what it ultimately deals with is so much uncertainty. Is the failure of one school of thought, (the dominant one), really the failure of Economics as a whole? These insightful arguments, uncomfortable at times, yet honest, are things any serious student of economics facing up to the strangely exciting time we as students are in would want to hear and think about! How wonderful really it would be to be able to watch the greats, including Keynes and Adam Smith battle it out before our eyes...what a sight it would be!!!

G20: Words and Walls

Germany's finance minister calls the US economic model "in deep crisis" and describes the country's policy response as "clueless".

Germany regards the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing programme as a dangerous dance with inflation; the US sees it as a legitimate attempt to generate demand for the benefit of all.

"The issue of the Renminbi is one that is an irritant not just to the United States, but is an irritant to a lot of China's trading partners..." - Barack Obama

China says it risks social unrest if it allows the yuan to appreciate rapidly against the dollar.

 4% cap on current account surpluses - says Tim Geithner, U.S Treasury Secretary  - Germany slams this down.

"Smiling family photographs marking the attendance at international gatherings are no substitute for specific actions" (January) - Mervy King, Governor Bank of England

"The fear we should all have is a return to what happened in the 30s: protectionism, trade barriers, currency wars, countries pursuing beggar my neighbour policies – trying to do well for themselves but not caring about the rest of the world. That is the danger..."
"Now on the big battle, the biggest issue of all is the cause of the last crisis – a wall of money in the east, a wall of debt in the west. We've got to deal with that imbalance and I think it's a real test for this summit and one that Britain will play a very positive part in trying to make sure we really look at these imbalances and deal with them." - David Cameron

Just for some perspective, it's important to see who is a surplus country and who is a deficit country.

"Recycling surplus savings into investment in developing countries will not only address the immediate demand imbalance, it will also help to address developmental imbalances. In other words, we should leverage imbalances of one kind to redress imbalances of the other kind." - says Dr. Manmohan Singh


Our PM also says we must avoid competitive devaluation and protectionism. He said advanced deficit countries should move towards fiscal consolidation and sustainable borrowing. For rebalancing of global demand he suggests the advanced deficit countries should work on their competitiveness and efficiency. And the surplus countries should increase domestic demand. And finally he added that countries must not manipulate their exchange rates.

Democracy's Shining Hero

Aung San Suu Kyi's release will end one of the worst violations of democratic right and liberty. If this brings in the needed democratic values into Burma, with no strings attached then this marks the beginning of true empowerment for the people of Burma. But if there will be conditions put on her freedom, then just like before we should expect her to break them. But let's hope this is for real and there will be no looking back from here.

"There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk. People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal.", she said after her release.

Interactive Buildings and Public Art

What if we could decide on the kind of public art we want in our cities? I know Indian cities don't really have the tradition of grafiti, but I suppose this technology is useful for only those cases...for now. But I'm sure this can be extended even to sculptures and other kinds of public art. How? I have no idea, I'm not a technology person or an architect from GSAPP but check this amazing innovation out for making the public have a say in what kind of grafiti stays and what kind does not. It's extremely futuristic and I suppose a lot of artists wil have problems with this, but I can think of two instances where I would love for this to work in an Indian city, Bangalore.

1. Dairy Circle has this horrid sculpting, of a man bleeding to death while he has a a bottle of alcohol in his hand. I'm pretty sure that the local officials can justify that by saying that it doesn't get into people's heads if we don't explicitly show the results of drinking and driving. But even so, it's ghastly and extremely disturbing to see that. Wouldn't a large board with the message and with the fine to be paid if caught drunk be enough? I suppose not, but it just makes the junction ugly! I googled for an image and found one. It's not exactly clear but gives you a hint. I suppose we could appreciate the fact that local talent was used to make this and it is for a good cause. But with Applied Things we could vote it out, if we didn't want it, provided technology applies to not just grafiti.

2. The second instance would be at D.G Pump junction in Banashankari. All along the wall opposite to the petrol station is a grafiti, a series of images, that apparently uses Michael Jackson's life as an example of what drug addiction can do to us. It's not clear how the Michael Jackson in the grafiti starts out to be a young teenage girl and then turns out to be a bloated up fat man that resembles Michael Jackson and then finally dies. I can bet it's one of the worst grafitis on the planet. Again it's for a good cause, it tries to convey a message, and again local talent was used no matter how far away the art is from perfection. But at the same time, I can't help but think that a beautiful piece of wall is gone and we have no say in for how long this grafiti will stay on...no say on whether it can be changed...maybe call another artist to do the same, but in a more subtle and better manner at the same time the message the government wants to give out gets across. It has to be appreciated that this grafiti was made in not more than a few months after MJ's death. The local govt's quick thinking has to be appreciated. I couldn't get a picture of the grafiti sitting here in Chennai to show you what they look like. Speaking of Chennai, as dirty as the city may be compared to Bangalore, in iterms of public art it ranks higher. The best example is the gorgeous stretch along Marina Beach. Statues of Avvaiyaar, Bahartidasan, Subramaniya Bharathi, an important Christian Missionary, Kannagi, Tiruvalluvar, Subash Chandra Bose, Gandhi and many more...and not to forget my favourite, the mighty, Triumph of Labour statue. And for most of them the artist's name who was commsioned to create it appears in a tag at the bottom. I'm not sure if it's for all though. The promenade along the beach itself has some interesting architecture to look at apart from these statues.

Bangalore's thing of beauty is it's many beautiful grreen parks everywhere and gulmohar trees! Which brings it back in the race once again.

But Applied Things is a thing to look at! Read how it works and how it can make our cities and its art more for the public and by the public

The Elephant Man

The remarkable story of a daring World War II operation in which hundreds of people fleeing the Japanese advance through Burma were rescued by elephant is to be told in full for the first time. The expedition was organised by Gyles Mackrell, a British tea planter who shot amateur films during its course.

Current Account Deficit and Capital Inflow

What does it mean when Kaushik Basu says we don't need capital controls yet, even while the rupee appreciates and imports grow at a much faster rate than exports. In my attempt to understand why and how experts say that our current account deficit (above 3% GDP) is alright, I found an article written in 1998 at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York website - Viewing the Current Account Deficit as a Capital Inflow. This article explains the scenario when U.S was witnessing huge capital inflows while it had a considerably large current account deficit. It talks about some people claiming that the unemployment they had at that time was because they were allowing the current account deficit to rise. The authors argue that looking at the situation from a micro angle of imports exceeding exports does not entirely justify the claim that there is unemployment. They in turn make us look at the economy wide perspective where these inflows financing the deficit were actually employment generating foreign investment capital. The reason for decline in  U.S. exports at that time was the recession in Asia. It also gives an example of recession in Japan which brought investment in Japan down, shifting all their excess savings to U.S. and other parts of the world.

"Given the low level of domestic private saving in recent years, U.S. economic growth would likely be choked off by higher interest rates and reduced investment spending if the nation had no access to this capital."

It gives some insight into the current situation of both U.S. and India. Indeed the situation today is different. U.S. faces high unemployment and huge trade deficit. India faces a considerable current account deficit as well while we also have huge capital inflows. One of the aims of QE2 is to encourage investment spending and notwithstanding the claims made by Germany and China that QE2 aims at manipulating the exchange rate, the indirect impact of a weaker dollar is also a positive thing. And what about India? We have to note that unlike Brazil we are not an export dependent economy. India would have faced tight liquidity conditions if not for the inflows, given the persistent inflation RBI would have anyway raised rates. But how does the government make sure that the inflows coming in will definitely lead to employment and high growth?