Category Urbanization, Habitat, Transportation and Regional Development

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Right to Walk Urban governance challenge or opportunity for municipalities?

Recently the Supreme Court of India has recognized the Right to Walk on Footpaths as a Fundamental Right under Part III Article (19)(1)(d) along with Article 21 of the Constitution. The decision was delivered by a division bench composed of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice A.S. Chandurkar. The apex court has urged the government to introduce a new law that declares this right. This ruling is considered a landmark judgement in India's existing urban policy space as it placed the pedestrian rights above the motorised vehicular traffic.

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National Urban Digital Mission: Transforming Urban Governance Through Digital Public Infrastructure

India's urban population is expected to reach nearly 600 million by 2030, accounting for about 40% of the country's total population (Observer Research Foundation [ORF], 2025; OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation [OECD-OPSI], 2024). This rapid growth is putting pressure on the municipal governance system originally designed for much smaller cities. Most of India's 4,800+ statutory towns and cities continue to depend on paper records or fragmented digital systems, with meaningful e-governance progress confined to a small number of well-funded cities (OECD-OPSI, 2024).

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Strengthening India’s Traditional Industries through SFURTI: The Progress, Challenges and Way Forward

India’s traditional industries have often been viewed not only as a form of economic activity but also as a symbol of craftsmanship and cultural heritage, providing millions of artisans with livelihoods and financial support across rural and urban areas. However, the rapid rise of modern industrialization, evolving consumer preferences, and scattered production systems have diluted the competitive value of these sectors. To address structural issues, the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) introduced the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) as a cluster development program, which aims to strengthen traditional industries and create livelihood opportunities for artisans and people working in the informal sector. 

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West Bengal Student Credit Card Scheme (2021): An Evaluation of Its Role in Expanding Access to Higher Education

Access to higher education in India has long been constrained less by aspiration than by affordability. West Bengal, despite a relatively strong base in school-level enrolment, has historically trailed the national average in higher education participation. It was against this backdrop that the state government launched the West Bengal Student Credit Card (WBSCC) Scheme on 30 June 2021, under a Gazette Notification issued by the Higher Education Department, positioning it as a flagship intervention to remove the financial barrier standing between capable students and tertiary education. 

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Mission Basundhara 3.0 (2021–2026): Assam’s Push for Land Rights and Digital Governance

The Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886 is a colonial regulation which existed in a land and population very different from the current state of Assam. This system persisted for over 100 years, resulting in a large number of people without any formal rights to the land that they had long cultivated, even when ownership had been passed down through generations, including cultivators, workers in the tea-garden, tribal families and families displaced by floods. A combination of successive erosion of the riverbed of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries and periodic flooding, coupled by the inadequate rate of cadastral survey, added to the problem and large numbers of Assam's rural population were deprived of legal status in the land, whether Khas (government) or Ceiling Surplus (cadastral surplus) land.A government-appointed committee headed by former Chief Election Commissioner H.S. Brahma, tasked with examining land rights of indigenous people in Assam, found in its 2018 report that close to 90% of the state's native population lacked formal land ownership documents, and that approximately 8 lakh indigenous families were entirely landless. 

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Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 2.0 (2025): A Cleaner Future

Policy UpdateAakash Agrawal 1.Introduction Vehicular emissions are one of the largest contributors to Delhi’s chronic air quality crisis, and transport electrification has been the National Capital Territory’s central policy response since 2020. The original EV Policy was an incentive-based programme…

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