DFPGYF Diplomacy, Foreign Policy & Geopolitics Youth Fellowship- Cohort 2.0 | An Online International Autumn School Program | A Four-Month Immersive Online Introductory Leadership Certificate Training Fellowship Program | July-October 2025 | IMPRI
On 9 October 2025, the IMPRI Centre for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS) brought together leading administrators, urban practitioners, and scholars for a #WebPolicyTalk on “The Role of the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) & City Governance: Towards Developed Urban India 2047.” Against the backdrop of rapid peri-urbanisation, rising census towns, and overlapping mission architectures, the workshop emphasised that India’s urban ambitions for 2047 will be realised not by infrastructure projects alone but by strengthened municipal institutions. Speakers noted that a reimagined DMA – with clear legal mandate, fiscal tools, professional cadres, and data-driven systems – can act as the indispensable broker that translates national and state priorities into reliable local service delivery, resilience, and inclusive growth.
Participatory Research (PR) is a gamut of research designs, methods, and frameworks that use systematic inquiry, directly collaborating with those affected or being studied. (Cargo & Mercer, 2008).
The bombing of Iran represents the return of old-style imperialism, making the point that might is right with the biggest bang possible without exploding an atomic bomb. Which cat got the tongue of India, leader of the Global South, when the US bombed Iran? Why did the tongue of India, leader of the BRICS, turn mute, when the world called on Israel, at the UN, to end its genocide in Gaza? Cat, Cat burning bright, in the forests of Mt Zion and Washington DC, why this appetite for India’s respect among nations?
The subjective compulsion might be Netanyahu’s need to keep a war going to stay in power, but the objective result is driving home the point that might is right:
As Israel and Iran exchange missiles, and Iran gets battered, with its oil and gas facilities getting destroyed, what is at stake for India? Should India worry about anything beyond the price of oil going up, and of possible disruptions to shipping through the straits of Hormuz? Or, as Islamophobes tweet in India, should India be happy that the Islamic theocracy of Iran is being humiliated? Does Israel’s support of the Indian position over Operation Sindoor override all other considerations, including moral compunctions over the genocide still underway in Gaza? Or should collateral damage to the Haifa port, operated by an Indian company, the Adanis, be the major consideration for India?
This program is part of the official launch of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (IYGP 2025) on January 21, 2025, commemorating the collaborative efforts led by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UNESCO. In acknowledgment of the urgent need for global action to safeguard glaciers, snow, and ice, the UN General Assembly has declared 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and has designated March 21st as the annual World Day for Glaciers, beginning this year. In alignment with these global initiatives, the IMPRI Center for Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainable Development proudly presents this panel discussion as part of its Web Policy Talk series, fostering informed dialogue on this critical environmental challenge.
IMPRI Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies (CIRSS), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, organized a panel discussion on Defence, Foreign Policy, and Union Budget 2025-26 as part of its #WebPolicyTalk series. The event was a key session in IMPRI’s 6th Annual Series of Thematic Deliberations and Analysis of Union Budget 2025-26, bringing together experts to discuss the budget’s implications for defence and foreign policy.