Nithya Raman led civic initiative Transparent Chennai in late 2000s
The initiative used community mapping and data to address urban governance and infrastructure issues in Chennai.
Nithya Raman led the civic initiative Transparent Chennai in the late 2000s and early 2010s to address urban governance issues in Chennai, according to a report by The Times of India published by Urban Acres.
Raman founded and headed the initiative under the Centre for Development Finance at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai, said civic activist V Rama Rao from Nanganallur.
The initiative focused on mapping civic infrastructure and creating data-driven solutions by working with local citizen groups to document neighbourhood-level issues.
Rao said the information collected was intended for presentation to the Chennai Traffic Police and municipal corporations to help develop actionable solutions.
K Sankaran, a former president of the Thillai Ganga Nagar residents welfare association, recalled that Raman visited Nanganallur in 2010 as an urban planner and activist to understand local traffic problems.
Sankaran said Raman interacted with about 10 residents during that visit to discuss mobility issues in the area.