From elkamath at yahoo.com Sat Apr 3 20:06:07 2010 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 07:36:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] life for south africans evicted ahead of the world cup Message-ID: <59278.3495.qm@web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/01/south-africa-world-cup-blikkiesdorp Life in 'Tin Can Town' for the South Africans evicted ahead of World Cup Campaigners say conditions in Blikkiesdorp or 'Tin Can Town' are worse than in the townships created during apartheid * * * (458) * Tweet this (127) * David Smith in Cape Town * guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 April 2010 21.50 BST * Article history Youths playing football in Blikkiesdorp, Cape Town. Photograph: Gareth Kingdon Children squint as wind whips the grey sand into their faces. A teenager braves the flies and stench of a leaking outdoor toilet to draw water from a standpipe. He stares vacantly along regimented rows of corrugated iron shacks encircled by a tall, concrete fence. No grass or trees grow here. This is Tin Can Town, or Blikkiesdorp, described by the mayor of Cape Town as a "temporary relocation area" (TRA), but by its residents as a concentration camp. Many say they were forcibly evicted from their former homes and moved here against their will. And for this they blame one thing: the football World Cup. "It's a dumping place," said Jane Roberts, who lives in the sparsely furnished structure known as M49. "They took people from the streets because they don't want them in the city for the World Cup. Now we are living in a concentration camp." Roberts, 54, added: "It's like the devil runs this place. We have no freedom. The police come at night and beat adults and children. South Africa isn't showing the world what it's doing to its people. It only shows the World Cup." President Jacob Zuma's government insists that sport's biggest showpiece is already benefiting the whole nation, creating jobs, improving infrastructure and transforming its image abroad. It has lavished some R13bn (£1.15bn) on world-class venues, with none more breathtaking than the Cape Town Stadium that will host England in June. Yet a short drive from the city's expensively upgraded airport, a drive few tourists are likely to make, boys kick up dust and stones in Blikkiesdorp because the spending spree failed to provide them with a park. Campaigners argue that this bleak place in Delft township shows that Africa's first World Cup has become a tool to impress wealthy foreigners at the expense of its own impoverished people. Residents say it is worse than the townships created by the white minority government before the end of racial apartheid in 1994. In view of cloud-capped mountains, Blikkiesdorp was built in 2008 for an estimated R32m (£2.9m) to provide "emergency housing" for about 650 people who had been illegally occupying buildings. To visitors, the column after column of one-room shacks, each spraypainted with a designated code number, are disturbingly reminiscent of District 9, last year's hit science fiction film about space aliens forced to live in an informal Johannesburg settlement. Residents said this week there were about 15,000 people struggling to live in about 3,000 of the wood and iron structures, with more arriving all the time. City officials claimed these figures were inaccurate but said the site was designed to cater for 1,667 families in total. In some cases families of six or seven people are crammed into living spaces of three by six metres. They complain that the corrugated walls swelter in summer temperatures of 40C and offer little protection from the cold in winter. Tuberculosis and HIV are rife. Babies have been born at Blikkiesdorp and, still unknown to the state, officially do not exist. Brutality The shacks are laid out in strict lines with little room for individual homemaking, though some residents have tried to build extensions, gardens and informal convenience stores, often protected by barbed wire. Above them loom poles with lighting and power cables that give the residents electricity. But between the shacks there is no paving, only roaming dogs, scraps of rubbish and grey sand that swirls in the wind. There are no shower facilities and the standpipe taps lack bowls, so water tends to leak into the ground and under people's homes. Toilets are found inside grim concrete cubicles so small the locked door presses against the user's knees. Many have leaking roofs and are broken despite repeated promises to fix them. Sandy Rossouw says she was among 366 people evicted from the Spes Bona Hostel in the district of Athlone three months ago because a stadium there is to be used for training by some of football's biggest stars. She is now one of five family members who squeeze into one bed in her shack at Blikkiesdorp. "We were forced out of our hostel because of the World Cup," Rossouw said. "The hostel is on the main road to the stadium, only about 200 yards away. We didn't want to move because we're used