[IndyMedia Bombay] From IMC Bombay

[PUKAR @ IndyMedia]

Dear IndyMedia Network:

As facilitators for setting up the IMC in Bombay, we are officially 
communicating on behalf of the subscribers to the IMC Bombay 
list-serv and those who have attending our past four meetings from 
May to July 2002. The IMC Bombay agrees to the "Principles of Unity" 
as posted on the New IMCs web-site, and our response to the 
Membership Criteria is contained in the next e-mail. We will be 
sending your some of our member introductions after we hold an IMC 
meeting on Saturday 20 July.

We are moving ahead with setting up the IMC (Independent Media 
Centre) Mumbai web site, which will definitely be up by the end of 
the month, as agreed in our meetings. Scott Lewis from the Bandwith 
Co-Op in San Francisco has already set up test sites for us which we 
are customizing. We are also moving ahead with content provision and 
documentation from various students to the IMC. Several of these will 
hopefully be up and online by the end of the month as well. They are 
listed below for those of you who are interested.

We look forward to hearing back from the New IMCs list about the 
progress of our registration with the Global IMC network.

In Solidarity,


Shekhar Krishnan and Sanjay Bhangar
PUKAR and IMC Mumbai
_____

1. Project on Water in the City
  (Nirupa Bhangar, Karin Menezes)
A multi-sided initiative on: Urban Water Harvesting, Women and Water, 
School Education about Water. With facts about water supply, location 
of water infrastructure in the city and consumption patterns, lists 
of NGOs and architect-planners involved in water management, and 
information about rural drought, water scarcity, and migration to the 
city. Some of the places to be documented and visited are the Narmada 
Valley, clusters of villages in Thane District, and a Coca-Cola water 
bottling plant on tribal lands near Thane. This project will also 
have a presentation slot during the PUKAR Monsoon series of events at 
the end of July/beginning of August.

2. Indo-Pak Project
(Shubhangi, Nazia, Shivangi)
Report of a visit to South Asian students meeting in Singapore 
recently, as well as reporting and facts about other Indo-Pak related 
issues.

3. Interview with Film-Maker Anand Patwardhan
(Riddhi Shah)
Interview with Patwardhan on his battles with the Censor Board with 
his recent film War & Peace and with his earlier films.

4. Reporting on Abdul Kalam
(Nihalf Mohammed)
About the media personality being created around Abdul Kalam, the 
scientist who made the Indian Bomb, and who will soon become 
President of India.

5. The Tyranny of Mediocrity: Brands and Consumerism
(Rachel Lopez and Eklavya Gupte)
Questioning the tyranny of mediocre ideas of what is cool and 
popular, and how brands and consumerism construct these desires to be 
the same. What is the political economy of this desire? What does it 
mean to be different, to make your own choices? Several of us have 
been reading Naomi Klein's book on brands and anti-globalization, "No 
Logo", which is at the PUKAR office and a copy is also floating 
around.

6. PUKAR @ IndyMedia
(Sanjay Bhangar and Shekhar Krishnan)
Bulletins of events/protests/meetings/discussions, interesting 
articles, and updates on the progress being made with the IMC Mumbai 
at PUKAR, Comet Media Foundation and with other organisations 
involved in the IndyMedia network. We hope that other NGOs, resource 
centres, and collectives can post their own news to the IMC Mumbai 
list-serv to develop it as a networking tool across the city region.
_____

"PUKAR @ IndyMedia" is an information service managed jointly by 
PUKAR and the Bombay Independent Media Centre (IMC), and is broadcast 
on e-mail through the Bombay IndyMedia list-serv. It purpose is to 
disseminate news, opinions, articles, and information about events in 
Mumbai, and serve as a networking tool for activists, journalists, 
students, media makers. Posting and forwarding of information by 
PUKAR @ IndyMedia does not construe any connection with, or 
endorsement by either PUKAR or the Bombay IMC of the groups, 
organisations or individuals from whom the messages have originated, 
unless otherwise mentioned. To join the Bombay IndyMedia list-serv, 
please visit http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-mumbai. 
To post information directly to the network, please send your e-mails 
to <imc-mumbai@lists.indymedia.org>.

For more information, kindly contact:

PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action & Research)
P.O. Box 5627
Dadar, Mumbai 400014, India
E-Mail <pukarsecretariat@vsnl.net>
Phone +91 (022) 2077779, +91 98200.45529, +91 98204.04010
Web Site http://www.pukar.org.in