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India’s decision to abolish cantonments after carving out the military areas, announced in April 2023, has been met with scepticism and support. Cantonments, primarily created during the British rule to station and house the military, evolved to include civilians as residents and staff to provide support and logistic services. Over time, cantonment boards, with some civilian members, were created to manage the civil areas, but the rights of civ
India’s increasing urban population is getting concentrated in its large cities.
The Smart Cities Mission in India, launched in 2015, is a unique experiment undertaken with the aim of improving people’s quality of life in cities. It bypasses traditional institutional approaches and employs innovative methods to achieve its targets. This brief provides an overview of the work initiated under the mission since its inception and explores the gains so far. It documents sectoral reforms and conducts a critical appraisal of the m
The Indian government’s “Smart Cities Mission” aims to drive economic growth and improve quality of life through “smart” solutions for the delivery of infrastructure and services. This is expected to transform living spaces, enhance quality of life, and provide employment opportunities, in turn helping reduce crime rates and promoting law and order. Among the challenges to the “Smart Cities” programme is terrorism—especially in ur
In the global urban context, cultural identity is becoming increasingly synonymous with the nature of prevalent collective activities.
The Indian municipal financial pie is woefully narrow, and a large unfunded mandate is the city’s sad fate.
India’s rising urbanisation in recent years has triggered unbridled construction activities to meet the needs of the growing populations in these cities. Not all of these constructions abide by existing laws, however, leading to adverse consequences on governance systems, the environment, people’s health, transportation services, and overall citizen well-being. In extreme cases, illegal constructions have resulted in loss of lives and propert
The female workforce in India is changing as younger women with higher levels of education enter the workforce
Defining safety in urban spaces as just one of physical protection is self-defeating as it presupposes the existence of only reactive action. The construction of safety in sheer physical terms reduces, and often completely eliminates, the possibility of proactive action.
Land acquisition remains at the centre of many controversies and public policy paralysis in India. There are very few public policy issues in India that rival land acquisition in terms of its complexity, challenges and significance to country's growth and transition to more urbanised and industrialised status.
Caring for street dogs is misplaced kindness that comes at the cost of citizen safety
Skyscrapers are typically constructed to meet the housing needs arising from increased urbanisation, but they may also fulfil national ambitions to display economic might. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of building skyscrapers to establish key learnings for India.
A shortage of staff and funds and an outdated municipal governance system weigh the ULBs down, disabling them from properly executing their duties
In the long⎯term, new cities can adopt a ‘decentralised urbanisation’ approach, where stronger linkages between urban and rural areas should be
The National Rural Livelihoods Mission was launched in June 2011 to create institutional platforms for the rural poor, enabling them to increase household incomes through livelihood support and access to financial services. This brief evaluates the achievements of the programme in its first 10 years. It finds that the Mission has met with some successes in improving the lives of rural women, who are the backbone of the programme, and consequently
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) must account for the possibility of interstate migration, rapid urbanisation and possible changes in the social fabric as populations react to new job opportunities.
For better quality of life, city planners need to take into consideration the additional population that will flow in due to greater urbanisation whil
The inability of the urban centers to provide a high quality of life has caused a rise in gated communities in India
Recent research has drawn attention to the potential link between air pollution and diabetes, indicating that environmental factors may play a crucial
This "Book of Charts" on the "State of Cities and Towns", produced by ORF Urban Policy Research Initiative, paints a descriptive picture of the current state and developments in employment, education and public infrastructure provision, among others, and the disparities between states, within states and between different sections of the urban society.
As the world faces unprecedented challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and disparities, sister-city relationships can help nurture a harmoniou
Both manifestos have made laudable assertions regarding city problems, however, the issues of the financial domain of ULBS and certain pending urban r
Teenage pregnancy is almost double in rural areas, 9.2%, as compared to urban, 5%, in India.