to it and it's close to everything. But they said if we didn't get out, they would move us out with law enforcement. "Here the whole place is under starvation. We can't even afford to make a pot of soup for our children. We send them to school without bread. People sell everything to get food and walk three hours to Athlone just to get a loaf of bread. When you do eat, there is sand in your food – you can feel it on your teeth. "We were promised in January the toilets would be repaired but they're not. You've got eight families to a toilet and it's unhygienic." Rossouw, 42, is among several residents who accuse the police of brutality. "It's like a jail, like a concentration camp," she continued. "If you're not inside at night, the police beat you. A few weeks ago they pointed an R5 rifle as if they were going to shoot people. They swore at us: 'This isn't fucking Athlone. You should go back to your place.'" She argues that the fanfare around a month-long football tournament is hypocritical when people are going hungry. "I think they must cancel the World Cup because people are starving. They are renovating buildings in Cape Town for half a billion rand; why can't they spend that money here? It breaks my heart. "When rich people come to the World Cup they must come to Blikkiesdorp first to see for themselves how people are living. It's worse than apartheid." Among those suffering is Fatima Booysen, 40, who has lived in shack J22 with her husband, Abraham, and two daughters for more than a year. She said: "I can't shop, the rain is coming in, the child is sick. A lot of people have got TB now. "It's very cold in winter. When you stand up in the morning you feel frozen, you can't feel your hands or feet. "The children don't want to go to school. I've got a one-year-old grandchild who's sick today and has gone to hospital." Residents say that unemployment is high and a lack of postal deliveries or official addresses makes it hard to find work. They also criticise their remote location, which requires them to pay for minibus taxis to the city, and say that children have been killed in accidents on Blikkiesdorp's thoroughfares and when crossing a nearby motorway. Crime is said to be high, with drug gangs moving into unused shacks, but the police offer little relief. Court action Badronessa Morris, 47, complained: "The police treat us like animals. They swear at us, pepper spray us, search us in public, even children. At 10 o'clock you must be inside: the police come and tell you to go into your place and turn down the music. In my old home we used to sit outside all night with the fire." Morris was among families evicted from an informal settlement on the Symphony Way road. "We were one happy family on Symphony Way. Now we've moved to Blikkiesdorp it's like we're in chains, fighting each other, putting each other in jail. "I know we were moved because of the World Cup. They don't want people to see shacks on the road in South Africa. They want everything perfect for the World Cup." Other people have gone to court to resist a possible move to Blikkiesdorp. Last December five families living near the Athlone stadium were told their homes would be demolished to make way for a car park. Llewellyn Wilters, 52, who has lived in his house for seven years, said: "I took a drive to Blikkiesdorp to check it out and don't think it's going to work. How are we going to take the kids to school and get to work?" He added: "We were born in this area, we went to school here, we know the area and know all the people here. Why must we move out?" Shack dwellers have mobilised against evictions in well-organised protests that make powerful use of new media. Pamela Beukes, 29, secretary of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, condemned the rise of Blikkiesdorp: "They're creating a tin city. They're doing worse things than the apartheid regime did to the people. Under apartheid they gave us a brick house. "The World Cup was supposed to bring a higher standard of living. But it's making it lower. People are saying, 'I don't want to watch soccer because it's the reason I was evicted.' It's as if we're lesser beings." The city of Cape Town denies the accusation that it is dumping people in Blikkiesdorp because of the World Cup. Kylie Hatton, a spokeswoman, said in an email: "It is not true that the City of Cape Town is moving or displacing residents in informal areas in the runup to the 2010 Fifa World Cup. "It is important to note that the TRA has been constructed for emergency accommodation needs and is provided by the city, and exceeds national housing requirements." She added: "We have significant challenges regarding vandalism in the area, and in some cases our contractors have had to return to the site over four times to repair broken toilets, taps and electricity cables. This often then has an impact on services in the settlement." But Blikkiesdorp is only one manifestation of a deeper disquiet in South Africa about the benefits, or otherwise, of hosting