Archives: Briefs Reports

India has been underscoring the transformative potential of cross-border partnerships in tourism for the Northeast. But whatever the glossy brochures may proclaim, initiatives taken in the name of the Northeast seldom ask the question to what extent the border region will benefit from these. The paper argues that the fixation with the economic potential of tourism has meant that this growth has often sidestepped the lives of borderland communities, bringing few economic opportunities to the region. Designed as an alternative model of borderlands tourism, it has the potential to bring tourism-generated revenues directly to the rural communities with the potential to diversify and restructure mountain economies.

The unauthorised colony is one of seven types of unplanned settlements in Delhi, built on land which is either not zoned for residential use by the Master Plan or which has not yet been included in the development area. These colonies are most often situated on land zoned for agricultural use that has been illegally subdivided into residential plots. As a result, residents of UACs face two broad challenges: poor service delivery and the inability to legally buy and sell the land on which they live. The most recent population estimate counts four million1 people in Delhi’s unauthorised colonies, about a quarter of the population living in the city’s urban agglomeration. Over the decades, Delhi’s governing agencies have outlined a process for moving unauthorised colonies out of their marginal legal status through ‘regularisation’.2 UACs are often confused with jhuggi jhopri clusters (JJCs). These are, however, two distinct types according to the seven categories of ‘unplanned’ settlement defined by the GNCTD. Unlike a UAC, a JJC is located on “public land”—land owned by a public agency such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Railways, the Central Public Works Department, or a department or agency of the Government of National Capital Territory

Suggested Citation: Shahana Sheikh, Subhadra Banda, Bijendra Jha, and Ben Mandelkern, ‘Limbo in Sangam Vihar: Delhi’s Largest Agglomeration of Unauthorised Colonies’. A report of the Cities of Delhi project, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi (February 2015).

Economic recovery remains fragile on the back of a weak consumption demand. Sustained high growth will be achieved only with an upturn in the investment cycle. The government seems to have understood the importance of pump-priming the capex cycle directly through higher public capital expenditure and front loading the expenditure. While private investment remains muted due to stressed corporate balance sheets, weak external and domestic demand prospects and commercial banks’ cautious approach to expanding credit, there are some early signs that the private investment cycle is likely to turn around in the next six to nine months.

India’s exports have declined for six consecutive monthssince December 2014 with an average decline of 13.85% yoy. The decline was broad-based. Even exports of Manufactured goods trended lower during this time and failed to compensate for the fall in nominal value of commodity exports, which declined due to a huge erosion of global commodity and oil prices. India’s exports seem to have become more reliant on global commodity prices in recent years. In line with global crude oil prices, India’s monthly petroleum exports that peaked in July’14 at $7 billion shrunk to mere $2.4 billion in May 2015, declining at an average of 52% since the start of the year. Iron ore exports having peaked at $509.5 million in December 2011 moved from $129.5 million in April 2014 to $10 million in May 2015. It is instructive to take a longer term perspective of export performance (Please see Chart I below). Average export growth hasremained almoststagnantsince January 2012 after a sharp bounce back from the collapse in the first and second quarters of 2009, induced by the global financial crisis. Export growth since October 2011 (50 months) is much lower than the robust 20% average clocked during the seven year period of April 2002- March 2009. (marginally lower than the 23% rate of growth assumed for the five year period of 2015-16 to 2020-21 in the Foreign Trade Policy announced in early 2015).

This report has been obtained from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India in response to an RTI request (application number – MOTLA/R/2016/80065) filed by CPR Land Rights Initiative.

This report has been obtained from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India in response to an RTI request (application number – MOTLA/R/2016/80065) filed by CPR Land Rights Initiative.

On 10 May 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued a draft Notification proposing a mechanism to deal with projects that have commenced activities before obtaining an environmental clearance [Draft Notification]. Such activities are illegal and amount to criminal offences under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 [EP Act]. The Ministry had previously issued two Office Memoranda laying down the process for dealing with such projects, including requiring the concerned State Government to initiate action under the relevant provisions of the EP Act. But these were struck down by the National Green Tribunal as being ultra vires to the provisions of the EP Act. According to the Ministry, the existing penalty provisions are proving to be inadequate, and a process is underway to introduce stringent civil penalties.5 Till that process is completed, it is faced with ‘almost 400’ projects that have commenced illegally (which have apparently been put on hold for further consideration), and this Draft Notification is expected to provide a solution in the interim.

Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is Government of India’s (GoI’s) rural drinking water programme to provide functional tap connections to every household for drinking, cooking, and other domestic needs on a sustainable basis by 2024. It subsumes the previous National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP).

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief uses government data to report on:

GoI allocations, releases, and expenditures;
Component-wise trends;
Progress on coverage; and

This report has been obtained from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India in response to an RTI request (application number – MOTLA/R/2016/80065) filed by CPR Land Rights Initiative.