285. Looking Back - Looking Forward

As we approach the 300 episode milestone, this special installment of BIC Talks - the last of 2023 - featuring V Ravichandar, honorary director of BIC, Raghu Tenkayala, Chief of Operations and Infrastructure and Vikram Bhat, current Joint Director, taking over as director from the first of January in conversation with Lekha Naidu, Programme Manager and Custodian of the podcast. This episode features an informal chat - an exercise in looking back for insights and looking forward with an evolved vision as far as the podcast is concerned. In this two part episode, we also take an opportunity to look back at what Ravi, dubbed the patron of lost causes does best - think deeply about solving the city's problems, with a quick look back at a session titled - Why is it so Darn Hard to Fix Bengaluru? - Bengaluru appears to be a work in tatters. 'Mohenjo Daro' type excavations, 'moon like' craters and continuous road works are normalised. Traffic snarls are a daily occurrence. We think nothing of dumping the waste of a city of 11 million in villages of 5000 consigning them to everlasting misery. Come monsoon and there are inevitable flooding of low lying areas – if a Nostradmus like prediction is required, urban flooding is the doomsday scenario for Bengaluru given the rampant, unchecked growth with multiple violations. The speaker despite the above gloomy outlook is a perpetual optimist despite tilting at 'windmills' for over two decades. His talk will focus on understanding the underlying reasons why fixing the city needs a herculean, holistic effort. That is a first step in figuring out how do we get out of the collective hole we are in. This was originally part of a BHeard at BIC event that took place in March of 2022. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.