From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Wed Oct 5 16:38:40 2011 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 16:38:40 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] My paper in the Journal of Asian and African Studies Message-ID: Dear all, My paper titled “Where is the State? How is the State? - Accessing Water and the State in Mumbai and Johannesburg” has appeared in the latest Special Issue on “Accessing the State” in the Journal of Asian and African Studies. I’d be happy to share a copy of the article with anyone who is interested in reading it. Abstract: This article examines the water distribution systems in Johannesburg and Mumbai to argue that the political and institutional contexts of service delivery shape people’s access to the state and its resources, and also mediation between citizens and government institutions by councillors. Through ethnographies of water supply and distribution systems in Mumbai and Johannesburg, I explain how the organizational structure of the water utility, institutional arrangements of service delivery, regulatory systems, councillors’ proximity to decision makers and their relationship with municipal officials, civil servants and party members variously influence councillors’ mediation capacities and their ability to fulfil the claims of their constituencies for piped water supply and connections. Regards, Zainab -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher http://writerruns.wordpress.com/ ... ambling along roads and courses, not knowing whether I am running towards a destination or whether the act of running is destination in itself -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From debsinha at gmail.com Tue Oct 11 06:47:37 2011 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha) Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:17:37 +0900 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Free Trade's Impact on Poverty in India May Be Limited - NYTimes.com Message-ID: <002401cc87b3$91f2b580$b5d82080$@gmail.com> *Like the dog that didn't bark, the study's principal finding is a non-result: there is no systematic relationship between trade liberalization and inequality in India. Rather, a whopping 90 percent of inequality reflects differences at the level of individual households within states or within urban vs. rural areas, rather than between these groupings. And widening the lens from the household to the community, more than 60 percent of total inequality is found at the local level, within urban blocks and rural villages. These highly localized roots of inequality have little to do with inter-state or rural-urban differences, to say nothing of trade or other international factors. Rather, they stem from factors that labor economists have long understood to be the drivers of inequality: education, work experience, family background, and, crucially in the Indian case, caste and ethnic differences. Trade is, at best, a footnote to the tale of inequality in India.* http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/has-globalization-helped-indias-po or/ From debsinha at gmail.com Thu Oct 13 07:06:20 2011 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha) Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:36:20 +0900 Subject: [Urbanstudy] FW: REVIEW: Hensman on Prakash _Mumbai Fables_ In-Reply-To: <109580130.612351318442307389.JavaMail.root@email1> References: <1311874662.612091318442173171.JavaMail.root@email1> <109580130.612351318442307389.JavaMail.root@email1> Message-ID: <005a01cc8948$83ce7ca0$8b6b75e0$@gmail.com> -----Original Message----- From: H-Net list for Asian History and Culture [mailto:H-ASIA at H-NET.MSU.EDU] On Behalf Of Sumit Guha Gyan Prakash. Mumbai Fables. Princeton Princeton University Press, 2010. xi + 396 pp. Illustrations. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-14284-5. Reviewed by Rohini Hensman Published on H-Asia (October, 2011) Commissioned by Sumit Guha Mumbai City _Mumbai Fables_ recounts the history of Bombay from its colonial origins to the present in a book that is both scholarly and well written. In the first chapter, Gyan Prakash describes how he hungered for the city from a distance since his childhood, a desire fed by Hindi films. Having described the myths generated by the city, he explains,"The nostalgic 'tropical Camelot' and the dystopic city of slums appear as compelling bookends of Mumbai's story because they seem to have the force of historical truth. In fact, it is a trick of history, inviting us to believe its Bombay-to-Mumbai tale as an objective reading of the past when it is a fable.... My goal is not to strip fact from fiction, not to oppose the 'real' to the myth, but to reveal the historical circumstances portrayed and hidden by the stories and images produced in the past and the present" (p. 23). At this point I should reveal that I evaluate this book from the standpoint of an immigrant who moved to Bombay in 1974 with my immediate family, knowing literally no one apart from my husband's relatives, who very kindly took us in. It is the inclusiveness, warmth, and friendship I have encountered in the course of involvement in social and political activism that endear the city to me. The diversity of the city makes it easy for anyone to feel at home; as the author remarks, "As a means of communicating across differences, the city has even concocted a hybrid but wonderfully expressive vernacular for everyday communication--Bambaiya" (p. 11). It is precisely for this reason that the anti-Muslim pogroms of 1993 caused such anguish to many residents, and why there was resistance to the change of name to "Mumbai" by the Shiv Sena, which had organized the violence. Resistance--to communal carnage, unregulated property development that contributed to the disastrous floods of July 2005, calls for war with Pakistan, and so on--is underplayed in the book. But its purpose is to "uncover the historical experiences of forging a modern collective of different religions, classes, castes and languages and undo the fables to lay bare the history of the city _as_ society" (p. 24). And it achieves this remarkably well. The second chapter traces the origins of Bombay in a colonial past. >From 1532, the Portuguese ruled Bombay, which was then seven separate islets on which people lived by