Articles by Hepzi Anthony

Mumbai dons the mantle of being the congestion capital of the world. It was accorded this dubious acclaim by TomTom, a global traffic management technology services provider that tracks real-time congestion globally across 80 countries, putting Mumbai way ahead of developed cities like New York, London, Shanghai and 405 other cities. Mumbai's 8.6 lakh cars contribute to a vehicular density of 530 cars/km across its 2000 km of road network, putting it way ahead of even New Delhi (over 28,000 km road network), which has almost thrice the number of cars. Mumbai saw the number of private cars and two-wheelers…

Huge unsold housing inventory across 35 cities in the country is one of the key reasons for the Great Indian Economic slowdown, according to former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramaniam. In a working paper titled "India's great slowdown- What happened? What's the way out?", Arvind Subramaniam estimates that this vacant real estate inventory has locked up funds worth Rs 13 lakh crores, resulting in huge unpaid loans to banks. "While developers could in principle tempt buyers by reducing prices, they couldn't do that in practice because lower prices would have destroyed the (notional) value of the collateral that they pledged…

Huge unsold housing inventory across 35 cities in the country is one of the key reasons for the Great Indian Economic slowdown, according to former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramaniam. In a working paper titled "India's great slowdown- What happened? What's the way out?", Arvind Subramaniam estimates that this vacant real estate inventory has locked up funds worth Rs 13 lakh crores, resulting in huge unpaid loans to banks. "While developers could in principle tempt buyers by reducing prices, they couldn't do that in practice because lower prices would have destroyed the (notional) value of the collateral that they pledged…

Remember Arvind Desai ki Ajeeb Dastaan? In his very first film, eminent Bollywood film maker Saeed Mirza had showcased the view of the city from the upper deck of a double decker bus, wherein the characters stated that this was the best way to see the city of Mumbai. Many films like Shaan (an entire song was shot on a double decker bus) and even a much more recent hit, Ghajini (the Tamil version) had scenes in which these buses had provided the perfect backdrop. Unfortunately, very soon, scenes such as these will be the only place where you can…

Remember Arvind Desai ki Ajeeb Dastaan? In his very first film, eminent Bollywood film maker Saeed Mirza had showcased the view of the city from the upper deck of a double decker bus, wherein the characters stated that this was the best way to see the city of Mumbai. Many films like Shaan (an entire song was shot on a double decker bus) and even a much more recent hit, Ghajini (the Tamil version) had scenes in which these buses had provided the perfect backdrop. Unfortunately, very soon, scenes such as these will be the only place where you can…

The new chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray may have granted interim stay pending review on the development of the Metro car shed inside the Aarey forest for now, but the battle to save Aarey – the 4.8 lakh trees that the forest is made up of --  is far from over.  Though work on tree cutting and the Metro car shed inside Aarey was already under a stay ordered by the Supreme Court since the en masse overnight cutting of over 2141 trees on October 5th, the state support for Aarey comes as a huge boost for the Save…

The new chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray may have granted interim stay pending review on the development of the Metro car shed inside the Aarey forest for now, but the battle to save Aarey – the 4.8 lakh trees that the forest is made up of --  is far from over.  Though work on tree cutting and the Metro car shed inside Aarey was already under a stay ordered by the Supreme Court since the en masse overnight cutting of over 2141 trees on October 5th, the state support for Aarey comes as a huge boost for the Save…

Over 56% of the city's transplanted trees in Mumbai failed to survive their shifting, revealed a Bombay High Court-appointed fact finding committee, entrusted to determine the status of such trees. The court-appointed committee inspected about 1483 fully grown trees transplanted since 2017, of which 824 trees were found to be either dead or on the verge of dying. The report presented in court found inadequate tree care and lack of scientific transplanting methods to be the root cause of the problem.  "The proportion of dead trees keeps on rising. In January 2018, 478 trees (42%) were found dead. The number rose…

The Bombay High Court (HC) has become the last recourse for citizens to save Mumbai's miniscule tree cover -- less than a tree per head as aganst the world standard of seven trees per head. The city's few remaining trees are facing the axe from large, high-profile infrastructural projects. The High Court is playing the role meant to be played by the Mumbai's Tree Authority, a statutory body set up following promulgation of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975. From getting the Tree Authority suspended for nine months, probably for the first time, and insisting…

The Bombay High Court (HC) has become the last recourse for citizens to save Mumbai's miniscule tree cover -- less than a tree per head as aganst the world standard of seven trees per head. The city's few remaining trees are facing the axe from large, high-profile infrastructural projects. The High Court is playing the role meant to be played by the Mumbai's Tree Authority, a statutory body set up following promulgation of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975. From getting the Tree Authority suspended for nine months, probably for the first time, and insisting…