bangalore taking a leaf from the bangalore city corporation and the traffic police the directorate of kannada and culture is all set to tap the corporate world for projects sponsorshipkannada and culture minister rani satish has sent letters to corporate leaders including infosys foundation and azim premji foundation the ub group and himalaya drug company seeking their contributions for the proposed rs 20crore kalaagrama art village in return for branding sections of it in their namesthe kalaagrama was mooted by chief minister sm krishna in his first budget in 2000 but not much money has been sanctioned for it so i have personally spoken to all corporate leaders the premji foundation said it did not sponsor such projects but all the others have evinced interest rani satish saidthe idea took shape at the statelevel rangoli competition held recently after infosys foundation trustee sudha murty volunteered to give prizes to all participants we considered asking the foundation to sponsor the same competition from next year but later decided to broaden the scope to what the corporate sector can do for culture officials saida meeting has been called to finetune the action plan on may 16 along with the kannada and culture authorities representatives of the indira gandhi national council for arts ignca and kannada development authority kda chairman baraguru ramachandrappa will participatethe meeting will decide on the organisational setup of the kalaagrama and identify sections of it for corporate sponsorship the options are to make kalaagrama a trust like ranga samaja which administers rangayana or an authority like the kda or a society under the societies act officials saidnegotiations are on with the union textiles ministry to set up a rs 2crore workshopcumsale area showcasing the textile industry in the country plans are also afoot to give about four acres of the 20acre land sanctioned for the project at bangalore university to the national school of drama nsd for their proposed southern region branchsatish said the department was in the process of drawing up a blueprint of the village we have consulted a thinktank of artistes in all fields on what needs to be there she added