In 2022, with the world just recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, it didn’t seem extraordinary when elections to the richest civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) were postponed. Though the reasons for postponement were a case in the Supreme Court about OBC seats and an earlier delimitation exercise, any aberrations to the existing systems were acceptable in the backdrop of two ghastly COVID-19 waves and Omicron.  But decisions that seemed fine at that point have outlived the concession. In Mumbai, as the city prepares for the state assembly elections, the elephant in the room is actually the BMC elections. Not to…

Scorching heat waves, devastating floods, a yearly increase in temperature, high AQI levels, Mumbai has seen it all over the past few decades, with no sign that the vagaries of climate will let up anytime soon. If the island city is to weather the storm of climate change, it requires a concrete map to navigate the next couple of decades. The Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP), created by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) with the World Resources Institute (WRI) as a knowledge partner, is such a map. In 2020, Mumbai became a part of the global C40 network, pledging  a…