Good morning, Chennai!
☀️ Today’s weather: High: 35 ℃ | Low: 24 ℃ | More sunny weather for the day.
🧐 Did you know? The Tamil Nadu Archives’ oldest book is from 1633 and the oldest record dates back to 1670.
🎶 Music for a cause
Gig for Gaza aims to raise money and awareness about those affected by the war in Gaza.
What’s it about? As the war in Gaza rages on, thousands have died and many more continue to suffer due to lack of food and medical aid. The NGO Rethinking Refugees is organising “Gig for Gaza” to raise money for UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
- The event’s lineup includes indie artists like Aanchal Bordoloi, 7EVEN Ft. Shilvi Sharon, Worst Case Scenario, and Tarita.
- Rethinking Refugees founder Sindhuja Sankaran said music is the perfect medium to transcend boundaries. It helps involve people who usually don’t engage in activism.
Bringing about a change: While not only wanting to raise awareness about what’s happening in Gaza, Sindhuja wants the event to be a turning point for activism against injustice in Chennai.
Details: Gig for Gaza is on March 23 at the Barracuda Brew in Nungambakkam.
🏢 WeWork comes to Chennai
The famed co-working space will enter the Chennai market with a new centre.
What’s it about? The co-working company announced it had taken a lease on 1.3 lakh square feet of office space in the Olympia Cyberspace building. The space is expected to open in June.
- The new centre will have a capacity for 2,000 desks. Company executives said there’s a surge in demand for flexible and customisable workspaces.
- Across India, it has 54 co-working centres with over 90,000 desks. In South India, the company has 27 locations with over 44,500 desks across Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Why Chennai? Chennai is a growing market for the co-working sector. WeWork sees the city as an important market with its vibrant culture, increasing population, and growing business ecosystem.
✈️ Managing two airports
Operating and managing flights from the existing and the upcoming Parandur airport will require meticulous coordination.
What’s it about? When Chenani gets its second airport at Parandur, planes from both airports might sometimes need the same airspace to head to places like Bengaluru, Delhi, or Kolkata. There’ll need to be coordination between both airports to prevent any mishaps.
- The angles of the runways at both airports are the same due to the wind directions. Air traffic controllers will need to keep watch of take-offs and landings at the new airport while routing planes from the Meenambakkam airport.
- It’s a challenge since planes will use the limited airspace to avoid the defence airspace of Tambaram and Arakkonam. Both airports should have an integrated radar to help monitor departures and arrivals.
It can be done: In airports like Heathrow and Stansted in London, and Dubai, Dubai World and Sharjah airports, air traffic is controlled smoothly by operators by sharing flight details.
🏞️ Sponge and eco parks
South Chennai will get new sponge and eco parks to help groundwater recharge.
What’s it about? The Chennai Corporation will set up two sponge parks, an eco-park, and a football turf in Sholinganallur for ₹2.78 crore. Chennai already has 59 sponge parks.
- The sponge parks will come up on Sathyavanimuthu Street near the Infosys campus and the Tamil Nadu Housing Board apartment complex. It’ll be set up with the help of the Environmental Foundation of India (EFI).
- The eco-park will be a non-concrete space with a bamboo garden, eco-trail, and footpaths. A football turf is also planned at the Government school ground on Model School Road.
Why sponge parks? They are green spaces with a pond-like structure that takes in water from neighbouring rainwater harvesting systems. They’re meant to help prevent flooding and boost groundwater recharge.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you plan to attend an IPL match this year?
- I plan to attend an IPL match this year.
- I don’t plan to attend an IPL match this year.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
Who are you rooting for in the upcoming IPL?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Frequent power cuts are in the offing in several neighbourhoods as summer sets in.
- Anganwadi Centres in Mylapore face safety issues and anti-social elements due to inadequate security measures.
- Ramky Infrastructure has signed two contracts with the Chennai Corporation to reclaim Kodungaiyur Dumping Ground through biomining.
- Fusion CX will recruit 500 more employees for its new Chennai facility.
- New traffic arrangements have been announced for upcoming IPL match days.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I do wear footwear at home: 33.3%
- I don’t wear footwear at home: 66.7% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What’s the preferred streaming/OTT service you use?
Nirja: “Amazon Prime”
Suchi: “Netflix”
Joylin: “Netflix”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!