The OoruLabs Podcast

Amit Bhatt, Managing Director in India for the International Council on Clean Transportation lays down the challenges in reducing our dependence on combustion for transportation and energy needs in our cities. Are cities other than Delhi really as clean as they claim to be? Are all the COP committments really percolating down to action on the ground? What are the complexities in climate change gov...

An Alumni of IIM Bangalore apart from her rewarding career at the executive levels of many corporates in the city Revathy Ashok is the CEO of Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) a non-partisan citizen's group that aims to improve governance in Bengaluru and to enhance the quality of life of every Bengalurean. B.PAC is specifically targeting good governance practices, integrity and tra...

Ravichander describes himself as the patron saint of lost causes, and yet he has been instrumental in driving India’s first self assessment scheme for property taxes, India’s first quality road contracting and specification model TenderSURE and recommendations for restructuring Bengaluru city governance. In his current avatar of Brand Bengaluru championing the image of Bengaluru in the eyes of eve...

Ranjit Gadgil of Parisar, Pune helps us understand the effectiveness and the journey of civic activisim in effecting change in the cities towards environmental sustainability. Being an early mover in this space from Pune the learnings in the space is immense. Ever complained how bad our cities are? How bad your commute is? You’ll get to hear from people who are working to solve these problems in t...

Shreya Gadepalli comes back on the show to clearly explain how congestion pricing or road pricing works, dispel the myths, how parking management and the bus can be an integral part of managing throughput on our roads. We talk bus and the future of road transport corporations as well. Ever complained how bad our cities are? How bad your commute is? You’ll get to hear from people who are working to...

Are we ready for the increase in energy intensity from a growing economy and yet be able to transition to clean energy? Deepak Sriram Krishnan, Associate Director for WRI India's Energy Program, walks us through the challenges in entire power system from producer, distributor to consumer. At WRI he also leads work on Clean Energy Initiatives (Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency) for diffe...

From software to civil society to managing the Chennai Smart City as its CEO, Raj Cherubal has seen it all. He holds an MS in Physics from the University of Louisville and an MS in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. As an “outsider” in the government trying to bring fresh perspectives, I got him on the show to tell us the inside story. How the government “works” for th...

Ashwin Mahesh is an Urbanist, Scientist, Journalist, Politician and a Social Technologist. Watch him discuss the state of education from primary to vocational, its impact on cities and the economy. Insights into what is possible and how institutions and government education regulators are struggling to cope with the demands of the marketplace for jobs. Ever complained how bad our cities are? How b...

With deteriorating quality of services by city governments, areas with apartment complexes tend to disproportionately suffer because of the density of people. Bangalore Apartments Federation (BAF) is one of a kind collectivisation of more than 1250 apartment owners associations giving themselves bargaining power with city authorities. How have they used their power? Are such dense settlements a bo...

Meera K, is an Ashoka Fellow and was earlier a Knight Fellow at the International Centre for Journalists, runs Citizen Matters an online portal that aggregates citizen stories. With her experience in civic activism, open data and trying to get people to contribute to civic affairs, she unravels how we have changed as a society in talking about our urban issues. Welcome to another episode of the Oo...

Pawan Mulukutla, Director of Integrated Transport, Electric Mobility & Hydrogen, WRI India, talks about the country's readiness to make the transition to clean fuels. While there is a market momentum in electric mobility, there are challenges as well. We explore the industry and product readiness in hydrogen and biofuels as well. Welcome to another episode of the OoruLabs podcast from Beng...

18 million people turn 18 each year in India and we have over a 100 million people surplus in agriculture. Unless we create 20 million new jobs each year, India’s dream of a demographic dividend could easily turn into a nightmare!  This is the title of the 20 million jobs project that Sridhar Krishna has been driving. He is a Senior Scholar at the Takshashila Institution and leads the 20 Million J...

Srikanth Vishwanathan, Chief Executive Officer of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy unpacks city finances. Why is infrastructure in our cities failing? Are cities mismanaging the finances? Are they unable to tap the right sources of funding? What is the impact of a dysfunctional city finance corporation? What are the reforms in municipal finances? Welcome to the OoruLabs podcast ( ht...