fishing, rice and coconut farming, and trade. In 1661, the Portuguese gifted Bombay as a dowry to the English when Catherine of Braganza married Charles II. Seven years later, "the Crown leased Bombay to the East India Company," which built the fort as a well-defended walled town (p. 35). By 1838, "reclamations, the filling of breaches and the construction of bunds and roadways, had joined the seven islets into a single island" (p. 44). Initially, the city's prosperity derived from the opium trade, but during the American Civil War in the 1860s, cotton became the main source of wealth. Cotton prices crashed after the war ended; but by then, the first textile mill had been established in 1854, and was soon followed by others. Bombay became an industrial city, attracting migrants from all over India. Prakash presents Dinshaw Wacha's account of Bombay's modernity, Govind Narayan Madgavkar's portrait of the dazzling range of communities living in the metropolis, and Naoroji Dumasia's writings on crime, as contrasting myths from the nineteenth century. There was a more striking contrast between the European "comely city" in South Bombay and the teeming "native town" (p. 61), where "Bombay's working classes huddled in dark, crowded, poorly ventilated and ramshackle buildings, jammed together without consideration for drainage or ventilation" (p. 68)--conditions that gave rise to the plague epidemic of 1896-97 at a time when plague was a worldwide scourge. The author observes that "The government recognized ... that the dreadful sanitary conditions in the Bombay Port Trust chawls had bred the disease. However, it could not acknowledge that the underlying cause was colonial rule" (p. 71). Yet the earliest protective labor legislation in India, the Factories Act (1881) restricting child labor and working hours among other things, was passed by the colonial government under pressure from Lancashire textile manufacturers, who feared competition from Indian mills. This was later strengthened, and other labor laws added, under the colonial administration. Accounts of European capitalism by Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and Emile Zola, and of postcolonial Indian capitalism, suggest that it is capitalism that is responsible for such extreme poverty, and only working-class struggle can secure decent living and working conditions. Bombay's island origin makes it difficult for the city to expand, except northwards. Chapter 3 goes into efforts by the colonial state to relieve congestion by reclaiming land from the sea in the first half of the twentieth century. The first plan foundered due to incompetence and corruption, and was criticized vigorously by Parsi lawyer and prominent congressman Khurshed Framji Nariman, thus "establishing the idea that the city was an object of public interest" (p. 94). But the pressure for housing continued, resulting in the construction of upper-class Art Deco apartments on Queen's Road and Marine Drive, and the Bombay Development Department chawls in Worli for workers. While the Art Deco crowd were entertained by "Jazz, ballroom dancing, cabarets, and the screening of Hollywood films," (p. 105), Hindi cinema took off and prospered. It is surely a tribute to the secular, progressive mass culture of the time that one of the most popular stars in hit after hit was "Fearless Nadia," a white woman who spoke Hindi poorly but "could beat up evil Indian men, and yet arouse no nationalist backlash because cultural modernity, rather than race, defined her identity" (p. 110)! As Prakash writes, "By the 1930s, Bombay was the place to be if you were a writer, an artist, or a radical political activist" (p. 119). A stellar array of writers congregated around the Communist Party of India--led the Progressive Writers' Association and the Indian People's Theatre Association, both of which enjoyed a significant presence in Bombay. These were not just front organizations: "Many writers who were influenced by progressive and socialist ideas were neither CPI members nor followers.... But all these writers expressed a genuine social and intellectual ferment" (p. 130). They combined an orientation towards the working class with high artistic standards. Thus Chetan Anand's _Neecha Nagar_ (Lowly City), for example, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946. Written by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, with music composed by Ravi Shankar, the film tells the story of "the nonviolent struggle of the underclasses against the rich" (p. 136). However, all this was disrupted by Partition in 1947. Not only did these intellectuals scatter in different directions--for example, Saadat Hasan Manto went to Pakistan while Ismat Chugtai and Abbas remained in Bombay--but they found their radical politics challenged by nationalism. And, as Prakash points out, "The about-turns in the CPI's strategy did not help." Abbas was even more scathing about his Communist friends "who were ready to divide India into two or twenty pieces in pursuance of their theory of self-determination," remarking that the Communist Party, along with Hindu and Muslim fanatics, had killed India (p. 148). The Communist Party's sympathy for linguistic nationalism, encouraged by Stalin's writings on the national question, was also implicated in the transition "From Red to Saffron," as chapter 6 is named. With the emergence of the Communist Girni Kamgar Union as the dominant force in the textile mills in 1928, the CPI had turned Girangaon, the mill district, "into a red bastion not just with industrial actions but also with attempts to form a progressive culture" (p. 212). This advantage was partly frittered away by Comintern-inspired lurches to the right and left during the war and after. But the fatal blow came when Shripad Amrit Dange, who had been sidelined as "right-wing" during the left turn, was back in the leadership, and joined wholeheartedly in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement of the 1950s, demanding a unified state of Marathi-speakers with Bombay as its capital. Working-class politics gave way to Marathi chauvinism, and the main beneficiary was the Shiv Sena, founded by Bal Thackeray in 1966. Its defense of "Marathi culture" entailed, in its early period, attacks on South Indians and Communists, culminating in the murder