India’s trajectory towards becoming a powerhouse economy is only possible by reconciling between the irreconcilable trinity of equity, efficiency an
India’s hill cities are unique poles of development. While they have managed to record some degree of economic growth, increasing urban population and unfavourable topography have also made such growth haphazard and unsustainable. In turn, this has threatened the quality of the built environment and of urban life in these cities. This report studies the case of the hill city of Aizawl, the administrative capital of Mizoram, which is part of the
In 2019, the Indian Railways (IR) recorded zero fatalities from accidents caused by operational errors. However, many people continue to meet with train-related mishaps that are beyond the IR’s control; many of these accidents result in death. The IR’s experience in preventing deaths in accidents caused by operational errors (technically called “consequential accidents”) offers lessons on minimising all railways-related fatalities. This p
Despite acknowledging the detrimental effects of manual scavenging, no concrete effort to make any real change has been witnessed over the years.
While the Republican Party is becoming more firmly entrenched in the rural, mainly white parts of the country, the suburban areas are going in the Democratic direction
Since cities have little control over automobile policy, they must accommodate more automobiles within their geographical limits by employing better p
As digital twin technology continues to evolve, its impact is visible across industries, but without clear regulations, the path to encouraging this g
While Trump attempts to expand his base from blue-collar whites to suburban white voters, Biden’s courtship of that crucial voting block stands ecli
The current phase of disturbances in Tibet began when five monks in the monastery town of Derge in Gansu province on 27 January demanding the independence of Tibet and return of the Dalai Lama demonstrated outside the monastery attracting crowds of villagers
It seems like the 2024 US election is riding on issue-centric campaigns, given the limited impact of persona from either party
India can implement value capture taxation that can help address urban land use challenges such as rising economic and social inequalities.
The issue of valuing water is contentious because of its physical, political and economic dimensions. Yet, it is an important debate, as valuation is key in estimating the benefits and costs of different management options. An effective valuation supports better informed decision-making in the allocation and use of the resource, as well as in the implementation of SDG6, i.e. to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanita
A rising trend of voter apathy in municipal elections has been witnessed across the country
The demand for basic infrastructure and services in Indian cities has increased phenomenally due to rapidly growing populations. Such unmet demands often adversely affect the quality of urban life, the economic productivity, as well as the process of sustainable development. The main purpose of this brief is to highlight the problems involved in improving access to water supply in Indian cities faced with a severe water shortage crisis. A case st
Water security is a growing concern in South Asia today. Growing population, expanding urban centres, widespread pollution and mismanagement are pushing several countries in the region towards a water crisis. Mr. B. G. Verghese, well known journalist, author and expert on water issues, calls for better understanding and cooperation among the countries in South Asia to address the challenge of ensuring adequate and equitable availability of water
Massive populations in many parts of the world, including in India, continue to grapple with lack of access to clean and safe water. This paper studies the case of Delhi. It describes the conditions under which water is produced and supplied to domestic consumers in Delhi and explains the capacity of the water and sewerage agency to discharge its duties. The analysis finds challenges in five aspects related to water supply in Delhi: quantity; qua
This paper highlights the importance of water valuation and pricing for sustainable and efficient water allocation and management in India. An efficient water-pricing mechanism could be a tool to address the impending crisis of water scarcity, which necessitates a robust, objective, and holistic valuation technique. Every unit of water consumed for economic purposes has an ecological footprint, and this opportunity cost or externality factor need
In the urban-rural stereotyping, the phrase 'city girls' epitomises the impact of urban excesses on the apparent modesty and traditional aspect of femininity. City girls are assumed to be loud, to say the least, and of 'morally inappropriate character' on the extreme. Even within cities, this dilemma of how girls in cities ought to behave persists.
According to the Planning Commission, rural poverty has declined faster than urban poverty regardless. If this is true, it would definitely have got reflected in better housing and sanitation. It would also have meant a decline in malnourished children and maternal death. But the census figures show a different picture.
