Sustainability - Question of Cities

Right to clean air: Stop the smog

The Right to Environment includes the right to clean air. But are we really breathing clean air? The rising ailments show that living with polluted air has proven to adversely affect people’s health and even reduce life span or lead…

Delhi’s real town planner, the Yamuna, still gasps for life

Over the decades, even as multi-crore programmes to clean the river are expanded, the Yamuna and its floodplain continue to be polluted.…

Digitalisation cannot be an unqualified “smart” solution to urban issues

As many cities become smarter by harnessing digitalisation and technology, sustainable development and ecology have been pushed behind. Smart Cities Mission, offered…

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…

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 absorb and distribute rainwater and the runoff. As the sceptre of capitalist growth continues to affect the waterbodies,…

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…