At Hyderabad airport, drivers agitate for the bare minimum
It took nearly ten years, collectivisation, and dogged unionising for the drivers of aggregator taxis at the Rajiv Gandhi International…
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Edition 88: Density in cities
The anatomy of density in our cities: A storyboard, a way of seeing
Density, in urban planning, is often reduced to a simple metric: the number of people within a given land area.[1]…
Why are we pushed into unsustainable high-density living?
While not negating the benefits of density such as higher productivity, shorter commutes, and lower carbon footprint, the downsides of the high density approach have rarely been critically examined. Among them are how the high density doctrine has been weaponised…
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Focused on flood management, Mumbai lets down Mithi River ecologically
Twenty years after the July 2005 deluge in Mumbai, the Mithi, pivotal to drain the rain, is still choked, silted and disconnected from the city despite thousands of crores spent to clean it, build embankment walls and sewage treatment plants.…
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The ‘build more’ way has failed. How to build better cities?
The construction industry, India’s second-largest contributor to the national GDP, rules the roost in cities, determining housing and other basic amenities, turning natural areas and common property resources into buildings or highways, and yet failing to address the shortfall in…
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‘Coping with heat isn’t an individual problem, it’s a systemic challenge’
The unequal impact of heat on the marginalised in India’s cities is no longer in question. The chasm is deepening between those who can escape heat stress and those forced to work despite extreme heat. Apekshita Varshney, founder of non-profit…
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‘Deep flaw or blind spot in Indian environmentalism is that it largely ignored cities’
Cities built at the cost of ecology are becoming uninhabitable and unsustainable. Between the Gandhian perspective which is hostile to city life and the other that cities are engines of growth, both flawed, cities face ecological crisis and issues of…
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How urban plans can, and must, value trees
Urban development plans and master plans have traditionally seen trees as impediments to ‘development’, rarely acknowledging them as natural wealth of cities and hardly making provisions to protect and preserve them. This will no longer work in the time of…
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Move the air pollution needle to smaller and neglected cities
Conversations and policies on air pollution are mostly centred on Delhi and Mumbai but other cities and towns have been facing toxic air too. These are, at best, footnotes in national conversations on air pollution. Authorities here go in for…
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We want safe cities, we want feminist cities
The heinous rape-murder of a doctor in Kolkata sparked off heated discussions on women’s safety in cities. Safety of women anywhere is non-negotiable, it is the bare minimum, and it is not entirely women’s responsibility. Women also need to be…
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Pune’s growth story reminds us that nature does not send an invoice
As Pune amalgamates larger non-urban areas into the city limits, expanding in all directions, the frenzy of development has also meant fast-depleting natural areas. The frequent floods and harsh summers are alarms that can no longer be ignored. As the…
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Urgent heat conversations and actions we need in India to cool down cities
As millions of Indians struggle through an relentlessly scorching summer with never-before high temperatures, Heat Action Plans have become critical to people’s lives and livelihoods. Although states and cities have prepared plans – and some have fitfully implemented them –…
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Centring climate justice in rapidly urbanising cities of South Asia
The region is among the most vulnerable to climate change. With nearly 2.5 billion people and a limited capacity to adapt to climate change, South Asia shows how inequity and injustice lie at the heart of climate action. Billions in…
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‘By leaves we live, the world is mainly a vast leaf colony’
They are everywhere, although hidden sometimes, but provide a layer of comfort amidst the grey concrete. Lush green landscapes not only soothe the eyes but allow people-nature bonds to form in cities. As a business place for hawkers, resting place…
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Streets are sutradhars of people’s lives, first units of neighbourhoods
Streets, as living and meeting spaces for people, are more than roads. Street-based neighbourhoods reflect social cohesion and inclusiveness in cities but streets are being transformed into roads where people’s presence matters the least. Shop-fronted roads, built for consumptive economy…
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‘We are scared that the polluted Mithi might flood again’
As Mumbai’s most prominent river and natural drainage channel, the Mithi has mostly been struggling to flow despite the restoration work after the destructive 2005 floods. The pollution, concretisation and encroachment that led to Mithi’s pathetic state have also impacted…
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Dharavi makeover: Public loss, private gain in this mother of all redevelopment projects
Among the largest informal settlements in the world, Dharavi in Mumbai, is finally set to undergo redevelopment. Aptly called an informal city within a city, the vibrant settlement, though lacking in basic amenities, is home to nearly a million people…
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Jaga: Odisha’s land title to slum dwellers worthy of emulation
In a landmark move, pushed by slum dwellers’ movements, the Odisha government introduced a law which made the Jaga Mission possible. Instead of evicting slum dwellers from nearly 3,000 slums in its cities, including from prime areas in the capital…
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Dharavi makeover: Public loss, private gain in this mother of all redevelopment projects
Among the largest informal settlements in the world, Dharavi in Mumbai, is finally set to undergo redevelopment. Aptly called an informal city within a city, the vibrant settlement, though lacking in basic amenities, is home to nearly a million people…
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Housing as a way to claim citizenship and exercise rights in Indian cities
The city is a key site where various notions of citizenship are claimed and contested. Since much of urban India lives and works in the realm of “informality”, urban residents often gain their rights over housing not through formal legal…
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QoC Charter to make our cities habitable, equitable and sustainable
As cities have been undergoing development at the cost of ecology, they are fast becoming vulnerable to the effects of…
Reading Jane Jacobs today: Why her urban renewal agenda is still relevant
The doyenne of urban activism, Jane Jacobs, urged professional urban planners to understand that a city is more than its economy and its structures, that it is made by the everyday lives and interactions of people. Through her writings and…
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For sustainable cities, begin by ‘seeing’ the unseen people in them
When people migrate to cities to make a living, they join the deprived urban classes in living a life of…
How Bhubaneswar’s master plan was overtaken by unsustainable development
German-Jewish architect Otto Koenigsberger adopted a linear approach in building Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar in which the neighbourhood unit would be “an attempt to transplant into the city one of the healthiest features of country and small-town life.” This, he argued,…
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Placemaking can reimagine public places, connect people with nature, and strengthen people’s movements
In cities, under-utilised or undesirable places are neglected or captured by private interests but placemaking can convert them into vibrant,…
COP27 failed to move the needle on climate action, poor will suffer as cities face climate disasters
Another climate summit is over and after hours of debates and discussions, it’s back to the ground to act on the pledges taken – and also to question whether climate action plans and policies are working. This year’s extreme climate…
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‘Mumbai Development Plan is not on paper alone, it makes spatial provisions for women’
The talk of incorporating gender concerns into urban plans has been around for decades but it became a reality only when Mumbai’s Development Plan was unveiled with specific provisions to make land available to provide services to women and other…
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Patrick Geddes: Urban planning for social and cultural renewal
Scotsman Sir Patrick Geddes has been considered as the father of city planning in modern times. He brought his belief that town planning was not mere ‘place’ planning but essentially ‘people’ planning, to the nearly 50 plans he drew up…
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The rural in the urban: Warli women of Mumbai’s National Park
The women of the Warli tribe living in the protected forest, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai, are a…
