Category Urbanization, Habitat, Transportation and Regional Development

saachi

Environment Protection (End-of-Life Vehicles) Rules, 2025: Evaluating India’s Framework for Sustainable Vehicle Recycling and Circular Economy

India’s economic rise has been accompanied by an equally dramatic expansion in vehicle ownership. Rising incomes, urbanisation, logistics growth and improved mobility have together made India the world’s third-largest automobile market. The country now adds more than 20 million vehicles annually (NITI Aayog), making automobiles one of the most important drivers of industrial activity, employment and consumption.

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Kerala’s Paddy Land Conservation Policy (2008) and the Pressure of Urbanization

Kerala's paddy fields are wetland ecosystems that help manage flooding, recharge groundwater, and support rural biodiversity. They are also the state's main source of rice. Between 1957-58 and 2022-23, the area used for paddy cultivation in Kerala decreased from about 7.66 lakh hectares to roughly 1.91 lakh hectares.

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Andhra Pradesh RTGS: Reinventing Governance Through Data

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the state faced major governance challenges in coordinating departments and delivering timely public services to over 49.5 million citizens (CAG, 2017) Isolated departmental systems and periodic reporting created data silos, delaying critical decisions in disaster response, welfare delivery, and grievance redress. Poor inter-departmental coordination hindered accountability, transparency, and performance tracking. Furthermore, the lack of integrated, real-time data severely limited predictive capacity, preventing proactive disaster management and evidence-based policymaking.

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Dedicated Freight Corridor: What a Decade of Rail Investment Achieved

Rail transport has traditionally been a more cost-efficient mode of freight transportation than road. But in India, it has remained a problem due to the coexistence of freight and passenger services on the same rail routes, and this has constrained the efficiency and capacity of freight movement.

Smart city

The Smart City Mission in Srinagar and Jammu 2017: A Comparative Assessment of Urban Transformation.

The Smart City Mission (SCM) was initiated by the Government of India in 2015 as a transformative urban renewal programme to develop 100 cities across the country into inclusive, sustainable, and technologically advanced hubs. The mission’s core objective is to provide citizens with high-quality core infrastructure, a clean environment, and "smart" solutions that optimize urban functions, such as data-driven resource management and enhanced service delivery.

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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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