Past Event

Namma Bengaluru Foundation partnered with Indian Institute of Management (IIM) – Bangalore in August 2016 for a Public Policy Hackathon, which was conducted as part of the XI Annual International Conference on Public Policy & Management, hosted by the Centre for Public Policy at IIMB. What does the hackathon focus on? The aim of the hackathon was to address public policies, challenges and concerns that affect the day to day life of Indians and identify data-based evidence for social policy reform. The IIM Bangalore Policy Hackathon focuses on using nationally representative datasets to contribute real time solutions of emerging policy challenges facing the nation. The output is in the form of a short white paper that is crystalized during the event covering a) an understanding of the policy problem, b) using data to summarize the problems and study the efficacy of alternative possibilities, c) developing ways by which existing policies need to be adapted or new policies may be needed. Teams are constrained to work on a common dataset but have the freedom to merge this with other open source datasets available online. What kind of value does the hackathon create? The key goal of the IIM Bangalore Hackathon is to develop a culture and practice of developing evidence based public policy responses to challenges. Increasing digitization and its public availability implies that many large problems already have solutions “out there”. Harvesting such data however needs a complex set of skills that are truly difficult to find within an organization or disciple. The Hackathon provides an unmatched opportunity to network with and meet some of the most motivated and talented software professionals, social scientists, web/UI designers all in one place! This has been and hopes to be the birth place for high-impact policy solutions that provides a new of using existing technology to drive socio-economic development. This would be a fantastic source of development of ideas and solutions that could revolutionize the way we develop products for not only the bottom-of-the pyramid, but also with each other. Identifying and funding such ventures is a key goal for the IIMB Hackathon as well. The contest was open to people from all walks of life – social scientists, data scientists, business analysts, software developers, designers, economists, social activists and public policy practitioners. Participants required three key skills – communication, analysis and coding. Read More Here

Over the past few decades, Bengaluru has paid a price for transitioning from a quiet ‘garden city’ to a bustling ‘Silicon Valley’ – driving it to the brink of becoming unlivable. The onus thus lies on us as responsible citizens to engage and deliberate on viable solutions for the future. Namma Bengaluru Foundation is pleased to collaborate with Swarajya to present the first edition of Cityscapes – #ReclaimingBengaluru – an event that gathered researchers, administrators, experts and citizens under one roof to discuss the issues faced by the city and arrive at sustainable solutions.  The conference covered a host of civic issues ranging from transportation, environment to politics to develop a Vision 2030 for Bengaluru. Click to read what key speakers said Photos from the event

Bengaluru once enjoyed a pleasant climate, which saw flowers blooming, lakes thriving, sprawling green pastures and more. However, sadly today the due to rapid urbanisation, unplanned development and uncontrollable land mafia our lakes are being encroached upon, exploited and destroyed. This rapid disappearance of lakes, coupled with widespread exploitation of underground water will lead to irreversible damage of our city’s water security and overall quality of life. The result of criminal neglect and haphazard growth is there for everyone to see. From the soaring Mercury levels to the depleting fauna and flora, Bengaluru is moving to become an unlivable city. With government agencies turning a blind eye, the onus now lies at the hands of citizens to protect our city’s lakes from rampant destruction. Several citizen groups have already made inroads and championed the cause of a handful of lakes. However, what Bengaluru desperately needs is for each and every citizen to come together with a sole mission of restoring and protecting all our lakes.  Under the able guidance of senior freedom fighter Shri HS Doreswamy, the Naagarika – Citizens Watch Committee along with citizens, urban experts and lake activists and groups on May 13, 2017 launched the #UnitedBengaluru campaign to reclaim and protect our lakes. Since its launch, the team has inspected several lakes across Bengaluru to assess the extent of deterioration, encroachment and dumping of domestic and industrial effluents. The team has also successfully lodged complaints at various police stations. The mismanagement of lakes has resulted in public nuisance and public health crisis, which has been the basis of these complaints.  The motive of the visits are to ensure that Citizens use the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Order on Dumping into Lakes throughout Bengaluru. As per the NGT order each violation must be fined INR 5,00,000. The experts encourage the Citizens to use United Bengaluru as a platform to end encroachment and dumping of lakes and send a copy of the complaint on violations to unitedbengaluru17@gmail.com Watch: Save Bengaluru’s lakes or our city will R.I.P. Learn more about United Bengaluru here. Follow United Bengaluru on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnitedBengaluru/ Twitter: @unitedbengaluru

