In convening the third session of the World Urban Forum in Vancouver, the United Nations Human Settlements Program has asked us to focus our attention on the Sustainable City and consider critical challenges across three sub-themes: • Urban Growth And Environment• Partnership And...

What is the character of our cities? What are the attributes of inequalities and social exclusions in towns, metropolises and mega cities? How do urban structures and forms characteristic of pre capitalist cities of India reorganize itself as capitalist relations enter into these cities? What...

Indian cities are characterised by rapid growth in human as well as motor vehicle populations. Although the poor benefit the least from motor vehicle activity, they bear the brunt of its impacts. The policy challenge is, how to fulfill mass mobility needs, while minimizing these adverse impacts....

The cities of tomorrow are in poor countries, where the largest proportion of the population is below 25 years old and where young women are becoming particularly vulnerable. It is youth who will inherit not only the riches of the city but its problems as well, unless something is done to...

She will always remain a role model for many of us--- a competent professional and a compassionate thinker who believed in ushering in social change that can reorganise inequalities in India.

Historically, Bangalore’s growth and physical spread had been dictated by the location decisions of certain important industrial, institutional and residential activities, rather than as an outcome of any city planning exercise or planned vision of its development. Such an ad-hoc growth...

The Government has launched a reform-linked urban investment programme, JNNURM. The paper has analysed urban trends, projected population, service delivery, institutional arrangements, municipal finances, innovative financing, and suggests that India’s future strategy should focus on: (a)...

This report summarises findings from the USAID-sponsored project on models of financing for slum upgrading in India, undertaken on behalf of SPARC,a Mumbai-based NGO involved in slum upgrading and the National Housing Bank of India (NHB). This report primarily addresses the following topics:...

A consultation with about 40 children who have faced violations of their housing rights in some form or the other was organized on 13th November 2006 from 9 – 12 am on the National platform of India Social Forum in New Delhi. These were the children who have faced forced evictions;...

The reality of urban development is that commerce and industry are two of its core drivers. Without the full participation of the private sector in efforts towards sustainable human settlements, the present and looming crisis of rapid urbanization, particularly in the South, will not be...