of CPI activist Krishna Desai. Muslims were the next target. In the late 1980s, the Shiv Sena joined other right-wing Hindu groups in the Ram Janmabhoomi (Ram's Birthplace) movement, which destroyed the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992. This was followed, in January 1993, by the most shameful episode in Bombay's history: the anti-Muslim pogroms in which the Sena, with police collusion, murdered defenseless Muslims in cold blood. The official death toll is 900, the unofficial one much higher. The violence was followed by retaliatory violence: the bomb blasts of March 12, 1993 that killed over 250 people. Chapter 7 returns to the theme of urban planning in the mid 1960s, and the dream of a twin city on the mainland. The author's explanation for the failure of the twin city plan was that it had "no place for the heterogeneous and conflict-ridden urban life, no room for chawls as spaces of community and memory, and no room for the rich and varied life on the streets" (p. 285). This may be true, but a more mundane explanation might have suggested itself if he had looked at the public transport system of Bombay. Until the recent extension of the Harbour Line to Navi Mumbai, suburban trains ran only in a north-south direction. Given the struggle to get on and off trains in the rush hour, commuters understandably prefer to do it only once per journey. There have been buses going east-west for many years, but they are much slower. Therefore people wanting more living space moved further and further northwards rather than moving eastwards. In the last chapter, "Dreamworlds," a similar contrast is drawn between the vitality and resourcefulness of the inhabitants of Dharavi and the disparaging description of it as "Asia's largest slum." Prakash is absolutely right to criticize the "real estate magnates and middle-class heritage activists" who seek to displace these hard-working and enterprising migrants in their pursuit of profit or beautification (p. 239). But it does not follow that nothing needs to be changed. The lives of women and girls would be immeasurably better if they did not have to spend hours queuing up at water-taps, risk humiliation or worse when they needed to go to the toilet, or have malicious neighbors spreading gossip about them. Ensuring that people have running water, sanitation, and a modicum of privacy while preserving a sense of community is the challenge facing planners. In conclusion, Prakash states that "Mumbai's everyday practice rejects history written as a linear story and presents it instead as a tapestry of different, overlapping, and contradictory experiences, imaginations and desires" (p. 348). This complex reality is presented skillfully in an eminently readable narrative. There are a few gaps, however. For example, there is no mention of the establishment of new industries (engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc.) from the 1940s onwards, and the development of employees' or workers' unions in them. While many of the early units have disappeared as employers closed them down and shifted production to other locations, the movement has grown into a nationwide federation, the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), which ranks among the most impressive examples of union democracy in the world. Nor is there any mention of the autonomous women's movement, which took off in the late 1970s after the Supreme Court acquitted a policeman who had raped Mathura, a sixteen-year-old tribal girl. While these movements focus on workers' rights and women's rights respectively, they have also made a point of safeguarding Bombay's diversity. Thus the NTUI and others organized a meeting just before the High Court judgment in the Babri Masjid title suit in 2010, appealing to workers to protect Muslims in their neighborhoods and workplaces in the event of a backlash to the judgment. And in 2008, in the midst of a campaign of violence against North Indians carried out by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Bal Thackeray's nephew Raj, the International Women's Day march in Bombay condemned the ethnic cleansing drives of both the Shiv Sena and MNS. If the myth of Bombay as an inclusive city survives to this day, it is thanks to the efforts of such activists. Citation: Rohini Hensman. Review of Prakash, Gyan, _Mumbai Fables_. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. October, 2011. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32218 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. From yanivbin at gmail.com Sat Oct 15 15:37:17 2011 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:37:17 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Centre proposes to merge rural and urban health missions Message-ID: Centre proposes to merge rural and urban health missionsAarti Dhar [image: The NUHM will cover the entire urban areas irrespective of the dwelling status including general population, listed and unlisted slums. File photo] The Hindu The NUHM will cover the entire urban areas irrespective of the dwelling status including general population, listed and unlisted slums. File photo The Centre proposes to merge the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the yet-to-be-launched National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in the 13th Five-Year-Plan period. The two ambitious Missions will be separate entities in the upcoming 12th Five-Year-Plan period, after the launch of the urban health mission, but subsequently merged. In its proposals to the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that the National Urban Health Mission would be taken up as a thrust area for the 12th Plan and launched as a separate mission for urban areas with focus on slums and urban poor. It will cover all cities and towns with a population of more than 50,000, broadly covering 779 cities and towns including seven mega cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. The budget allocation for the mission is envisaged to be Rs. 30,000 crore and the programme will be implemented by investing in health professionals, creating new and upgradation of existing infrastructure, and strengthening the existing health care service delivery system. Principally, the NUHM will cover the entire urban areas irrespective of the dwelling status (including