Groups, individuals work on smart moves to make smart cities

ET SPECIAL:

Know Your Climate has five weather stations up and running — 25 more to come up by the end of this year, to start recording high quality, granular weather data from the city.

Once the data is collected, Know Your Climate aims to build apps that tell people when to commute or when to bring with them an umbrella or a jacket. The group also wants to set up stations on schools in the future, such that students learn geography and climate by understanding the weather in their in own schools.

Yuktix, a Bengaluru-based startup, has developed these weather stations at Rs 50,000, a fraction of the cost it takes to import the equipment. "The idea is to show government organisations a model for both deploying weather stations and for making data public," said Srinath. "It is my hope that the India Meteorological Department also modernises and serves the public much better in the coming years."

MOD Institute, a brand new think tank which started last month, has initiated a Twitter discussion called #livablebangalore around how to make Bengaluru more liveable, and is creating a 3D projection of the city. The most impactful ideas will be considered to be taken up as real interventions for Bengaluru, which could be included in Smart Cities.