Articles by Santosh Nargund

As per Census 2011, one out of every six city dwellers — that is, 17.4% of the total urban population in India — lives in slums. While union and different state governments have made several efforts to address the challenges of housing and to improve the dismal living conditions in slums, a unique model has emerged in Odisha in recent years. The Odisha model has not only been successful in addressing the challenges that are integral to slum upgradation, but it also shows the way to collaborative problem solving in our cities, which are faced with systemic challenges that are…

The basic necessities of democracy are timely elections, as well as formation and continuance of an elected government without any delays or truncated tenures. The idea of 'one nation, one election' has caught the attention of the people as the Government of India wants to adopt a policy of simultaneous elections across the country. It has formed a high level committee (HLC), headed by the former president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, to examine the matter comprehensively and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, the state Legislative Assemblies, the Municipalities and the Gram Panchayats. Even though…