football's biggest festival. In Durban there are further demonstrations over evictions and reports that street children are forcibly being removed from the city centre to "safe areas" far away. Tens of thousands of informal traders complain that they will lose income because of Fifa-imposed "exclusion zones" around stadiums which permit only approved businesses. Regina Twala, who has been selling cooked meals and snacks for 35 years, told South Africa's Sunday Independent that she and fellow workers had been ordered to vacate their premises outside Ellis Park stadium. Unemployment The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign said: "The lives of small businesses and informal traders in South Africa have been destroyed by this World Cup. If we are not allowed to trade near stadiums, fan parks and other tourist areas, how can we benefit from tourism?" The new stadiums heralded a construction boom, but many of the workers who built them have already been laid off and are without work. Caroline Elliot, international programmes officer for the anti-poverty group War on Want, said: "Behind the spectacle, the World Cup is exacerbating the struggle of poor South Africans who are facing evictions, lack of public services and unemployment. The South African government needs to tackle these problems as an urgent priority." Andile Mngxitama, a political commentator and columnist, is about to publish a pamphlet entitled "Fuck the World Cup". He said: "We never needed the World Cup. It is a jamboree by the politicians to focus attention away from the 16 years of democracy that have not delivered for the majority of black people in this country. We'll be trapped with white elephant stadiums." He added: "The World Cup is not about football or so-called tourism. It's about politicians hoping it keeps us busy for a month and making enormous amounts of money for themselves and their friends." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100403/f77867bb/attachment-0001.html From sebydesiolim at hotmail.com Wed Apr 7 21:07:39 2010 From: sebydesiolim at hotmail.com (sebastian Rodrigues) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 21:07:39 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] FW: [fridaybalcao] 9th April Topic:The User Generated City. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: _________________________________________________________________ Catch the latest in the world of fashion http://lifestyle.in.msn.com/ From sebydesiolim at hotmail.com Wed Apr 7 21:10:26 2010 From: sebydesiolim at hotmail.com (sebastian Rodrigues) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 21:10:26 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] The User generated city Message-ID: ------------------------------------------ Welcome to the FRIDAY BALCAO the fortnightly discussion event since 1999 -------------------------------------------   Dear friends,   We continue with FRIDAY BALCAO on 9th April from 4pm. to 6pm. at Goa Desc Resource Centre No.11, Liberty Apartments, Feira Alta, Mapusa.   TOPIC:The User Generated City SPEAKER: Rahul Srivastava & Matias Sendoa Echanove.                   Co-founders of URBZ.net and Urbanology.org   We invite you to express your viewpoint by attending the FRIDAY BALCAO If you cannot attend, then please send your views and action plan suggestions by email to goadesc at gmail.com   best wishes,   Roland Martins ------------------------------------------------------- Don't miss out on the discussion. Information is power, Share it equitably. Lets make things happen in Goa !! ------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ The amazing world in sharp snaps http://news.in.msn.com/gallery/archive.aspx From sebydesiolim at hotmail.com Mon Apr 12 16:36:44 2010 From: sebydesiolim at hotmail.com (sebastian Rodrigues) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:36:44 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] My Barcelona Poster on Metal Sensitivity Message-ID: Hello! For my Barcelona poster and other relevant material from recently held 2nd International Conference on 'Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity' held at Universitat de Barcelona please visit the links below: http://mandgoa.blogspot.com/2010/04/barcelona-poster-on-metal-sensitivity.html Warmly, Seby _________________________________________________________________ Catch the latest in the world of fashion http://lifestyle.in.msn.com/ From cugambetta at yahoo.com Sat Apr 17 00:59:21 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:29:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: H-ASIA: Member Publication: Passenger Transport in India and Egypt In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <202010.34335.qm@web57411.mail.re1.yahoo.com> has anyone had a chance to look at this? curt ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Andrew Field To: H-ASIA at H-NET.MSU.EDU Sent: Wed, April 14, 2010 6:51:32 PM Subject: H-ASIA: Member Publication: Passenger Transport in India and