Governance

Be it Fashion Street, Linking Road, Colaba Causeway or the buzzing Khau Gallis offering a variety of delicacies in various localities, Mumbai is known by its lively street markets run by hawkers. They have a distinct character that attracts shoppers from Mumbai and outside, and have even become a tourist attraction.  The book shops on pavements around Flora Fountain, which were an enduring source of knowledge, now invoke nostalgic memories for generations of book lovers. Similarly, Chor Bazaar is a source of art installations and furniture for art connoisseurs and collectors. Several useful services from typists to affidavit papers to…

On the night following the March 13th fire that gutted more than 1,000 houses in the Appapada informal settlement in Malad East, a mini tempo arrived with a few items of clothing for the families. Fights broke out whenever a person tried to take as many clothes as possible, only to have them snatched away by another person in need. Weeks later, the situation has not changed much. The residents are trying to rebuild their homes with the little aid that is coming to their rescue. Sheela Ruke, a contractual sanitation worker with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has been…

The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has proposed new changes to the tariff and norms with respect to solar rooftop projects for the year 2024, following the expiration of the existing policy on March 31st. The discussion paper outlines several changes, including reducing the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) term to 15 years and introducing grid-interactive support charges. KERC has scheduled a public hearing on April 13th to gather input from all stakeholders before finalising the policy with the proposed changes. This article will explore some of the crucial points outlined in the discussion paper and analyse their potential impact. Reduction…

Indian cities have long suffered the absence of coherent and consistent policy-making on urbanisation. As a result, they are plagued by governance deficits, inadequate infrastructure, poor land management, unequal access to clean drinking water, repeated bouts of flooding, severe densification of some areas and poor quality of air and public spaces.  For Devashish Dhar, a former public policy specialist at NITI Aayog, these are evidence of Indian cities being a blind spot in planning and policy. In India's Blind Spot: Understanding and Managing Our Cities (Harper Collins India, 2023), Dhar examines historical processes that led to haphazard development of Indian…

 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha Member Sanjay Singh released the list of Aam Aadmi Party guarantees for the Karnataka assembly elections in Bengaluru on March 29th. Read more: How we registered our Apartment Owners Association under KAOA, 1972 Addressing a press conference at the party's state office, Sanjay Singh said, “Aam Aadmi Party is not a party that gives false promises. We offer a guarantee card with 100% fulfillment. We have fulfilled all the guarantees in the manifesto in Delhi. One by one is being implemented in Punjab as well." "Major guarantees related to total ten…

The 2023 GCC budget was presented by Chennai Mayor R Priya on March 27. Key announcements were made regarding traffic management, new projects on solid waste management and stormwater drains and education. Here is a roundup of some of the important projects proposed and the allocations made for the same by the civic body. Revamped traffic management strategy in GCC Budget To manage parking in the city, GCC plans to extend the on-street paid parking system under a PPP model to other zones. Currently, this model exists in zones 8, 9 and 10. A Parking and Traffic Management Committee is…

The Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC) budget is expected to be tabled in the council meeting on March 27. The state of the finances of the civic body requires close scrutiny as the quality of daily life of Chennaiites is linked to how well the civic body can carry out its functions. Chennaiites part of active Residents' Welfare Associations and Civil Society Organisations share their expectations on what must feature in the city’s budget. On roads and stormwater drains in Chennai While residents are aware of the importance of stormwater drains for flood mitigation, many raise grievances about the impact of…

The webinar was titled “The mysterious process of budget allocations”. The panellists were all people who had for many years studied budgets, the process and its many shortcomings. They could not solve this particular mystery. But all gave very practical steps to give the budget more meaning and substance and make it less mysterious. To me, at the end of the discussion, one thing stood out. The figures all budgets bandy about, in this case especially the thousands of crores supposedly allocated to Bengaluru, mean absolutely nothing. Their yearly presentation is a meaningless ritual that the law demands. My point…

She was about to turn 29 and was an assistant professor, having earned her PhD from the School of Management Studies at the Indira Gandhi National Open University. But like so many of Delhi’s youth, Dr Shelly Oberoi was drawn to the anti-corruption movement started by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal in 2011. “Shelly, like thousands of others her age, converged at the rallies of the anti-corruption movement,” said a functionary of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), attached to the office of Gopal Rai, convenor of the Delhi unit. “She wanted to be part of the change that was going…

As a run-up to the upcoming Assembly Elections in Karnataka, the Bangalore Apartments' Federation (BAF) has launched a campaign Every Vote Matters (EVM). The campaign will have multiple activities to support member residents in three themes: Voter registration, voter awareness, and voter participation. Historically, it is generally believed that apartments/gated communities are not considered a significant vote bank as very few people register and vote, especially in local or assembly elections. BAF, through its sustained campaign, hopes to change this mindset and establish itself as a vote bank to reckon with. The campaign is expected to reach half a million…