Using government reported data, this brief looks closely at the effects of the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) recommendations on state finances in Karnataka, with a particular focus on effects on social sector investments.
The brief asks two key questions:
Did increased tax devolution result in enhancing fiscal space for states?
Has the changed fiscal structure resulted in any visible shifts in social sector investments at the state level?
This is a policy discussion note, which examines how coordinated and widespread have the different initiatives to improve urban sanitation been across cities and states and what possible steps may be taken by the Government of India to actively support the National Urban Sanitation Policy. The note compiles the progress of different national initiatives launched in support of the NUSP and goes onto discuss its progress and where more attention could possibly help towards improving outcomes.
In fashioning the new international climate change agreement to be adopted later this year in Paris, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must address a range of legal issues. This brief outlines some of the key issues and concludes that: The Paris outcome arguably must include a core legal agreement constituting a treaty under international law; the exact title of the core agreement is legally irrelevant; the agreement can contain both binding and non-binding elements; the legal nature of parties’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) is independent of where they are housed; and consistency with the UNFCCC does not require that the agreement adopt the same structure.
Context:
India faces serious challenges in creating development processes that generate economic growth while being socially inclusive, ecologically sustainable, politically feasible, and in accordance with the Rule of Law. Equitable and efficient acquisition of land by the state for economic development projects, including infrastructure and industry, lies at the heart of these challenges.
Simultaneously, securing constitutionally guaranteed land rights to the poorest and most vulnerable communities in India against the state and other dominant communities, has been considered crucial to their economic and social empowerment. Land is not only an important economic resource and source of livelihoods, it is also central to community identity, history and culture. Unsurprisingly then, throughout India, dispute over state acquisition of land that deprives people of their land rights spans various dimensions of economic, social, and political life.
How do we mitigate this conflict?
The CPR Land Rights Initiative report on ‘Land Acquisition in India: A Review of Supreme Court cases from 1950-2016’, offers some preliminary answers to this question. Not only is this report the first comprehensive country-wide study of land acquisition disputes since India’s independence, but also for the first time ever analyses these disputes along various metrics, such as i) public purpose, ii) procedure for acquisition, iii) compensation, iv) invocation of the urgency clause, v) pendency of claims, and vi) tracks trends with respect to distribution of disputes across geography and time, and central and state laws. The Report also analyses litigation under the newly enacted Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act) for the three year period, 2014 to 2016.
A detailed presentation of the findings from the report can be accessed here.
Key findings:
Reasons for inequity between state and land losers: The Report concludes that the political and social contestation over land acquisition stems from the inherently coercive nature of the land acquisition process, which creates a severe imbalance of power between the state and land losers. While much of this imbalance was created by the text of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, a considerable part of it could also be attributed to executive non-compliance with the rule of law. The result is a situation of great inequity for the land losers.
Legal reform under the LARR Act should be implemented by government, not subverted to redress these inequities: The Report finds that specific provisions of the LARR Act are steps in the right direction to redress the imbalance of power that was built into the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 in so far as: i) they empower livelihood losers along with title-holders to bring claims for compensation and rehabilitation, ii) bring compensation requirements in accordance with existing reality, and iii) introduce requirements of consent and social impact assessment. The Report shows that litigation helps channelise political contestation of state action into legal as opposed to extra legal disputes. Therefore, by empowering hitherto disempowered land losers to bring claims under the LARR Act, the Act will help preempt extra-legal conflict. Since conflict inevitably stalls or derails legitimate development projects, it is in the interest of the government to comply with, and not subvert the LARR Act.
Legal reforms must be supplemented by administrative and bureaucratic reforms: The Report highlights that legal reform is a necessary but not a sufficient precondition for ensuring greater equity and efficiency within the land acquisition process. In the absence of administrative and bureaucratic reforms, the introduction of the LARR Act will not succeed in eliminating inequities and inefficiencies embedded within the implementation of existing land acquisition procedures. In fact, the increase in procedural requirements under the LARR Act implies an even greater need for securing executive compliance with the rule of law, in order to translate the equities intended by these additional procedures into reality for land losers.