Egypt H-ASIA April 15 2010 Member Publication ************************** From: Dalia Wahdan Dear Colleagues, I wish to introduce my book that has recently been published by Lap-Lambert Ltd. Book Title: Governing Livelihoods in Liberalizing States: A Comparative Study of Passenger Transport in Gurgaon, India and Sitta October, Egypt This book analyzes passenger transport in Sitta October, Egypt and Gurgaon, India - two suburban cities near Cairo and Delhi linked to global flows of capital and labor. It conceives of passenger transport as a ‘window’ to understand the nature of urban livelihoods that are emerging with privatization of road infrastructures, the shift from predominantly governmental to ‘private’ provision of passenger transport and the scalar changes within the matrices of power and decision-making brought about by macroeconomic reforms. It focuses on the dynamic interactions between local government and policing agencies on one hand and transport operators on the other, as critical nexus in understanding the nature of urban governance, defined as the mode of functioning of local governments as they execute shifting state strategies and policies. It contextualizes this dynamic within four overlapping forces: a) existing institutions of local government, b) global capital and labor flows, c) emerging regional administrative and institutional changes, and most importantly, d) the ardent will of transport operators to have a stake in - and carve out - their own livelihoods against the odds. This book is available at http://www.bod.de/index.php?id=296&objk_id=346876 --Dr. Dalia Wahdan Visiting Fellow Centre for the Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi 110067 Office: +911126742670 Mobile: +919953721219 ************************************************************************ To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: For holidays or short absences send post to: with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/ From leofsaldanha at gmail.com Sat Apr 17 14:19:20 2010 From: leofsaldanha at gmail.com (Leo Saldanha) Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:19:20 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Metros must be subject to public review Message-ID: <4BC97610.2020305@gmail.com> Due to a word limit, the original article was somewhat truncated. If anyone needs the original detailed article (easier to read) then pl write to me off list. Leo http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20100430&filename=croc&sec_id=10&sid=2 VOL 18 ,NO 23 Saturday, April 17, 2010 *Headline* : * On a skewed track* *Intro:*Metros must be subject to public review Metro rails are under construction in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Smaller urban ce-ntres are also drawn to it. It is fashionable to place metros in city planning and budgets. Invariably, a coterie of engineers, bureaucrats and ministers make such public transport choices. For a mega-project with unnecessary and irreversible impacts, that demand interdisciplinary inputs, rarely, if ever, are planners, social scientists, ecologists, and economists consulted. Metros become an exciting choice of transport because they move populations quickly, safely and over distances. A not-so-well acknowledged reason, though, is the urge to leave behind a legacy: of technological progress, political vision and executive leadership. When such factors step in, the rush to get projects cleared is such that costs are deliberately lowered, for clearance. Not unexpectedly then, project costs escalate, sometimes 100 per cent. Rehabilitation of communities, restructuring of neighbourhoods, adverse impacts on public spaces, implications for surface and groundwater regimes are largely ignored in the design stage and attended to more out of compulsion. The 20th century's oft-repeated expression---sustainable developme-nt---is summoned to make expensive metros easy political decisions: reduction in travel costs, time saved is money saved; car and motorbike users have a crisp travel alternative and that metros don't emit noxious gases. Only when the metro construction cuts through centuries-old cities, with built characteristics, reorganizing, often dislocating, settled cultural and commercial networks and tearing through carefully constructed ecological spa-ces---boulevards, tree lines, parks---that one begins to fathom the project's real impact. Do we, then, lack statutory processes that mandate conforming to these factors prior to deciding for or against the metro, or any other public transport mode for that matter? The Town and Country Planning Act enacted in the 1960s has many provisions that demand attention to such complex issues. The act demands that expert driven proposals such as the metros gain social sanction based on repetitive public commenting procedures. But decades of not implementing such provisions has resulted in a situation where people remain ignorant of, or avoid compliance with, such laws. It also seems natural to expect