"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow" - Abraham Lincoln
What is the biggest threat to your city?
Earthquakes
Floods
Water Scarcity
Landslides
Pollution
War
Nope! You missed the most obvious one! Us.
Did you read the news about how Bangalore might be unlivable in 5 years?
A study claims that the built-up area in Bangalore has grown by 525%. Vegetation is down 78%. Water bodies have lost 79%. Last week, I wrote about the rise of China. But, what I missed mentioning is that everything comes at a cost. Did you know China’s housing boom has dried up its water levels? A similar thing is happening across major cities in India. The green patch in Bangalore has almost disappeared. An auto driver told me once that he moved from the cotton city of India to the garden city of India 20 years back. He said it was time people stopped calling Bangalore the garden city.
I remember spending my childhood summers in Bangalore, half or it near the East Station and half at the Defense R&D campus at CV Raman Nagar. East used to be open lands, where I spent my afternoons watching trains and catapulting stones at tamarind trees. My version of Malgudi!
My second half of summer were at the DRDO residential society, where kids got together for roller skating and sports. I visited grape fields, botanical gardens and parks, all of which were in the area. Everything was green. Cool breezy summers with wide open roads and a canopy of trees.
Not any more. It's a different Bangalore today!
People from across India have moved into Bangalore for work. Real estate spikes across the outskirts and workplace peer pressure to accumulate real estate investments has made people compete in terms of number of properties owned. 125000 trees have been cut down along the outer ring road corridor. In Whitefield alone, 40000 trees have been cut down in the last year. The loss of green patch in Bangalore is a core issue at hand today.
Bangalore draws its water from Cauvery that flows 100 kms away and 1000 feet below. Bangalore’s population has gone up 150%. If this explosion of urban sprawl continues and the river dries up, Bangalore might turn into a desert. Today, Bangalore is hot and for the wrong reasons. This story resonates across multiple cities of the world. How do we solve this for ourselves?
The great TV world of CBeebies and its characters. Even if you’re not a kid, do watch ‘In the night garden’, in which all the characters go to sleep. It’s hypnotically relaxing.
Stanford built a robot mermaid that can do deep sea exploration. It’s very dangerous for us to go 3-4 miles under the sea. Did you ever imagine a robot mermaid swimming through depths to find and broadcast new species? If we find new species - What will we do with them?
Overfishing has put the tuna at risk. A $42 billion industry. A massive depletion of the ocean ecosystem is happening. This has percolation effects on the land.
Do you know the man behind the operations and management of Patangali Ayurved? That's Ram Bharath, the brother of Yoga guy Baba Ramdev. Right now, senior execs across Nestle, Colgate, Dabur and the other FMCG giants are discussing the strategy to fight this one. Patanjali has 350 products and Ramdev as their brand ambassador. Pretty set!
If you use recycled coffee grounds while laying roads, it makes the road smoother as well as greener. Material engineering for construction is going a disruption cycle as well. We’ll cover this soon in later weeklies, when there is a report.
A solar plane made its first flight and that’s amazing. Solar is a very complicated industry. Residential subsidies aren't enough. Commercial advantages are measurable. Somehow, the large sunk cost poses a big problem. Look at SunEdison – which filed for bankruptcy protection and got delisted from NYSE.
Chinese personal transport drone company EHang partners with Lung Biotechnology to do organ transplant delivery through drones. There is a steady increase in the number of use cases for the application of commercial drones. Cisco, Intel are getting on the drone markets as well. Interesting rise of drones across multiple markets worldwide.
News @Arcluster
Arcluster is pleased to announce the addition of its latest report in the drone series. We've published the industry’s first market research study on the Public Safety Drones market. More information on the report is available here. You can also check out the product page with an audio commentary here. This is #2 in our summer research line up. Watch the news space to see the launch of these studies. For the latest news from the company, follow us on Twitter here, LinkedIn here and Like us on Facebook here.
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Arun manages market research and consulting at Arcluster. an innovation design and market consulting company that does research and consulting on micro emerging markets and sustainable solutions.