Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 33 ℃ | Low: 25 ℃ | Mostly sunny for the day.
🧐 Did you know? The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India started from St Thomas Mount. It eventually led to the discovery that Mount Everest was the tallest peak in the world.
🎨 Community art for kindness
A community art installation showcases the spirit of kindness ahead of World Kindness Day.
What’s it about? The Kindness Foundation, founded by Mahima Poddar, has a simple yet powerful vision to create compassionate communities. The first day of the HeART campaign saw the hallway of the Anna Centenary Library bustling with people participating.
- The community art installation has artists and others working on a dynamic, interactive art installation that centres around kindness. The canvas has several hands drawn with postures depicting helping, writing, and praying.
- The event is in collaboration with Joh Sweeney, founder and chief kindness officer of the Suspended Coffees Movement and Tom Cledwyn, giver-in-chief – TED’s (Infectious Generosity) as a part of the Drop Dead Generous program.
Hopes for the campaign: The experience offers people an opportunity to collaborate on a large-scale community art project and explore the importance of kindness through creativity.
🌊 Preparing for heavy rains
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Chennai’s issues with waterlogging and flooding need a multi-disciplinary approach to solve.
What’s it about? The city has hydrographic potential that balances drainage difficulties due to its flat terrain. Today, waterbodies are carriers of sewage and impact people’s health. Chennai faces challenges of water shortage and excess rain that leads to flooding due to poor sewage treatment.
- The city’s waterbodies have shrunk considerably over the decades. Others, like the Buckingham Canal, are polluted. These should be revived to increase their flood-carrying capacity.
- Chennai needs a 3D map of its drains to know exactly where excess flood water goes. They should be routed to the sea while the sewage should be sent to treatment plants. Lakes on the city’s periphery should be restored to improve retention capacity.
Importance of Buckingham Canal: When the tsunami hit in 2004, the energy of the waves was dissipated by the Buckingham Canal which runs parallel to the Bay of Bengal coast and saved thousands of lives.
🏅 IIT-M’s new sports complex
IIT Madras now has a new state-of-the-art indoor sports complex.
What’s it about? The new facility, funded by an anonymous alumnus, will supplement the existing sports facilities, which include basketball, volleyball, and football. The Sitara Indoor Sports Complex was inaugurated by table tennis champion Sharath Kamal, tennis champion Somdev Devvarman, and Paralympic champion Manisha Ramadoss.
- The new complex has badminton courts, a gallery on the mezzanine floor, multiple table tennis courts, and an open tennis court on the terrace.
- The three sportspersons participated in a panel discussion and interacted with students.
New Centre: The building also houses the Centre of Excellence in Sports Science and Analytics. It creates support infrastructure and technology for sports technology for various athletes.
🏢 New co-working space
Chief Minister MK Stalin inaugurated the “Mudhalvar Padaippagam” co-working space.
What’s it about? The first-of-its-kind facility in the state was developed by the Chennai Corporation and the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) for ₹2.85 crore in Kolathur. The facility is a co-working space for budding entrepreneurs and a learning space for students.
- The centre can accommodate 51 people at any time. Students can use the space to prepare for competitive exams with the textbooks available.
- One floor has been categorised as a co-working space for 38 people for entrepreneurs, with three conference rooms. The centre is open from 6 am to 11 pm on all days.
Advantage: The co-working space will be helpful for small companies since the cost is about a third of similar spaces in other parts of the city, helping them save on rent.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you own or rent a house?
- I own a house.
- I rent a house.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
If you were to run your own startup, what would it be?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Despite spot fines, illegal dumping of garbage continues unabated in Park Town.
- New infrastructure projects worth ₹187 crore were launched by Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for Chennai and Kamarajar ports.
- LIBA’s PGDM programme has seen a surge in applications from across India.
- The Chennai Corporation reported the removal of 406 metric tonnes of firecracker waste.
- The Chennai Grand Masters chess tournament begins its second edition with more players and sections.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I usually tip delivery persons: 62.5% 🏆
- I don’t usually tip delivery persons: 37.5%
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What genre of music do you prefer listening to?
Suchi: “Film songs”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!