general population, listed and unlisted slums) but outreach services will be targeted for slum/slum like areas and other homeless people, street vendors, railway and bus station coolies, homeless people and street children, construction site workers who may be in slums or on sites. Inter-sectoral convergence will be planned between the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Rajiv Awas Yojana and the NUHM. Realising that the health care needs of the urban poor and vulnerable populations, the urban health mission will ensure adequate resources for addressing the health problems in urban areas and address the need-based city specific urban health care system to meet the diverse health needs of the urban population with focus on the urban poor and other vulnerable sections. The institutional mechanism and management systems will be in place to meet the health-related challenges of a rapidly growing urban population and join hands with community for a more proactive involvement in planning, implementation and monitoring of health activities. At the primary care level, one Urban Primary Health Centre will be established for every 50-60,000. At the community level, outreach services will be provided to the urban poor slums with the help of Urban Social Health Activist (USHA) (200-500 households) and Mahila Aarogya Samiti (50-100 households). No sub-centres are proposed but communisation will be made possible through Mahila Aarogya Samiti and Rogi Kalyan Samiti while secondary and tertiary level services will be provided through public or empanelled private providers. The National Rural Health Mission was launched in 2005 and is proposed to be extended by five years. Oct 15, 2011 3:34:42 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2537936.ece -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Sun Oct 16 22:17:02 2011 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:17:02 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] JNNURM cities want Centre to bear 'extra' cost Message-ID: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/JNNURM-cities-want-Centre-to-bear-extra-cost/articleshow/10370793.cms JNNURM cities want Centre to bear 'extra' cost Siddharth Gaikwad, TNN | Oct 16, 2011, 01.23AM IST Pune: Cities in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, receiving funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), have suggested that the escalated cost of projects be funded by the Union government in the phase II of the scheme. Prakash Kadam, additional commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation ( PCMC), said that representatives of all cities gave this suggestion to the Union urban development department (UDD), at a regional conference held in Ahmedabad, on October 12. The meeting, which was held to review the first phase of JNNURM, was attended by principal secretaries of states, secretaries of state urban development departments, state-level nodal agencies and municipal commissioners. Kadam said, "Project costs have gone up due to delay in starting actual work, land acquisition problems, litigations and other issues. There is no provision in the JNNURM which suggests that the Union government will bear the escalation in cost." Kadam said that representatives of states suggested that the Union government fund the escalation. They have expressed hope that the suggestion will be included in the second phase of the JNNURM. Discussions were also held on projects that are stuck for various reasons. Kadam said the Union government officials were informed about stopping of work on the pipeline from Pavana dam to Nigdi, following directives from the state government. The Union government officials asked for reasons that have delayed projects. The common reasons cited by civic officials were unavailability of land, pending court cases and land acquisition problems. Representatives from 10 cities in the state and five cities from Gujarat attended the conference. Sudhir Krishna, Union urban development department and Nisha Singh, joint secretary, mission cities, were present at the conference. "The Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation will strive to complete the projects under the phase I of JNNURM scheme before March 2012. Work on some of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) routes began late so they will be delayed. The civic body had taken a World Bank loan for completing some of the projects so it took more time to get the necessary sanctions from the bank," Kadam said. The Union government had approved projects with a total expenditure of Rs 2571.29 crore under the JNNURM which are to be implemented by the Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation. The Centre is to contribute Rs 1285.65 crore while the state government has to give Rs 514.26 crore. The share of the civic body is Rs 771.39 crore. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Tue Oct 18 00:22:37 2011 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:22:37 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] No urban planner in plan panel since 1996: Pronab Sen Message-ID: http://governancenow.com/news/regular-story/no-urban-planner-plan-panel-1996-pronab-sen No urban planner in plan panel since 1996: Pronab SenAny wonder our cities rank among the worst in the world? Trithesh Nandan | October 14 2011 The planning commission hasn’t had an urban planner in its ranks since 1996. Can you believe this? Well, that is a cold fact revealed by someone who should know - Pronab Sen, advisor in the plan panel and chief architect of the approach paper to the 12th five- year plan. The admission comes at a time when urban India is rapidly expanding. “The planning commission has not had a qualified urban planner since 1996 and we are still making (urban development) plans,” he told to a gathering of civil society members in New Delhi on Friday. That is why, he said, urban planning had been reduced to planning roads, sewerage, lighting and other such things. “We are not good at even these things.” He went on to add, “It is a serious issue and we have already paid a heavy price. We continue to do so. To the best of my knowledge, we have two urban planning institutions but they don’t produce the kind of urban planners that are needed.” Reacting to Sen’s statement, Miloon Kothari of Housing and Land Rights Network, a Delhi-based thinktank, told Governance Now that this was a shocking revelation and probably explained lack of vision in the approach paper for the 12th plan. “The skills that an urban planner brings are absolutely critical in a rapidly urbanising country”, he said. No wonder a recent report by London-based thinktank Economic Intelligence Unit said last month that Mumbai, the financial capital of India, was one of the world’s worst cities to live in. Mumbai was ranked 116 in the survey of 140 cities around the globe. Delhi did not even find a place. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mankabajaj at gmail.com Tue Oct 18 14:06:18 2011 From: mankabajaj at gmail.com (Manka Bajaj) Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:06:18 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] CSH-CPR urban workshop In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: *theindiancity.net* * * * * *Urban Workshop Series * * * *Public** **Infrastructure** **Projects** **and** **Real** **Estate** ** Development** * *Access** **to** **land** **and** **housing** **for** **slum** **dwellers** **in** **Delhi* * * * * *Veronique** **Dupont* Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), Paris * * *3:45 **pm** **Tuesday**, 25 **October**, 2011 * Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi Delhi has always received particular attention from governments and town planners. More recently, urban renewal and major infrastructure works got a boost from the preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The implementation of these projects, including the construction of the athletes’ village, was associated with large-scale slum demolitions. Within this context, the paper attempts to analyze further the role of land reclamation and real estate development in slum eradication. It investigates the extent to which the land cleared from slums has been used for infrastructure projects and the types of urban projects “in the larger public interest” that have justified slum demolitions. The paper is based partly on a follow-up survey in 2011 of a survey conducted in 2007 on sites of slums demolished since 1990. As against the destructive impact and threat, for the slum dwellers, of land-market pressure and real estate interests, the paper also analyzes the potential role of private builders in the slum rehabilitation policy initiated recently in Delhi that provides for re-housing in blocks of flats built under public-private partnership, a model already implemented in Mumbai since 1990, which may become mainstream within the framework of the new national strategy for *Slum-Free City Planning*. Particular attention will be given to the inherent exclusionary effects of this strategy. *Veronique Dupont* is a senior research fellow in demography at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), Research Unit “Development and Societies” (Paris) and an associated member of the Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies (Paris). Her main research themes are the interrelations between the transformations of metropolitan territories, population mobility and urban policies, including slum policies and the processes of socio-spatial exclusion, with a focus on Delhi. Her recent publications include: La ville en Asie du Sud [Cities in South Asia], edited with J.G. Heuzé, Purushartha 26, EHESS, Paris, 2007. Dr. Dupont has a PhD in political economy from The Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). *This** is the **twenty** first **in** a series of Urban Workshops by the Centre de Sc**iences** Humaines (CSH) and Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues relating to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society, and politics. For information, please contact: **Marie**-Hélène **Zerah** at *marie-helene.zerah at ird.fr* or Partha Mukhopadhyay at *partha at cprindia.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sharish at iihs.ac.in Thu Oct 13 20:31:43 2011 From: sharish at iihs.ac.in (Swastik Harish) Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:31:43 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Water Hackathon Bangalore Message-ID: <4E96FD57.2080704@iihs.ac.in> *_Water Hackathon _*_*Announcing the Water Hackathon Bangalore: October 21st - 23rd 2011*_ /Organized by the Water Anchor, the Water & Sanitation Program of the World Bank, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and the India Water Portal./ The Water Anchor and the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank are planning a Global Water Hackathon event to develop prototypes in mobile applications to help address issues in the water and sanitation sector. Ten countries will play host to an intensive marathon of brainstorming and programming (known as a Hackathon), drawing together the talent and initiative of software developers to find innovative solutions to challenges facing the water and sanitation sector from October 21-23rd, 2011. For more information on the event please log on to www.waterhackathon.org. *What is a hackathon?* A hackathon event is an intensive marathon of brainstorming and programming, where software developers and designers collaborate to create new tools for solving a set of problems. *What is WaterHackathon?* WaterHackathon is a hackathon dedicated to solving water and sanitation problems facing developing countries, such as: * Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation * Flooding and drought (i.e., climate change issues) * Environmental pollution In India, the Water and Sanitation Program along with partners, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and India Water Portal (IWP) is hosting the event in Bangalore, Karnataka from Oct 21-23rd, 2011. The event is also being supported by Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, Hewlett Packard, Broadvision Group of India, NJS Engineers India and OnMobile. The Water Hackathon Bangalore will be kicked off with a dinner event on Friday the 21st of October at the Ista Hotel, Bangalore which will include presentations by experts in the water sector and the IT sector. Teams of "ethical hackers" will identify the problems in the water sector they want to address using the mobile technology of their choice. The hackathon will then begin at 08:00 am on