Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Bangalore Auto Watch, IWPR, and ICA

Over the past several months we have been actively working on the following initiatives.

Bangalore Auto Watch continues to be a top forum to report, view and discuss autorickshaw related issues for bangaloreans. Sudha, our project manager, has been meeting with the Transport Department officials frequently to follow-up on issues and recommended a two-fold approach. Firstly, use the reports to identify major areas of concern and address them broadly - for example, regarding tampered meters, conduct random meter checks periodically and publish the results in the media (as this is probably the most cost-effective way to address this issue). Secondly, address serious issues that sometimes involve criminal behavior, on a case-by-case basis. So far, the Transport Department has heeded to both our recommendations and conducted a city-wide meter check and tracked a handful of serious cases. The outcome of the specific follow-ups highlighted a widespread blackmarket for auto licenses in the city, which has a direct correlation to high prices, bad behavior and tampered meters. Currently, the Transport Department is considering lifting the restriction on auto licenses along the lines of what was done in Chennai.

eMoksha has been collaborating with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting to build a portal to navigate the 2010 Iraq election results and issues. Astha Gupta will be the project manager working with IWPR and our partners in India to help build out the portal.

Last month, Indians for Collective Action (ICA) conducted a Social Innovation Panel in which eMoksha participated alongside other distinguished organizations like Avaaj Otalo, Same Language Subtitling and United Prosperity.

1 comment:

Anurag said...

Hi
I have been trying to locate your contact number. Also, all mails to the ids in your website are bouncing.
Would be great if you could let me know your contact number / mail id where i can reach you
My name is Anurag. I can be reached at anurag.dutta@gmail.com