Archives - Question of Cities

Heat-proofing cities: Green solutions that helped to cool them

As cities around the world warm up faster and heat waves become more frequent and intense, cities have gone beyond red heat alerts and action plans to cool themselves. Some of the on-ground initiatives to beat the heat range from…

A new urban agenda for India built on reflections of the last decade

Since 2014, cities have found a special focus in the government’s policies and programmes. But how did some prominent programmes like Swachh Bharat Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Smart Cities Mission fare? Broadly, while some gains are evident, they overlooked…

Delhi experience shows why clean cooking fuel needs more than Ujjwala

Household cooking stoves, or chulhas, contribute to carbon emissions besides endangering the health of millions of women. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched in 2016, intended to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to deprived households. However, the…

Green talk: Included in party manifestos, excluded from campaigns

As slugfests and fiery speeches take centre stage throughout the campaign in the 2024 general elections, environmental issues and climate change which affect one and all have hardly been given space. Manifestos of political parties mention them in varying degrees…

Smart Cities Mission: Reflections on gains and losses, nine years on

Most of the 100 cities chosen under the Smart Cities Mission, launched with great fanfare in 2015, have spent or allocated funds for projects and set up Special Purpose Vehicles. Although the Mission outlined redevelopment, retrofitting and greenfield projects as…

M-East Mumbai: Votes don’t improve lives but they vote anyway

The cramped, polluted and neglected civic ward in the city, which houses migrant workers and project-affected persons displaced from other parts of Mumbai, shows the failure of politics to respond to people’s needs, in a sense. The triad of roti-naukri-makaan…

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…

Deconstructing Hyderabad’s investment ‘climate’ and technological ecosystem

Market-led growth exploits natural resources, increases pollution, and creates vulnerabilities and inequities which worsen the climate impact on people. This essay examines the market-led ‘sustainable’ development approach shaping Hyderabad Vision 2050 and Telangana’s State Action Plan for Climate Change which…

Karachi, choking on plastic, searches for solutions as climate impact looms

Plastic pollution and urban flooding go hand in hand. In 2022, catastrophic floods in Karachi claimed many lives and devastated the city. Even as climate change increased the frequency and intensity of rain, the widespread misuse of plastic was reportedly…

Guwahati’s green cover is declining but is key to its climate resilient future

The rising temperatures in Guwahati underscore the need for trees and green areas to combat climate impacts, but the city does not have dedicated projects to preserve or enhance them. There has been an 87.8 percent reduction in dense and…