Shobha Surin - Question of Cities

What if the Musi River could lead the development of Hyderabad?

The Musi, the pride of the city during the Nizam era, is a channel of filth, its banks encroached upon, its waters carrying untreated waste and industrial effluents, and its edges subjected to construction in the name of riverfront development.…

‘We want the Musi cleaned but without displacing the people’

Once a lifeline of the city of Hyderabad, the Musi was home to thousands of people – mostly economically backward -- living along its banks. The increasing pollution threatened their well-being; the demolitions, their very existence. While the unauthorised constructions…

Jaipur must urgently save Dol ka Badh forest – and itself

Dol ka Badh, a crucial green space and buffer zone in the Pink City, which sees high temperatures, is under threat. With the land earmarked for infrastructure and commercial projects worth Rs 3,700-crore, including the PM Unity Mall, a fintech…

When childhood is scarred by shelling and play is perilous

When sirens blare, homes are blacked out, drones and war planes hover in the skies above, and shelling punctures the peace of the night, as it happened with the India-Pakistan war this May, among other fallout is the setback to…

How much has your city expanded its footprint of
built-up area?

In cities across India, people speak of how much more construction they see in familiar areas. But how much exactly has been built? What does the data tell us? There’s no clarity, especially for common folk who do not have…

Physical space and mobility top two challenges for children in 300+ cities: LSE research

How the built environment and policy decisions of cities can support or hinder healthy early childhood development and what city officials identify as the biggest challenges were subjects of research analyses from 358 cities across 75 countries at LSE Cities,…

Moving towards sustainable goals brick by brick

The green building movement has been gaining momentum in India with governments doling out incentives. A recent report ranks India third in the world for certified green buildings. However, outdated bye-laws of urban local bodies and the lack of awareness…

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…

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…

‘Developing countries are struggling to get climate-related finance’

As the global powers work out the finance needed to address devastating climate change impacts in the developing world, for which the developed world is largely responsible, the focus has to be within India too. What kind of resources are…