-Business Standard No 'smart city' will be created in the next five years, though a successful programme could see several smart colonies come up across the country The National Democratic Alliance government's ambitious Smart Cities programme will at best be able set up only 100 pilot projects in the first five years. Contrary to general perception, no 'smart city' will be created in the next five years, though a successful programme could...

-The Times of India India and her neighbors are going through a tortuous process of urbanization - slow, messy and partly hidden. This is seen in severe problems of livability and congestion, making cities unattractive for rural migrants. As a result, whatever benefits urban agglomerations could have offered in terms of economic advance are getting diluted. This is the dire analysis of a 200-page World Bank report on urbanization in South...

-Economic and Political Weekly While insufficient sanitation facilities often get represented in statistics and are reported in the literature on urban infrastructure planning and contested urban spaces, what is often left out is the everyday practice and experience of going to dysfunctional toilets, particularly by women. By analysing the practices and problems associated with toilet use from a phenomenological perspective, this article aims to situate the issue in the everyday lives...

-Moneycontrol.com Over the years, increasing population, growing industrialization, expanding agriculture and rising standards of living have pushed up the demand for water By 2025, India will be a water-scarce country, said a recent report released by EA Water. The report goes on to list how our excessive dependence on water resources, especially groundwater ones is creating a major issue, as we are drawing much more than that can be replenished. This is...

-DNA Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Mission has not only failed at his constituency, Varanasi but also in the nation's capital, Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign that started a year back hasn't achieved desired goals yet.  In a recent assessment on cleanliness carried out by Union Urban Development Ministry, Modi's own constituency, Varanasi ranked 418 on a list of 476 cities.  Meanwhile, the capital is also on the bottom of the list....