By providing affordable meals to the poor and working class and launching a new accommodation facility for women, the City Council is showing how a 21st-century urban center can govern with compassion and empathy. Kochi, the name describes itself.
When I was a kid, I remember my home in Bengaluru flooding repeatedly, especially during the monsoons.
This was strange as we were in Chamarajpet, a well-planned neighbourhood developed by the visionary Dewan Sheshadri Iyer, along with Malleshwarm and Basavanagudi neighbourhoods, to settle those who lived in the petes (trading and living zones combined) of the old fort town that Bengaluru was then as the bubonic plague had ravaged and decimated the population as the 19th century rolled into the 20th.
According to Census 2011, India’s urban population was 37.7 crores, projected to grow to about 60 crores by 2030. The National Commission on Population (NCP) in India predicts that in the next 14 years (i.e., by 2036), about 38.6 per cent of Indians (600 million) will live in urban areas. The United Nations, too, highlights that India’s urban population size will nearly double between 2018 and 2050, from 461 to 877 million. Under this backdrop, the IMPRI Centre for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS), Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, hosted a Distinguished Lecture on State of India’s Urbanization as a part of the #WebPolicyTalk, The State of Cities – #CityConversations on June 22, 2022.
As part of its series, The State of Cities – #CityConversations, #IMPRI Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, organized a panel discussion under IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk on the topic Municipal Legislative’ Reform’ through the Lens of Politics and Techno-Bureaucratic Processes on March 23, 2022 with Mr Vinay Baindur, Researcher and Activist, Urban Reforms, Governance, Water Reforms, and Policy, as the speaker.
The debate over environmental degradation has acquired substantial traction in recent years. Governments, civil communities and international organisations are all working to mitigate the environmental costs of economic expansion and growth. These reforms have also brought to light the concept of environmental governance in emerging towns, which refers to political changes aimed at influencing environmental activities and outcomes. It is under this backdrop that the #IMPRI Centre for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi hosted a talk on Small Cities and Environmental Governance in Gujarat and West Bengal: Need for External Intervention or Capacity Building? as a part of #WebPolicyTalk series- The State of Cities – #CityConversations on January 28, 2022.
The recent elections to the city governments, called the urban local bodies, in a few states like Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal etc., have proven one fact hard and straight- the city governments are no more than adjuncts of the state governments.