In 2015, in the wake of global enthusiasm for smart cities, the Indian government launched a large urban renewal and retrofitting programme to transform 100 cities into Smart Cities. The Smart Cities Mission embodies a “digital turn” in urban governance with a focus on the implementation of smart technological solutions in order to improve the quality of life for all. This project focuses on understanding the transformations in urban governance in India through a prism of the Smart Cities Mission. The project assesses the newly created Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in selected cities, the shifting tension between centralization and decentralization, and the increasing role of consultants in decision-making to understand the restructuring of urban governance structures under the Mission. Additionally, in-depth field-based research in selected cities will be conducted to analyze the more or less inclusive nature of the implemented projects, the differentiated manner in which the national programme travels in cities, as well as other sectoral issues.
The project is being implemented by the French National Institute of Sustainable Development (IRD) in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). It is supported by the French Development Agency (AFD)
India faces serious challenges in constructing development paths that are socially inclusive, ecologically sustainable, politically feasible, and in accordance with the Rule of Law. Current resource intensive growth strategies have caused serious environmental degradation and endangered the livelihoods of many vulnerable groups, particularly the scheduled tribes and other traditional communities. These vulnerable groups rely solely on land and the environment for sustenance. However, underneath these lands lie much sought after natural resources.
The CPR Land Rights Initiative was created in November 2014 as an institutional space for building systematic knowledge on land rights issues. The Initiative currently houses research projects on the constitutional right to property, land acquisition, land rights in the Scheduled Areas, and mapping land legislation in India.
The State Capacity Initiative at CPR is an interdisciplinary research and practice programme focused on addressing the challenges of the 21st-century Indian state. The purpose of this initiative is to place the critical challenges of building state capacity at the heart of the field of policy research in India, where it has always belonged but remains surprisingly marginalised. We therefore start with first principles and ground ourselves in existing realities to deepen and expand the understanding of the challenges and possibilities of building state capacity in democratic and federal India. Our programme of work focuses on the changing roles of the Indian state; institutional design, implementation and administrative capacity
Recent technology-powered advances – artificial intelligence and deep learning ecosystems, drones, the app economy, blockchain and crypto-currencies, and quantum computing, to name a few – have transformed interactions between States and citizens, and relations inter se private entities and individuals. On the regulatory front, governments worldwide face the unenviable task of directing innovation by optimally balancing risks and rewards. When deployed for governance, technology also raises concerns around inequitable access to new solutions, exclusionary possibilities arising from unsuitable architecture, and unreasonable restrictions on individual rights such as privacy and personal liberty. The rise of the data economy and the aspirations of industry players to build network effects and
Indian Constitution lists water as a state subject, and the executive power over water resources development and management is concentrated with the states. Though these powers are subject to centre’s powers over interstate river water regulation and development, a weak articulation and evolution of these powers have produced a condition of federal ‘tragedy of commons.’ This is manifested as water stress conditions, dangerously depleting groundwater reserves, deteriorating quality of water resources – endangering India’s long term water security.
In order to address India’s water governance challenges, the fulcrum has to be located in strengthening its federal governance of water. Towards a better understanding of this problem, the World Bank commissioned this study with CPR to explore the ‘federal leverage’ that the centre enjoys in influencing the water resource management strategies of states. An interdisciplinary team consisting of members from Accountability Initiative and the Environmental Law and Governance have looked into the policy, legal, institutional and financial instruments at the centre’s disposal to influence and incentivize progressive policy making by states for sustainable water resource management and towards long term water security.
CPR has a rich tradition of engagement with water policy, and has helped to resolve domestic water conflicts as well as several longstanding water disputes between India and its neighbours. The Centre’s experts publish widely on water law, dams, drinking water regulation, groundwater management, sanitation, and trans-border water issues.
The project is funded by the Indian Council for Social Science Research and the Human Settlements Management Institute is being conducted jointly with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. It is informed by the continuing ineffectiveness of outreach to homeless persons in Delhi, despite regular intervention by the Hon’ble Supreme Court and social support schemes designed by the Government of India, such as the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) Scheme of Urban Shelters, which aims to provide shelter and services for 900,000 homeless people in 790 cities. One of the reasons for the failure to successfully identify and respond to their needs is the lack of sufficient research to provide policymakers, local officials and implementing agencies with the understanding of the risk factors that homeless people face to chronic and death inducing poverty. This project seeks to partially address this lacuna.
The aim of this project is to address these gaps through detailed fieldwork and ethnography, focusing on three questions (a) entry into homelessness, (b) enhanced vulnerabilities experienced during homelessness – in particular relating to work, physical and mental health and violence – and (c) exit from homelessness, to document sustainable pathways that lead out of this situation. In addition, it will also undertake an analysis of laws and legal interventions relating to homelessness and the performance of schemes such as the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) Scheme of Urban Shelters, with a focus on Delhi.
Reducing carbon emissions across the economy creates some vexing governance challenges. Governments need mechanisms to arrive at a mitigation strategy that is at once acceptable to domestic constituencies and addresses growing pressure to decarbonize. To execute long-term plans, they must create coordination mechanisms that cajole several centrifugal forces across national and sub-national governments. And, finally, this governance system must have elements capable of handling the sensitive task of mediating politics between state and society.
So how are states restructuring themselves in response to the challenges of climate governance? This project analyses emerging climate institutions across major emitters globally. We also look into practical questions of institutional design for India in particular. We try to understand the political drivers of institutional change over many decades and the exact processes through which those changes take place. We aim to begin a discussion on models of effective governance that may be useful to policymakers, scholars, and activists alike.
India’s elementary education system faces many debilitating challenges including poor quality of education and in some places, even limited access to a school. Multiple studies have examined the challenges of implementing national and state level policies and programs. However, an examination of the political economy of the ideas and strategies to reform the systems is limited and we need to know more about why our policies were designed the way they were and how has this shaped both the imagination of the reform and more fundamentally the very goals of public schooling. This project, funded by the Research for Improving Systems of Education (RISE) program based in University of Pennsylvania, examines the key public debates, contestations and actors at the national and the state-levels that have shaped reform initiatives. The research will deep dive into four key junctures of education reform– the DPEP, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan/ the Right to Education and the New Education Policy 2020. To better understand the specific state-level debates the study will ground itself in three States– Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. RISE is a multi-country research initiative which seeks to identify “what makes education system coherent and effective in their contexts, and how the complex dynamics within a system allow policies to be successful”. The seven countries are: Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Pakistan.
The Tacit Knowledge Urban Research Network (TURN) consists of four Indian institutions – Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai, Hyderabad Urban Labs (HUL) and Centre for Policy Research (CPR) – collaboratively conducting research on urban informal processes and the tacit knowledge integral in them from multiple vantage points in the relational geographies of settlement, housing, and economies, with the goal of incorporating that understanding into knowledge systems that support policymaking.
During its project period, TURN focused on:
Synergizing the capacities of four partnering research institutions, each of which is located in a different metropolis, and has experience in working at multiple sub-national scales.
Facilitate=ing deep immersions in Indian cities to amplify the findings of ongoing research initiatives, challenge our conceptual approaches and generate new knowledge.
Addressing the issue of informality qua tacit, place-based knowledge in urban areas – focusing on making it visible and engaging with its intersection with policy.
Bringing a strong interdisciplinarity to bear on research, from the disciplines of economics, geography, social work and urban planning.
This was done through monthly network-level workshops, studies and publications.
For more information, visit the project website: https://www.taciturban.net.in/