such mega projects undertake social and environment impact assessment (eia). In 2005, when the Union environment ministry set out to revamp eias, it listed metros as high impact projects requiring an environmental clearance based on public hearings. E Sreedharan, Delhi Metro chief, thought otherwise. In a letter to the ministry he argued that because metros were cleaner modes of public transport, they do not need environmental clearance. Following this, the ministry dropped metros from the provisions of the eia Notification 2006, much the way it dropped automobile sector based on claims they were a non-polluting manufacturing sector! Experiences from Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru now show that were metros subjected to public review and eias, many mistakes could have been avoided. The result: costs have escalated, implementation timelines have slipped, accidents have caused deaths and injuries, labour violations are not uncommon and city life is seriously impaired. An eia undertaken might have also provided us an opportunity to explore other cheaper and more appropriate public transport solutions such as bus rapid transit systems. This possibility now exists because of an affidavit the ministry filed in response to a petition by former vice chancellors and this writer challenging the construction of a road through the verdant forested campus of the Univer-sity of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru. In response to a prayer in the petition that the road must be subjected to an eia, the ministry submitted that "buildings and construction projects covering an area equal to or more than 20,000 sq m but less than 100,000 sq m and under item 8(b) of the said notification, townships and area development projects covering an area equal to or more than 50 hectares and/or built-up area equal to or more than 100,000 sq m attract the provisions of the Environment Protection Act, 1986." If roads qualify to comply with the eia notification, surely metros do too, given that they are large construction and area development projects. /Leo F Saldanha is coordinator, Environment Support Group, Bengaluru/ -- Leo F. Saldanha Coordinator [Environment, Social Justice and Governance Initiatives] Environment Support Group Trust 1572, 36th Cross, Banashankari II Stage Bangalore 560070 Tel: 91-80-26713559-61 Voice/Fax: 91-80-26713316 Email: leo at esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100417/99a56e49/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 49 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100417/99a56e49/attachment-0004.gif -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 10476 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100417/99a56e49/attachment-0001.jpe From dewahdan at aucegypt.edu Sun Apr 18 11:20:37 2010 From: dewahdan at aucegypt.edu (Dalia Wahdan) Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:20:37 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Passenger Transport in India and Egypt Message-ID: dear members, I attach a synopsis of the book for those interested..In short, This book analyzes passenger transport in Sitta October, Egypt and Gurgaon, India - two suburban cities near Cairo and Delhi linked to global flows of capital and labor. It conceives of passenger transport as a ‘window’ to understand the nature of urban livelihoods that are emerging with privatization of road infrastructures, the shift from predominantly governmental to ‘private’ provision of passenger transport and the scalar changes within the matrices of power and decision-making brought about by macroeconomic reforms. It focuses on the dynamic interactions between local government and policing agencies on one hand and transport operators on the other, as critical nexus in understanding the nature of urban governance, defined as the mode of functioning of local governments as they execute shifting state strategies and policies. It contextualizes this dynamic within four overlapping forces: a) existing institutions of local government, b) global capital and labor flows, c) emerging regional administrative and institutional changes, and most importantly, d) the ardent will of transport operators to have a stake in - and carve out - their own livelihoods against the odds. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100418/312b2d18/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Book Synopsis.docx Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document Size: 40773 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100418/312b2d18/attachment-0001.bin From vadivelu at iegindia.org Mon Apr 19 11:16:12 2010 From: vadivelu at iegindia.org (vadivelu) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:16:12 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Climate Change and Water Governance in Delhi References: <4BC97610.2020305@gmail.com> Message-ID: <002e01cadf83$9fc702d0$38018282@vadivelu> Hi, Please find herein the link for the presentation titled " Climate Change and Water Governance in Delhi: Legends, Tales and Plans" that we did at IIT, Delhi in March. http://www.cseindia.org/docs/IIT_Climate_change/Ananda%20Vadivelu.pdf We invite critical comments, suggestions and discussion on this. regards, Ananda Vadivelu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100419/9296345f/attachment.html From debsinha at gmail.com Tue Apr 20 06:55:34 2010 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:25:34 -0400 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Friday April 23: Madhu Kishwar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: "Amit Prakash" Centre for the Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University Seminar Series Madhu Purnima Kishwar Manushi Sangathan, New Delhi, & Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi Laws, Liberty and Livelihood Need for a Bottom-Up Agenda of Economic Reforms Abstract While political scientists and theorists in India have engaged extensively with the need for greater political rights and freedom, there has been far less attention paid to issues of economic freedom. Political freedom has thus been understood in a very narrow sense of free and fair elections, right to representation in political institutions and decentralization of decision-making in civic affairs. The issue of economic rights and freedoms has predominantly been viewed through the prism of class struggle, with the state being projected as the sole 'protector' of the weak and vulnerable sections of society from the greed and exploitation of the rich and powerful. The bureaucracy avidly imbibed this Nehruvian bias because it facilitated the concentration of vast, arbitrary powers in its own hands. Neither our economists nor our political theorists have tried to come to grips with the often predatory role of the State and how it works hard to wreck people's livelihoods and their self-confidence. Without economic freedom, whatever political freedom we have becomes an empty ritual. That is a major reason why, despite such an actively involved electorate, Indian political democracy remains deeply flawed and has become hostage to anti-social elements. Since our intellectuals and media remain obsessed mainly with the political and electoral dimensions of democracy, they have more or less ignored the systematic and routine loot, extortion, violence, and indignities suffered by our people as they go about perfectly legitimate economic pursuits. The livelihood concerns of the vast majority of our people remain marginalized even in the minds of those pushing for economic reforms because the agenda of economic reforms has remained obsessively focused on the entry of transnational corporations, the concerns of the Indian corporate sector, and the fate of government-run public enterprises, as they prepare to deal with a market open to competition. We cannot afford to overlook the fact that Indian and foreign corporations and the PSUs together provide employment to no more than 3% per cent of our population. As against about 10% who are self-employed in Europe and America, the vast majority of people in India (more than 90 %) work in the unorganized sector and the vast majority is still self-employed. My presentation will focus on the absurd laws and regulations governing the livelihoods of two of the most visible and numerically large group of self employed poor in urban areas-namely street vendors and cycle rickshaw pullers-as illustrative examples of how needless bureaucratic controls trap the hard working poor in a web of illegality and make them victims of massive extortion rackets. Friday, 23 April 2010, 3.00 PM Conference Room, CSLG, JNU Directions: From JNU main gate, proceed straight until you get to a T-junction. Turn left. Continue until you reach a second T-junction. Turn right. Follow the road for just 0.7 km until you see a bus stop labelled "Paschimmabad." About 50m past the bus stop turn right at a sign that reads "Centre for Study of Law and Governance." CSLG building is on the right. From leofsaldanha at gmail.com Thu Apr 22 16:55:27 2010 From: leofsaldanha at gmail.com (Leo Saldanha) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:55:27 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: India's urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth Message-ID: <4BD03227.5070206@gmail.com> MGI Newsletter *Viewing this on a BlackBerry? Click below.