Sandhya Narayanan of Solid Waste Management Round Table unpacks the biggest problem plaguing our cities today: Trash, Litter, Waste. She lays blame squarely where it belong while walking us through the tremendous progress made over the past decade and the work that remains to be done. Welcome to the OoruLabs podcast ( https://podcast.oorulabs.com ). Ever complained how bad our cities are? How bad...

Suryaprakash from Daksh Legal puts on a systems thinking hat to help us navigate the problems in judicial and non-judicial remedial landscape for civic apathy and low trust in our society. In a freewheeling discussion we look our ability to seek relief in the current political, bureaucratic and judicial system and our ability to seek relief in the appropriate forum. Wether its incomplete flyovers...

asheed Kappan was the civic affairs editor at Deccan Herald. an independent multi-media journalist, he has over 28 years of journalistic experience in The Times of India, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, The News Laundry, The Federal and The Probe. He has written hundreds of articles around urban issues especially mobility. He is also the CoFounder of Art Bengaluru Collective and Kappansky media. Welcome...

Shama Karkal speaks to OoruLabs about healthy cities. Why how we build our cities and how we live matters greatly to our individual and collective health.  Welcome to the OoruLabs podcast ( https://podcast.oorulabs.com ). Ever complained how bad our cities are? How bad your commute is? You’ll get to hear from people who are working to solve these problems. This is your weekly soapbox for Urban Sus...

Naresh Narasimhan talks to us about the learnings from trying to design public spaces in the city. How different is it from building buildings? We challenge our ideas of urban design projects. It pays for us to know this before the next big idea is thrown in the ring. Welcome to the OoruLabs podcast ( https://podcast.oorulabs.com ). Ever complained how bad our cities are? How bad your commute is?...

In an amazingly insightful conversation, Vinayak Bharne dives deep into the complex structures that underpin the definition of a liveable city. From cultural, informal nature of the cities to the role real estate developers and structural policies at play, we wrangle with the line we need to draw between these two extremes.  “The answer dear friend is blowing in the wind.” - Bob Dylan Welcome to t...

Bikey Venky talks to us about how India can produce top class cyclist who can compete in events like the Tour de France or Giro de Italia, which is considered the top events in cycling. What are the attitudes and misconceptions around cycling. What is scale, how do we define scale, how do we create leagues and how all this ties down to culture of cycling. How do we compare against countries in Eur...

So those are my schemes And these are my plans Hot tips for the boys Fresh news from the force When it's all mixed up Better break it down -Break it down again, Tears for fears As a member of the Bengaluru Restructuring Committee V Ravichandar has cowritten a report that might change the face of Bengaluru as we know it.  The reports have been followed up with the Bengaluru Governance Bill whic...

And all the love and all the love in the world Won't stop the rain from falling, waste seeping underground -Break it down again, Tears for fears Cities are drowning all across the country.  S Vishwanath , Popularly known as Zenrainman, tells us why. How do we stop this deluge? He lays bare the gaps in our existing water management and governance strategy. Listen in to find out more.  Welcome t...

How do we get out of the Chinese stranglehold on the Indian EV market? What does it take for innovators in the EV space to succeed? What are the frictions in the space that suppliers can solve for the OEM’s? Is Make in India possible? This and more from Vivek Sharanappa of BuyMyEV a startup making electric two wheelers.  Welcome to the OoruLabs podcast ( https://podcast.oorulabs.com ). Ever compla...

Welcome to the OoruLabs podcast ( https://podcast.oorulabs.com ). Ever complained how bad our cities are? How bad your commute is? You’ll get to hear from people who are working to solve these problems. This is your weekly soapbox for Urban Sustainability with Sathya Sankaran In this episode Udaya Kumar PL walks us through how the contemporary city was before you knew it, all documented on stones....

Welcome to the OoruLabs podcast ( https://podcast.oorulabs.com ). Ever complained how bad our cities are? How bad your commute is? You’ll get to hear from people who are working to solve these problems. This is your weekly soapbox for Urban Sustainability with Sathya Sankaran ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/sathyasankaran/ )  In this episode, Bicycle Mayor Network Co-ordinator from BYCS, Netherlands...