Types of administrative reforms required: Such administrative reforms include building of state capacity to meaningfully comply with the increased procedural requirements stipulated by the LARR Act, and designing institutional structures that incentivise such compliance with the rule of law. This, in turn, requires a serious mind-set shift within the government toward accepting the reform enshrined in the LARR Act, and not subverting it as we have seen in both the LARR Ordinance, and the state amendments to the LARR Act, as also the rules adopted to implement the LARR Act in the states.
The Integrated Child Development Services is the Government of India’s (GoI’s) flagship programme aimed at providing basic education, health, and nutrition services for early childhood development.
This brief uses government data to analyse ICDS performance along the following parameters:
Allocations, releases, and expenditures
Component-wise trends
Human and physical resources
Coverage, and
Outcome
This brief uses government reported data to analyse ICDS performance along the following parameters:
Overall trends in allocation and expenditures
Expenditure performance across key ICDS activities
In addition, this brief reports findings from a fund tracking survey (PAISA) conducted in December 2015. The survey covered 300 Anganwadi Centres, spread across 10 districts and 5 states in India.
Movement is integral to urban life and cities function off the energy of potential opportunity, growth and freedom. One of the cornerstones of an inclusive urban space is the availability of regular and affordable mobility opportunities for all citizens, irrespective of their socio-economic status. This report focuses on the regulatory and operational aspects of Intermediate Public Transportation (IPT) in Kolkata, India. The Kolkata Metropolitan Region was chosen because it arguably has the most varied and complex set of transport systems, public and private, among the megacity regions in India, offering citizens ferries, trams, buses, trains, a metro, taxis, auto-rickshaws and cycle-rickshaws. Despite its status as a megacity, Kolkata has an unusual combination of high population density, low vehicular ownership and low road length – constrains that could be harnessed to create more adaptable, environment-friendly transportation alternatives. This report focuses on the role of auto-rickshaws as IPT in the city as studies have demonstrated that auto-rickshaws in Kolkata serve a larger population of commuters at lower fiscal costs, and levels of environmental destruction and infrastructure usage. These findings are based on a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative research, including a pan-city survey and in-depth interviews of stakeholders in the political economy of IPT in Kolkata. The findings are strengthened by a GIS mapping of autorickshaw routes and a deep analysis of the regulatory and legal framework within which IPT systems function in Kolkata. This report argues that auto-rickshaws are viewed as a primary form of IPT because they are affordable, regular, safe, predictable and cover large majority of the city’s inhabited geographic area.
Indian cities routinely make decisions on land use, housing, water, transport, economic growth and waste management that have implications for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Aligning these sectoral actions with climate goals involves understanding how infrastructural systems interact and how these choices address both development and climate objectives. City governments, as managers of these various infrastructure systems, can co-ordinate such decision-making. However, so far, this is largely ad hoc. We show how cities can use a ‘multiple objective’ approach to systematically examine, and make explicit, the linkages between local objectives, climate change mitigation and adaptation across their planning portfolio.
Suggested Citation: Ankit Bhardwaj and Radhika Khosla. (2018). “Integrating Urban Development and Climate Objectives: Insights from Coimbatore.” Centre for Policy Research.
The Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) offers a technology-driven solution to strengthen the monitoring framework and information flows of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS). It is being implemented in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar since 2010 and 2012, respectively. This note summarises the issues that adversely affect the MDMS in general and the IVRS in particular, drawing primarily from research conducted in one district of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar each. It offers policy recommendations that could help improve the Scheme’s implementation through better use of this technology.
Despite precarious working conditions, sanitation workers provide an essential service at the cost of their safety, health, and dignity. With the outbreak of COVID-19, their position is further jeopardised. The situation is likely to become more grave if these invisible frontline workers continue to interact with communities either without or with inadequate protective gear and safety equipment. To combat the ongoing public health crisis, while most strategies focus on scientific and technical solutions crucial to contain the epidemic, simultaneously there is a need to strengthen preparedness and response measures to safeguard these invisible frontline workers.
Against this background, a rapid research study was launched to delve deeper into issues sanitation workers face during COVID-19 lockdown across ten cities. Findings and learnings from the study highlight the lived reality of sanitation workers during COVID-19. These vibrant voices showcase variations among sanitation workers across the country based on the nature of their contract, typology of work, the procedure of work, access to protective gear and safety equipment, provision of training, and awareness of institutional response.