The Beautiful Bengaluru – Be the Change campaign looks to make the city clean, green and safe. Beautiful Bengaluru is an initiative aiming to bring beauty back to the city, making it clean, green and safe by involving citizens who will be the change. Driven by Bengaluru-based alumni of two management institutes, IIM-Calcutta & XLRI Jamshedpur, Namma Bengaluru Foundation plays the part of this campaigns knowledge partner. The initiative is envisaged in three phases over five years with an aim to set in motion definite patterns of change, sustainable long-term actively involving alumni, networks, others working in similar areas, administration but very importantly, every citizen wishing for change including groups like schools, colleges, buildings, corporates, etc. Three core areas of focus are:•     Cleanliness & sanitation (reducing litter at source through awareness-building)•     Environment-friendly initiatives on: Waste (reducing waste and open burning through segregation & composting) Sustainable commuting (reducing vehicles, congestion, pollution, fuel consumption)•     Road Safety and decongestion (making roads safer and smoother, increasing compliance on helmet/seat-belt use, lane-driving, no mobiles/drunk driving etc.)Become a Beautiful Bengaluru champion and connect with the core team to understand how you can do your bit in little ways and become part of the movement to make Bengaluru beautiful again.Every person can impact change by becoming an immediate change-agent in simple daily actions spreading to workplaces/other communities, widening the circle of influence. You can be a part of this without spending time, in case time is difficult.For further information: Write to – bebeautifulbengaluru@gmail.com Log on to: Beautiful Bengaluru’s FB Page

Daan Utsav – the Joy of Giving Week – is India’s ‘festival of giving’. Launched in 2009, the festival is celebrated every year – commencing on Gandhi Jayanti – from October 2 to 8. From auto rickshaw drivers to CEOs, school children to celebrities, homemakers to opinion leaders and media personnel, millions of people from all walks of life come together during this week to give their time, money, resources, or skills back to society. In 2016, Namma Bengaluru Foundation partnered with Daan Utsav to raise contributions for 5 past winners of the Namma Bengaluru Awards. They are: Sankara Eye Hospital – Recipient of Namma Bengaluru Awards in 2009, Sankara Eye Foundation is a not-for-profit community eye care organization that works towards eradicating preventable and curable blindness from India. Working tirelessly for close to 4 decades now, the foundation’s core mission is to provide unmatched eye care through a strong service oriented team Prarthana Kaul – Recipient of Namma Bengaluru Awards’ Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2015, Smt. Prarthana Unkalkar Kaul has changed the lives of countless differently-abled people. With her e-commerce platform – GiftAbled – Creating Inspiring Transforming – this former techie has already made a lasting impression on a number of people. Powering her vision to help the differently-abled, Prarthana has embarked on a journey to educate people with disabilities about various health issues. Communication being one of the biggest challenges of people with disabilities, especially people with hearing impairment, information flow in most cases is restricted. Calling it ‘Health Matters for People with Disability’, Prarthana and team hope to educate 500 deaf about various health issues and sensitize 10 hospitals across Karnataka. Anirudh Dutt – Winner of Namma Bengaluru Awards’ Rising Star of the Year 2015, Shri Anirudh Dutt and his team at Let’s Be The Change have fixed several black spots in the city. While they don’t shy in working their brooms away and disposing garbage in an apt manner, this energetic bunch of youngsters also aim to educate citizens of Bengaluru to be responsible of their own garbage. So far, the team has fixed over 80 black spots across the city and now they are taking their effort to beautify areas in and around Majestic Bus Stand and Railway Station. Kishore S Rao – Recipient of the Namma Bengaluru Awards’ Citizen Individual of the Year 2015, Shri Kishore S Rao’s trust Karunashraya welcomes advanced stage cancer patients with compassion to help them spend remaining days of their life in the idyllic surrounding of our hospice. To make lives of cancer patients pain-free and peaceful the trust is involved in a range of palliative care activities that include home care and inpatient care and also provide quality medical, emotional, spiritual and social support. Solid Waste Management Round Table – Led by Namma Bengalurean of the Year 2015 – Shri NS Ramakanth, Bengaluru’s respected eco-warriors – the Solid Waste Management Round Table, Bangalore has helped several households manage waste effectively. And now taking their effort a step forward, SWMRT aims to impart knowledge of solid waste and its overall impact on society through their book named – TRASHONOMICS! The Earth as we […]