Saturday 22nd of October at the Electronic City Campus of the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B). The teams will work or "hack" through the night of Saturday and present their solutions to an eminent jury from civil society organizations and the private- and public sectors on the afternoon of Sunday the 23rd of October 2011. Winners will receive exciting prizes and an opportunity to develop their solution into a full-fledged application. To register please go to www.rhok.org/event/waterhackathon-bangalore. Please feel free to contact Amogh @ +91 80 4113 7705 or email at aarakali at iihs.ac.in OR Vandana Mehra at vmehra at worldbank.org for further information. Water & Sanitation Programme Indian Institute for Human Settlements India Water Portal Hewlett Packard International Institute of Information Technology NJS Consulting Services Mobile Monday Hasgeek National Urban Sanitation Policy National e-Governance Plan Department of Information Technology Broadvision OnMobile MediaNama Looking forward to seeing you there, -- Swastik Harish Indian Institute for Human Settlements -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 19483 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1679 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: medianama-logo.png Type: image/png Size: 6792 bytes Desc: not available URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Mon Oct 24 16:42:15 2011 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:42:15 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Wasted money, wasted projects Message-ID: http://ibnlive.in.com/printpage.php?id=195860§ion_id=60 Wasted money, wasted projects Shibu B S The New Indian Express KOCHI: Though funds to the tune of� Rs 590 crore were allotted for various projects in the last five years under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the Kochi Corporation has failed to utilise even 30 per cent of the total amount. According to the available statistics, projects worth Rs 588.93 crore were allocated by the Centre to eight components for Kochi under JNNURM, but the civic body could so far spend only Rs 174.20 crore. The Centre had made it clear that those projects, for which the tenders are not floated before December 2011, will lapse. With the tenure of the first phase of the JNNURM projects getting expired by March 2012, City Express takes a look at the status of various projects under each component. *Water Supply* Among the prime components of various projects under JNNURM, an amount of `201 crore was allotted for water supply projects. An amount of `82.92 crore has already been spent. But the major project initiated under this component- the construction of a water treatment plant at Nettoor- is at a standstill as the Piravom panchayat is against the digging of roads to lay pipes for the project. As per the project, the water will be drawn from Muvattupuzha River and will be brought to the treatment plant near Maradu. The recycled water will be supplied mainly to West Kochi area. *Solid Waste Management* Of the Rs 88.12 crore already sanctioned for solid waste management, so far only Rs 35.95 crore has been used by the corporation. But nearly Rs 20 crore was wasted by the corporation for the construction of a solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram, which later turned a dumping yard. Though the present council has plans to construct a new Plant at Brahmapuram, necessary steps are yet to be initiated in this regard. *Sewerage* An amount of Rs 78.41 crore was allotted for sewerage projects. But the dream project of constructing a sewerage treatment plant at Mundamveli did not materialise. So far, only a meagre 0.17 per cent of the amount has been spent under this component. Now, there is little chance for the sewerage projects to become a reality. *Urban Road Transport* The work of five major roads were proposed under this component. A total of Rs 109.64 crore was allocated and the major works in the sector include the widening of SA Road, Thammanam-Pulleppady Road, Stadium Link Road, Edappally-High Court Road and Goshree-Mamangalam Road. “The work on Edappally-High Court stretch was completed. SA Road west extension is yet to be completed. We have already initiated tender procedures for Stadium Link Road,” corporation sources said. But the work on Goshree-Mamangalam and Thammanam-Pulleppady roads is yet to be started. “But for both these roads, land acquisition is needed. Though the government had recently allotted funds to acquire land to widening the Thammanam-Pulleppady Road, the money is yet to be released,” sources added. *Heritage and Tourism* Though `22 crore was allotted in January 2010 for the renovation of Ernakulam Broadway, the project is yet to take off. However, the corporation has finally decided to initiate the tender procedures and have entrusted KITCO with the preparation of the tender documents. *Other Components* The procurement of city buses, surface water drainage and e-governance are three sectors where at least 50 percent of the total funds were utilised. Of the allotted Rs 9.78 crore for surface water drainage, nearly 50 percent was already utilised for various drainage-related projects. Nearly 100 buses (including AC Volvo and Non-AC semi-low floor) were purchased by using Rs 32.70 crore. �The total amount allotted for procurement of city buses was Rs 71 crore. *E-governance.* The e-Governance project is expected to be completed soon. The implementing team from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is working on the final phase of the project. The Rs 8.71-crore project mainly aims at bringing all the major services offered by Kochi Corporation online. *Major Hurdles� �* The corporation authorities said land acquisition is one of the major reason that delayed various projects. “The JNNURM-KSSUDP funds cannot be used for land acquisition. It is the responsibility of the civic body to identify the funds to acquire land. Since the Kochi Corporation is not in a position to raise fund on its own, it will have to depend on� the state government for financial support,” said a top corporation official. Local resistance is another oft-cited reason behind the lack of funds utilisation. “After land acquisition, local resistance is another major problem.