* http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/BlackberryNewsletter/india_urbanization/index.asp *India's urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth* India's lack of effective policies to manage its rapid and large-scale urbanization could jeopardize the nation's growth trajectory. But if India pursues a new operating model for its cities, it could add as much as 1 to 1.5 percent to annual GDP growth, bringing the economy near to the double-digit growth to which the government aspires. Read the full report » You are receiving this e-mail alert because in the past you have registered for MGI research on Consumer Demand and Demographics. To unsubscribe from MGI's Research Updates, please submit your request. McKinsey Global Institue 555 California Street, Suite 4700, San Francisco, Calfornia 94104 * Terms Of Use - * *Privacy Policy* *** | © Copyright 1996-2010 McKinsey & Company * ** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100422/fd7ad108/attachment.html From debsinha at gmail.com Thu Apr 22 20:37:16 2010 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:07:16 -0400 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Nitrogen dioxide level exceeds limit in 10 cities Message-ID: <8C25EADC75984627AAF4BA588B051FB6@csa.ad.mtu.edu> Air pollution is increasing at an alarming rate in the country with the national capital being one of the 10 cities where nitrogen dioxide levels have exceeded prescribed standards, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has said. "Nitrogen dioxide levels are exceeding the prescribed standards in 10 cities, namely Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Asansol, Bengaluru, Jamshedpur, Faridabad, Meerut, Patna and Pune. There is an increasing trend of nitrogen dioxide levels in Asansol and Bengaluru," Ramesh said. http://www.zeenews.com/news621097.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Apr 23 22:19:19 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:19:19 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Correction : Third CSH-CPR Urban Workshop / Tuesday 27th April In-Reply-To: <-7185044745415695985@unknownmsgid> References: <-7185044745415695985@unknownmsgid> Message-ID: FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marie-Helene ZERAH Date: Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 12:07 PM Subject: Third CSH-CPR Urban Workshop / Tuesday 27th April Dear All, Please find the *revised* announcement for the 3rd CSH-CPR Urban Workshop held on last Tuesday of every month. Apologies for cross-posting, Marie - Hélène Zérah and Partha Mukhopadhya * * *Reading “Mumbai’s Transformation Project” through the lens of Infrastructure Reforms *** Marie-Hélène Zérah Researcher and Head, Urban Dynamics at Centre de Sciences Humaines *3:45 pm Tuesday, 27 April 2010 *** at: Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi The presentation is based on a paper written in the context of a research program on “Governing Large Metropolises” conducted by the Chair on Cities at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP). The objective of the research program is to understand how large city-regions are governed, by focusing on the role of institutions in the management of large urban technical networks. It draws on field work conducted between 2003 and 2008 on several aspects of urban amenities in Mumbai and is based on the analysis of a number of sectors (primarily water, waste and sewage; partially on environment, transport, housing and power), some selected urban projects and, the new vision of the city: the “Vision Mumbai”. The paper tries to answer a number of questions. It focuses on the new instruments of public action and their outcomes and asks whether changes in governance of technical networks are able to balance imperatives of economic performance and extension of services to all. It also looks at how infrastructure reforms form part of an urban regime and seeks to understand the unintended consequences of public policy in terms of shifting power relationships in the city. Finally, it assesses whether ongoing reforms contribute or undermine the process of collective action at the metropolitan level. *Marie – Hélène Zérah* is a Ph.D. in Urban Studies from the Paris Institute of Urban Studies. She is currently a Research Fellow with the Institute of Research for Development (Paris) and is deputed to the Centre de Sciences Humaines of New Delhi. She previously worked with the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank and with Ondeo (Suez Group). She has worked extensively in the area of water supply and sanitation in Indian cities as well as other urban infrastructure services. Her more recent research interests concern the shifts in urban governance in India. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100423/3dc916ba/attachment-0001.html From Fole.Sherman at undp.org Mon Apr 26 16:21:42 2010 From: Fole.Sherman at undp.org (Fole Sherman) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:51:42 +0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] urban study report Message-ID: Dear All, I wish to introduce myself, Fole Sherman, UN-HABITAT Program Manager Liberia. We intend to undertake an urban assessment of the city of Monrovia and two other cities in Liberia. In this connection, we are interested in urban study reports and if possible suggestions of methodologies that have been used in other countries and studies. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for the usual kind cooperation and understanding. Sincerely Fole Sherman -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20100426/b06049f1/attachment.html