Good morning, Chennai!
☀️ Today’s weather: Hot and sunny with high temperatures.
🧐 Did you know? Chennai is the first Indian city to recycle wastewater at scale thanks to its two Tertiary Treatment Reverse Osmosis (TTRO) plants.
🚗 Cops call for carpools
With recent accidents, the police have asked IT and other companies to offer carpool services to employees.
What’s it about? Long working hours and sleep deprivation have resulted in some accidents of employees working in private companies. The police have asked IT and other companies to provide carpool services to employees.
- While most firms do offer cab and bus services, it’s not uniform across the board. Large or medium size companies can afford them, but small ones won’t be able to.
- A company may have to spend ₹2,500 per person for four employees in an area. If a small company has between 10 to 100 employees, it could cost them ₹25,000 to ₹2.5 lakh every month.
Rebuttal: Transport activist R Rengachari pointed out that several of these small companies make a turnover of at least ₹50 crore every year. So, spending a fraction of that on employee transportation and safety shouldn’t be a big deal.
♼ Chennai’s dry waste journey
How are the city’s Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) handling the mountain of dry waste generated?
What’s it about? As the city looks to decentralise its waste management system and reduce garbage at landfills, MRFs and Micro Composting Centres (MCCs) play a vital role in handling dry and wet waste respectively. According to a Corporation official, they’re one and the same in ensuring waste is processed correctly.
- Chennai currently has around 150 MRFs, while every ward doesn’t have a facility. These are maintained by the Corporation. The MRFs in the city function inconsistently, with some unmanned and one that caught on fire.
- Dry waste sold to private vendors isn’t formally managed. They take the valuable dry waste and dump the rest. While there’s a record of the weight of the dry waste taken by workers, there’s no record of what happens to it once it’s sold.
Challenges: Managing dry waste requires a streamlined process since it’s more complicated than wet waste. Even though incineration isn’t climate-friendly, it’s deemed acceptable to some extent since it prevents some dry waste from ending up in landfills. The condition of MRFs is a challenge to the Corporation’s long-term waste management goals.
👩🌾 Climate-smart farming
IIT Madras and WayCool Foods join hands to provide technical solutions for sustainable agriculture.
What’s it about? IIT Madras has partnered with the agricultural supply chain startup WayCool Foods to expand the Regenerative Agriculture Sustainable Architecture (RASA) tech stack to improve farmer incomes. The company will also provide technical solutions and domain knowledge of the agriculture supply chain.
- IIT Madras built and developed the RASA tech stack last year to help farmers monitor and fine-tune cultivation practices. It can help address some of the challenges farmers face.
- Leveraging sensors and data science, the partnership can help improve crop yields, reduce wastage, and increase income for farmers.
Experience: Based on WayCool’s on-field experience, farmers enjoy greater commercial benefits when they adopt regenerative agriculture practices.
❓ Quiz nights
Many bars and pubs in the city have jumped on the quiz nights bandwagon.
What’s it about? Many pubs and bars in the city have begun holding quiz nights for patrons to wind down after a hard day’s work. Pub trivia dates back to the 1970s in the UK. It has gained momentum as a perfect mix of relaxation and intellectual stimulation. While cities like Bengaluru were relatively quick to act, Chennai has seen a slower adoption.
- At Watson’s in T Nagar, every Thursday is quiz night with Arjun Mohan as the quizmaster. He focuses on topics like music, films, technology, etc. While participation has declined over the years, he still embraces the new quizzing trend.
- At the Black Orchid, Abhishek Bharathkumar is the quizmaster in an invitation-only event held four or five times a year. At the recent Sin and Tonic pub quiz, 50 people battled it out on questions ranging from pop culture to travel to fashion.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you believe Chennai has a lively nightlife?
- Yes, I believe Chennai has a lively nightlife.
- No, I don’t believe Chennai has a lively nightlife.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
What do you think is Chennai’s signature food?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Seven gharials at the Chennai Crocodile Park celebrated their third birthday.
- E-commerce growth has created an increase in the demand for warehouses around Chennai.
- Conservancy operations in some zones have been affected due to a worker shortage.
- Construction waste finds its way into the interior roads of suburbs in the city.
- Perungalathur bus stop is in poor condition with no shelter and toilets.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I am a fan of Chennai Super Kings: 100.0% 🏆
- I am not a fan of Chennai Super Kings: 0.0%
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What’s your favourite place to get desserts in the city?
Kalaiarasi: “Cream and Fudge”
Chitra: “Amadora”
Nirja: “Amadora”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!