� The water treatment plant at Nettoor, the sewerage treatment plant at Mundamveli did not materialise because of this,” said Mayor Tony Chammany. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Wed Oct 26 09:51:54 2011 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:51:54 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Common Mobility Cards - Convenience for commuters or another surveillance device for the Big Boss Message-ID: FYI Dear all, A trickle of media reports over the last year or so have been hinting about a new single unified ticketing system or fare collection method being pushed through various big and small cities. The Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD), Government of India has been working on a programme to provide 'Common Mobility Cards' (CMC) for commuters in major cities around the country. In simple terms CMC aims to provide seamless travel for individuals across public transport facilities like buses and railways. When a commuter buys a CMC card from an authorised vendor he may use it like London's Oyster Cards and travel from place to place without actually buying separate tickets for each journey. (For more information on Oyster Cards click on: https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do) The applicable fare for the journey will be deducted by ticket collectors using computerised machines. Your card will allow you to travel only as far as the card value permits you. Of course these cards can be topped up at the notified service providers. We are told Jaipur has already started implementing this system (for news clippings click here: http://www.utiitsl.com/forms/CMCLaunchJaipur.pdf). Bengaluru and a host of other cities are next in line. So a commuter need not bother about carrying loose cash or coins any more if CMC is operationalised. Eventually the programme seeks to make the CMC valid across cities and States. The same card can be used for paying parking fees and also tolls on highways and pay-and-use roads. *Is this not a cool, convenient and efficient system? So why crib?:* ** *CMC links directly to personal data protection which in turn links to personal security and every person's fundamental right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 by the Constitution of India.* When CMCs become fully operational *every journey of mine and yours using CMC cards *- from point of origin to destination anywhere in India will be recorded in a database which will be manned by a central agency. Every transaction of ours using a CMC card will be recorded with that agency. CMCs are expected to be expanded to allow for payment of tolls on highways. And of course law enforcement agencies will have access to this database in the name of looking out for terror suspects. NATGRID has already been established to provide such background check services for any individual for law enforcement agencies. *All this is happening on a canvas where two crucial elements are absent:- * ** *a)* *absence of a**legal framework for protecting the individual's right to privacy*. Please note that unlike the right to information (RTI) which is an implied right under Article 19(1)(a) currently available only to citizens, the right to privacy is an implied right under Article 21 (the right to life and liberty) which is available to any person within the jurisdiction of the Indian State. So the right is available to a much larger set of people.; and *b) something even more basic**- people's right to know more about CMCs*. Is there citizen-friendly information about CMC anywhere on the MOUD website? Apart from a brief compilation of documents in complicated technical language available at MOUD's website there is very little information in the public domain about CMC cards. I am told this compilation was prepared for the RFQ process initiated by MOUD (for these documents please click on: http://urbanindia.nic.in/programme/ut/CMCandAFCSystems.pdf). CMC is a new system that will collect data about every individual who uses CMC cards as explained above. So it will affect every commuter in the country. Yet MOUD has not thought it fit to comply with Section 4(1)(c) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 which mandates every public authority to publish facts and figures while announcing important decisions or policies. This is a major poliy decision which has not received as much attention as it should. *Agencies such as NATGRID, CBI and National Investigation Agency which will have enormous use for this database have also been kept out of the RTI Act by the Government of India this year.* Information about CMC type programmes should ordinarily be available in the annual reports of the concerned ministries. This is a statutory requirement under Section 41)(b)(xi) of the RTI Act. yet only one biref para (para #7.4.3) is devoted to this subject in the Annual Report of MOUD (click here to access the full report: http://urbanindia.nic.in/quickaccess/ann_report/2010_2011/AR2010-11_English.pdf All that it tells us about the hirning of UTI Technology Services Ltd., Mumbai, a publis sector enterprise udner the FInance Ministry to roll out this programme across india. UTITSL, incidentally is responsible for issuing Income Tax PAN Cards across India. *Who authorised the commencement of the CMC programme?* There is no indication if there was a Cabinet decision on this subject. A press release issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in August 2011 quotes a reply given by the Minister of State for Urban Development in response to a question raised by an MP in the Lok Sabha (for the text of the PIB press release click here: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=75364) (for the text of the question and answer tabled in parliament click here: http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/QResult15.aspx?qref=109896) The answer given by the Minister indicates that CMC is being proposed for rollout in 2011-2012. But is not 'public transport a subject on the State List ( List II) of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution? Yes it is. This is why no separate budgetary allocation is being made for the CMC programme. Instead CMC is being made part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) under which assistance is provided by the Central Government to the States. Any public transport