Sustainability - Question of Cities

Policing in Cyberabad: India’s techno dystopia encroaching on people’s rights

Hyderabad’s policing has turned “cop-less” as police personnel were replaced with cameras, traffic offences automated, and smartphones replaced the old batons. For citizens, it is among the most ubiquitous and visible forms of digitalisation. This is a deliberate 24x7 surveillance…

Sustainability and people’s participation in the era of smart solutionism

The Smart Cities Mission was launched to improve the quality of life through digitalisation and data-driven solutions. This included interventions such as…

Digital connect in Smart City Bhubaneswar still has poor network

Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar, is transforming itself digitally into a “smart city.” As the city transitions from the traditional to tech-based mode with…

‘We need to ask where our data is being used and who is encashing it’

What does digitalisation look like in the urban periphery, the smaller towns? Urban studies scholars and researchers set out to Bhiwandi, on…

Water in the city: A matter of ecology, public health, and livelihoods

The importance of wetlands and waterbodies in urban planning has come to the fore after the devastating floods in India’s Bengaluru. They…

Flooded realities of ‘smart’ city Ahmedabad

Most of Ahmedabad was waterlogged and flooded when rains battered the city in July and September, washing away the city’s claims to…

Hyderabad’s high-flood index demands focus on disaster mitigation measures

The heavy rainfall in July in one of India’s IT hubs, Hyderabad, threatened to cause devastation like the 2020 floods. Although it…

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…

Walking in the footsteps of Patrick Geddes in the crucible of his ideas

Edinburgh was both the inspiration and the workshop for the Scotsman who defied easy categorisation during his lifetime and later. Though the…

By leaves we live: Finding Patrick Geddes in Mumbai’s Aarey

As trees are cut and trimmed in the lush green expanse of the Aarey forest for the Metro car shed paving the…