GENRE: Report

Like most other cities in India, Bhubaneswar has two faces. One is as tinselly and bright as you would expect a fast-growing city to be. The other frowns with the strain and concentration of having to look good. Bhubaneswar was the first choice of the Ministry of Urban Development's (MoUD) flagship Smart City project. A year later, it featured in the top 20 global cities of the world in the Global Smart City Performance Index 2017,  according to a survey by UK-based Juniper Research. The city was a member of a list that included Singapore (that topped the list), San Francisco, London, New…

Built in the 13th century, Delhi’s Qutb Minar, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the tallest minarets in the country, is facing stiff competition − from the height of a garbage dump in the national capital. In a recent report, a panel of India’s Parliament noted their observations on landfill sites in Delhi, writing that the “laissez-faire of the civic bodies of Delhi also gets reflected in the fact that the height of Ghazipur landfill site has reached as high as 65 metres which is just eight metres less than the height of the national monument Qutub Minar”. Ghazipur is…

After intense overnight showers, Bhubaneswar woke up on a Saturday morning in July with half the city under water. The situation at the capital of the eastern state of Odisha in many ways typifies poor urban management in India that is crumbling under adverse climatic conditions. Residents in many parts of the city were stranded in their homes and the condition was so dire in some parts that the state’s disaster response team had to start rescue operations. Roads in the state capital looked like gushing streams. Disaster response forces moved to waterlogged areas with floating pumps to drain out…

For many in Indian cities and towns, it is not unusual to open their doors to an unwarranted pitch by a salesman for a product or service newly launched. However the Dutta family, living in Eastern High, a multi-tower building complex in Newtown Kolkata, was in for a pleasant surprise when they answered the doorbell to find a group of 10-12 year olds, explaining ways of saving electricity at home as well as in the building premises and urging them to follow those steps. As you look around the building complex today, you find several creatively designed posters depicting easy…

In a unanimous and all-over-news verdict, the Supreme Court last week favourably defined the powers of the Delhi government led by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), giving it greater autonomy and limiting the scope of interference by the Lieutenant Governor (LG). The verdict declared that the LG is "bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers of the Government of Delhi" in all matters except three: land, police and public order. While Delhi does not yet have full statehood, the elected government now has more room to make and implement policies that had since hit a roadblock…

What is common among urban waterways, economics and culture? All three are intertwined, and can complement as well as transform each other. But they can also lead to weakening urban systems if they are poorly planned, as the Indian port city of Kochi has shown. However, the city has seen recent attempts at overall upgrading of systems and researchers from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) emphasise the role that the city’s waterways can play in this makeover effort. Kochi’s crisscrossing canals and rivers linked to a backwater system can significantly impact its socio-economic and cultural…

A common sight in many Indian cities are decrepit or waste-laden canals that were once integral to the local economy. Cities have grappled with the mammoth task of cleaning and restoration of such canals with limited success. Often people who have made a life on the banks and margins become collateral damage to these efforts. Now Alappuzha in Kerala could pave the way for an alternative. The Canalpy Project A model canal-restoration project, Canalpy, is taking shape in the backwaters of Alappuzha. Funded by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), the effort is supported by Cochin University College of…

“I have cleared my house of all the plastic bags. I cannot afford to pay Rs 5,000 as fine.” “Madam, they are saying that they will come to check our houses to see if we have plastic. Do you think they will come?” “Everyone on the road is carrying cloth bags today. Who wants to pay fine? ” “Vegetable vendors are telling us to go home and bring a bag. None of them have plastic bags.” “Will it be alright to carry this water bottle? I won’t be caught and fined, right?” The Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol Products (Manufacture, Usage,…

With Urban India alone generating a gigantic 1.5 lakh metric tonnes per day of Municipal Solid Waste, waste management has grown to become a huge burden in urban India. Despite the existence of strong laws -- Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016 and Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 -- cities are stuck at the implementation level. Now, a new report shows that while smaller cities have done a good job of complying with the major clauses of key environmental legislation, larger cities including Bengaluru and New Delhi are yet to satisfy the basic mandate of waste management: source segregation, or in…

This summer, Jaipur’s temperatures are soaring upwards of 40 degree Celsius. Jaipur witnessed its hottest day (as of June 4, 2018) on April 26 when a temperature of 43.2 degree Celsius was recorded. Of late, at least some parts of the city are beginning to exhibit signs of climate change typical of large cities. With more concrete and asphalt replacing natural vegetation, “urban heat islands” are becoming a reality and Jaipur is a good example of this. Urban heat islands are pockets of densely populated areas in a city where temperatures are higher than the rest of the city, thanks to packed…