authority who wishes to buy low floor buses will have to implement this CMC system. Does JNNURM website have any detailed information on CMC? I tried hunting for it, but came up with digital crumbs, not a wholesome sandwich describing the programme in simple terms. Perhaps you may have better luck. All that I know is that one para (para #21) from the National Urban Transport Policy drafted in 2006 talks about a single ticketing system (for the complete text of the policy click on: http://urbanindia.nic.in/policies/TransportPolicy.pdf) and the CMC has evolved out of this para. *CMCs will become compulsory* The MOUD's service level benchmarks for urban transport under JNNURM include performance of States in implementing the Integrated Ticketing System (see para 1.4 and further on in the document accessible at: http://jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/SLB-Urban-Transport.pdf) So while as citizens we have not yet debated the desirability of CMC, it has become compulsory for the States implementing JNNURM projects. *Later we will be compelled to use CMCs or go settle down to walking wherever we want to go*. *We are compelled to provide a range of personal data including our movements without any control over who will have access to that data and in what manner will it be used by which agency. The Draft law on the Right to Privacy leaked last year from one of the GOI's Ministries is more about empowering the State to conduct intensive and extensive surveillance and less about giving an individual control over his/her personal data held by a public or private agency.* *Cost of implementing CMCs* I am not a technological expert. I pay my taxes. So I would like to know how much this roll out of CMC will cost us. A look at the RFP documents reveal that the infrastructure requirement is huge. Millions of fare collection machines will be required to make the CMC operational. So the small number of companies making such machines will rejoice. We do not even know who they are. We do not know how much CMC roll out will cost the exchequer in every State. Nobody has bothered to inform us yet. There are other social costs as well. All meter-making companies for threewheelers (autorickshaws) and taxis will eventually shut shop because CMC will be made applicable to such modes of transport as well. We do not now if the same companies will make the automatic fare collecting machines. Techno-experts may have many other queries about the viability of the CMC programme. I leave it here for now. *Effectiveness of CMCs* While surfing for news about CMCs I stumbled upon a news article in the DNA about the alleged failure of such a system in Mumbai. The story is available at: http://www.dnaindia.com/speakup/report_mumbai-s-experiment-with-smart-card-fails_1447695 So while convenience must be created for commuters it is always better to look before taking the leap. People must be informed first about the pros and cons of the system before States and public transport authorities are compelled to adopt CMC programme. Legal safeguards for ensuring safety and security of personal data must be put in place. Any person using the system must have access to and control over the data about him/her that is held by any agency participating in this programme. This requires extensive debate at all levels throughout the country. Is anybody listening? Big Boss is watching of course. *In order to access the our previous email alerts on RTI and related issues please click on: ** http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=84 * ** *You will find the links at the top of this web page. If you do not wish to receive these email alerts please send an email to this address indicating your refusal. * Thanks Venkatesh Nayak *Programme Coordinator* *Access to Information Programme* *Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative* *B-117, 1st Floor, Sarvodaya Enclave* *New Delhi- 110 017* *Tel: +91-11-43180215/ 43180200* *Fax: +91-11-26864688* *Skype: venkatesh.nayak* *Website: *www.humanrightsinitiative.org __._,_.___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Mon Oct 31 11:59:25 2011 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:59:25 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Indore to be host of All India Mayors' Conference once again Message-ID: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/indore/Indore-to-be-host-of-All-India-Mayors-Conference-once-again/articleshow/10545337.cms Indore to be host of All India Mayors' Conference once againArvind Tiwari | Oct 30, 2011, 10.20PM IST INDORE: All India Mayors' Conference, to be held here on November 8 and 9, will take up local body empowerment issue under the 74thamendment of Constitution. The conference will review the power delegated to local bodies by the respective state governments as mentioned under 74th constitutional amendment. This is the second time Indore will be host to mayors' conference. The constitutional amendment has a provision under which state governments of the country have to empower their respective local bodies. Till date, however, many states have not been able to implement the amendment. Around 100 mayors from across the country have been invited for the conference, of which around 30 have confirmed their participation and have suggested their views on implementation of the amended Act. Madhya Pradesh had proposed some amendments to empower the local bodies. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is expected to make an announcement in this regard at the conference. Besides, mayors are also expected to suggest ways to improve the working of municipal corporations. A new chairperson is expected to be elected during the conference. Indore Mayor, Kirshnamurari Moghe, who is currently the vice chairperson of the council, is also in the race of All India Mayor Council's chairperson. He in his capacity as the host mayor is expected to propose some suggestions related to sanctioning and funding of projects under JNNURM. According to Moghe delays in sanctioning and releasing funds under JNNURM tend to escalate the cost of projects causing additional burden on the municipal corporations. As of now local bodies have to share around 20 per cent of the total cost of projects sanctioned under JNNURM. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: