population, related issues, poverty and urbanisation; Globalisation Flashcards
City Innovation Exchange (CiX)?
- by MoHUA
- will connect cities to innovators across the national ecosystem to design innovative solutions for their pressing challenges
- Built on the concept of ‘open innovation’, the platform will help in the flow of ideas ‘outside in and inside out
- platform brings together Citizens-Organisations -Academic Businesses-Government to co-create solutions for the future of Urban India
Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Act, 2019?
- The Bill amends the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971. The Act provides for the eviction of unauthorised occupants from public premises in certain cases.
- Notice for eviction: The Bill adds a provision laying down the procedure for eviction from residential accommodation. It requires an estate officer (an officer of the central government) to issue a written notice to a person if he is in unauthorised occupation of a residential accommodation. The notice will require the person to show cause of why an eviction order should not be made against him, within three working days. The written notice must be fixed to a conspicuous part of the accommodation, in a prescribed manner.
- Order of eviction:After considering the cause shown, and making any other inquiries, the estate officer will make an order for eviction. If the person fails to comply with the order, the estate officer may evict such person from the residential accommodation, and take possession of it. For this purpose, the estate officer may also use such force as necessary.
- Payment of damages: If the person in unauthorised occupation of the residential accommodation challenges the eviction order passed by the estate officer in court, he will be required to pay damages for every month of such occupation.
- Benefit: The amendments will facilitate smooth and speedy eviction of unauthorised occupants from Government residences, and those vacant residences will be available for allotment to eligible persons on maturity of their turn in the waiting list.
Pop and Demography change in Assam?
- 1951: first NRC in Assam
- rate of growth of population in next two decades= 35% as compared to 22-25% national decadal rate of pop growth fr the same periods
- Surge in no. of voters:
- 1951-1971: 51%
- 1971-1991: 89%
- 1991-2011: 53%
- SC’s order to conduct NRC in Assam 2013 and work begins in 2015
impact of lockdown on migrants research?
Study by ICRiER in collab with ISSRF, researched in 6 states that accounted for 67% of reverse migration during first wave lockdown
- More than a third of the reverse migrants (38.6 per cent) reported having no work after returning to their native place.
- With no proper employment opportunity in their native places, the household incomes of migrants fell by as much as 85 per cent during the first wave
- With the revival of economic activities post-first lockdown, 63.5% of migrants from these six states returned to the destination areas by February 2021, while 36.5 per cent remained at their native places.
- Although the migrant’s HH income increased after remigration to their destination places, there was still a contraction of 7.7% in their income relative to the pre-lockdown level at the end of March 2021
- while some relief and welfare measures announced by the Centre and state governments did reach the migrants, many other measures bypassed them. eg. almost 74 per cent migrants had access to some form of subsidised cereal (rice or wheat) but only 12 per cent got access to subsidised pulses.
- only 7.7 per cent of the migrants reported being engaged under the MGNREGA or any other public work at their native place.
Learnings from China for INdia in fight against COVID: importance of Residential committees?
- At the grassroots, the most critical role was played by the residential committees (RCs).
- officially not part of the state and defined as institutions of self-governance, these committees are the instruments of the party for effective governance and political control.
- mandated to perform administrative tasks, implement policy, mediate local disputes, and assist government agencies with maintaining public surveillance, health and sanitation, care for the elderly, etc.
- During the pandemic, after the initial lockdown RCs rook charge
- In Wuhan, for example, all 7,148 communities were closed off. Community workers strictly enforced rules of entry and exit.They also made calls to residents asking about family members’ health and status, knocked on residents’ doors to conduct regular temperature checks, gather information about travel history, etc.
- A large number of youth and college students, often party members, volunteered for the RCs.
- Not everything however well and good, issues of overworked, physical and mental health, hampered response due to lack of formal training
- In India many urban areas have residential associations and local governments that can undertake similar mobilisation as RCs in China.
Zoning as a tool for stimulating pvt sector participation in urban regeneration?
- Zoning is a planning control tool for regulating the built environment and creating functional real estate markets. It does so by dividing land that comprises the statutory area of a local authority into sections, permitting particular land uses on specific sites to shape the layout of towns and cities and enable various types of development
- It determines the location, size, and use of buildings and decides the density of city blocks
- In addition to the three main categories (residential, commercial, manufacturing), the zoning toolkit includes complementary rules that address specific types of development, as well as the design and quality of public spaces.
- In addition, to stimulate private sector interest in development, the government can allow for the transfer and merger of development rights. Alternatively, it can fine-tune other regulations to allow for higher density development in exchange for some form of a public good, such as privately financed public spaces or inclusionary housing.
Effectiveness of govt policies in influencing TFR?
- In the wake of China’s 2020 census data that showed a sharp increase in the proportion of the population above age 60 to 18.7 per cent, up from 1.3 per cent in 2010, China has allowed married couples to have upto 3 children.
- China’s one-child policy led to human rights abuses encouraging sex-selective abortion and abandonment of girls
- in recent years, the importance of the one-child policy in reducing Chinese population growth has come under surprising contestation. Demographers Wang Feng, Yong Cai, Susan Greenhalgh argue that most of the fertility decline in China’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 5.8 in 1970 to an estimated 1.6 in 2015 came from socioeconomic development rather than population control policies. This seems credible as the relaxation of the one-child policy to two children in 2016 failed to halt fertility decline, and the TFR fell to 1.3 in 2020.
- pro natal policiesrange from providing cash benefits to parents (France), providing generous maternity and paternity leaves (Sweden, Japan), and improving childcare availability (Norway, Japan). They have had mixed success
- Family-friendly policies in countries like Sweden seem to have halted the slide, with TFR in Sweden hovering around 1.7. In contrast, despite many policy initiatives, the TFR in Japan has refused to budge from a level of about 1.4. Large cash incentives, called baby bonuses, in countries like Spain, brought about only a tiny increase in fertility and were eventually dropped.
- Lessons for India: our population policy may want to move beyond the language of the past that restricts maternity leave and election eligibility for a third child and beyond. A wiser course for supporting fertility decline among families and areas where the TFR is high without leading to extremely low fertility would be to help families plan childbearing at times that are most convenient to them.
- Encouraging male participation in housework, improving their ability to combine work and family, and improving family planning services will generate an environment where our TFR would stabilise around 1.7, a level that would avoid the demographic cliff facing China.
Uber report on safety in ‘Uber rides in USA’?
reported >3000 sexual assaults; 9 murders and 58 killed in crashes no. of incidents represent just 0.0002% of Uber’s 1.3 Bn rides in USA last yr.
India’s first online waste exchange platform?
- Launched by the Andhra Pradesh Government.
- It will help the authorities monitor the movement of hazardous waste real-time using the tools incorporated in the platform.
- The platform will be handled by the AP Environment Management Corporation (APEMC).
- The APEMC will streamline collection of the waste from industries, sort and streamline the waste as hazardous or non-hazardous or e-waste according to category, and scientifically dispose it off at various waste disposal centres.
Delhi’s Urban development: SG vs CG?
urban planning wrt Delhi has been under union govt.
69th CAA,1991 excluded the subject of Land (along with Police and Law and Order) from the State List
DDA was established through Delhi Development act 1957 and has been a body of UG amd comes under MoHUA.
DDA is chaired by LG and exercises executive powers including the right to regulatory overwrite in the Authority.
The representatives of people of Delhi are merely in advisory role in DDA
Delhi government – elected by the people – however, has the Delhi Jal Board, the Urban Development Department and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board under its powers that it uses to govern the day to day issues of the mega-city, dealing with Housing, Environment, Urban Development and Road Transport using these agencies.
Thus, the vision for the planning of the metropolis is formulated completely under the Union government while the urban development issues of the city at the local levels are attended to by elected representatives.
recent friction betwn LG and DG has cost the people of Delhi, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (Amendment) Act, 2015 passed by Delhi LA sought to extend the deadline for slums eligible for rehabilitation from March 31, 2002, to January 1, 2006, so as to cover the clusters that have come up since 2002 and to implement their rehabilitation to meet the vision of the Delhi Master Plan, 2021. But the bill was returned by CG in 2016
Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021 and its impact on Delhi’s Urban development?
- The Act “clarifies” that for any law passed by the state legislative assembly, the term “government” shall mean the LG. In the context of urban development, this means that the bodies of the SG and local governance that have thus far addressed the issues of urban development of Delhi lose significant powers to do so. These agencies, which already had limited powers in the city and no say in the formulation of the Master Plan, become more impotent as the term “government” itself is redefined.
- Act also empowers the LG with executive action over the day-to-day matters of the NCT and prohibits the state assembly from making any rules to consider these matters or to inquire into them. This implies that the policies formulated or actions taken by the state-level or local-level bodies with regards to the city stand no chance of consideration.
- Act makes it mandatory for the LG to reserve bills for the President that “incidentally” cover matters that are outside the purview of SG. Almost all policies of urban development, needless to say, are policies about land and therefore, the subject of land is “incidental” to most urban development policies. Thus, the Act not only grants unchallenged power to the Centre over the city’s urban issues, but it also means that there will be major delays in execution of the visions of the Master Plan owing to the likely scenarios of conflict between the two governments.
- Some of the most crucial problems facing the city of Delhi today are the issues of urban villages, lack of financial planning, absence of infrastructure for unauthorized colonies, and housing crisis. these issues require a localised and contextual formulation and implementation of plans and not a top-down approach that has already failed.
- As the GNCTD Act completely centralises the governance in Delhi, the Delhi Master Plan, 2041 becomes the most authoritarian master plan ever proposed for the city since independence.
Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021: provisions?
- It amended the Sections 21, 24, 33 and 44 of the 1991 Act.
- States that the “government” in the National Capital Territory of Delhi meant the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi.
- It gives discretionary powers to the L-G even in matters where the Legislative Assembly of Delhi is empowered to make laws.
- It seeks to ensure that the L-G is “necessarily granted an opportunity” to give her or his opinion before any decision taken by the Council of Ministers (or the Delhi Cabinet) is implemented.
- It bars the Assembly or its committees from making rules to take up matters concerning day-to-day administration, or to conduct inquiries in relation to administrative decisions.
Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021: arguments for?
- It is in keeping with the Supreme Court’s July 2018 ruling on the ambit of powers of the L-G and the Delhi government following several headliner controversies between the two.
- The purported fair objectives of the Act, include enhancing public accountability and easing out technical ambiguities related to everyday administration.
- This will increase administrative efficiency of Delhi and will ensure better relationship between the executive and the legislator.
Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021: issues?
- The latest amendment will greatly reduce the efficiency and timeliness of the Delhi government by making it imperative for it to hold consultations with the L-G even when a situation demands urgent action.
- Significantly, the L-G is not obliged to give his opinion to the State government within a time frame. Critics argue that the L-G could politically exploit these unbridled powers to hamper the government’s administrative work and thus turn the political tides against the incumbent if he so desires.
- It is against the spirit of ‘Federalism.”
- Other issues in f/c #11
Top down urban planning in India?
It has followed a top-down approach rooted in the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947 of UK. This is despite the fact that several countries including the UK, have abandoned land use as the approach for urban planning.
This approach takes land-use zoning (residential, institutional, commercial etc.) as the fundamental criteria to planning cities and everything else – transport, commercial growth, heritage conservation etc. – follows this land use pattern.
The same has been the basis of Delhi’s Master Plans over the years and continues to be so in the 2041 Master Plan also.
Scholars such as Darshini Mahadevia have observed that the top-down approach has left economically weaker sections and local stakeholders out of the planning process.
Moreover, when economic growth, local context and commercial activity relocate the nodes of development and patterns of movement to areas that are deviant from the Master Plan, the state assumes a strong authoritarian policy of implementing the badly conceived and inherently unpredictable land-use patterns through land acquisition and force.
Other prominent scholars such as Isher Judge Ahluwalia and Alain Bertaud have argued for more flexible ways of planning that acknowledge the forces of the market and local governance, for example, and let financial planning and local context decide the scale and location of various zones with the state playing the role of a facilitator of infrastructure rather than that of a dictator of land-use.
legal provisions regarding birth and death registration in India?
- history of birth, death and marriage registration in India goes back to the Registration Act, which was promulgated in 1886 throughout British India on a voluntary basis.
- Registration of Birth and Death Act was enacted in 1969 to register and compile the statistics under the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
- According to the last civil registration annual report 2019 published in 2021, the level of birth registration in India is close to 93 per cent
- The same report also says that the completeness of death registration has also reached 92 per cent in 2019.
- Since 1969, the Registrar General has also collected medical certification of cause of death and produced a report on this measure. The latest available report of 2019 says that 20.7 per cent of total registered deaths have this information.
World’s fastest-growing cities?
Cities are ranked based on “Total % change, 2015-20 forecast”.
The list is based on data from the United Nations Population Division.
Indian Cities:
- Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kollam were the only three cities to make it to the top 10 of the world’s fastest-growing cities.
- Malappuram was ranked No. 1 in the world rankings with a 44.1 per cent change between 2015 and 2020.
- While Kozhikode was ranked fourth with 34.5 per cent change and Kollam was at number 10 with 31.1 per cent.
Reasons:main reason is the inclusion of new areas in the UA’s limits. eg. no. of Municipal corporations has doubled in Malappuram since 2011.
Commissionerate system?
- In the commissionerate system, the Commissioner of Police (CP) is the head of a unified police command structure, is responsible for the force in the city, and is accountable to the state government.
- The office also has magisterial powers, including those related to regulation, control, and licensing.
- The CP is drawn from the Deputy Inspector General rank or above, and is assisted by Special/Joint/Additional/Deputy Commissioners.
- It is supposed to allow for faster decision-making to solve complex urban-centric issues.
Where?
- Previously, only four cities had the system: Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.
- However, with rapid urbanisation, states felt an increasing need to replicate the system in more places.
- The sixth National Police Commission report, which was released in 1983, recommended the introduction of a police commissionerate system in cities with a population of 5 lakh and above, as well as in places having special conditions.
- Over the years, it has been extended to numerous cities, including Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad and recently in Lucknow. By January 2016, 53 cities had this system.
Indigenous languages?
- 2019 is the United Nations’ International Year of Indigenous Languages.
- Papua New Guinea has the highest number of ‘living’ indigenous languages in the world (840).
- India stands fourth with 453.
- Ethnologue, a directory of languages, lists 7,111 living languages worldwide.
- Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic are the most widely spoken languages worldwide when only first-languages are considered.
Concerns:
- In 2016, the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues pointed out that “40% of the estimated 6,700 languages spoken around the world were in danger of disappearing“.
- Several languages are now “endangered” and in the case of languages like Tiniguan (Colombian origin), there is just a single native speaker left.
- According to UNESCO’s ‘Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger‘, 228 languages have become extinct since 1950.
Urban transformation: defn?
Urban transformation expresses entire strategies and actions used to improve the economic, social, physical and environmental conditions of damaged and collapsed urban areas by comprehensive and integrated approaches.
Urban transformation: challenges in india?
- institutional
- 74th amendment act has been implemented half-heartedly by the states which has not fully empowered the ULBs functionally and financially
- Public monopoly, organizational inefficiency, technical flaws in the form of high leakages, lack of preventive maintenance, poor accounting as well as over staffing and lack of autonomy have led to failure of the public sector to provide adequate service delivery
- Lack a modern planning framework (decentralised planning) which limits effective land utilisation and cities’ abilities to grow in accordance with changing needs
- Growing trend of declining ratio of revenue generation with the ULBs
- infrastructural:
- rapid growth of urban population by natural and migration ways has put heavy pressure on public utilities like housing, sanitation
- Lack of investment in urban infrastructure and capacity building.
- Despite high economic growth, India cities are the centres of high income inequality and poor quality of life. In 2019, New Delhi and Mumbai ranked 118th and 119th respectively, on the Global Liveability Index that covered 140 cities.
- env:
- Urban areas are at higher risk to floods, earthquakes owing to low density and overcrowding.
- Urban areas are becoming heat islands, rising air and groundwater pollution and persistent water crisis
- social: lack of resources, overcrowding, unemployment, poverty, and lack of social services and education habitually lead to many social problems and crimes including violence, drug abuse, human trafficking, sexual assault, child labour etc.
Urban transformation: steps taken by GoI?
- PMAY-U
- AMRUT
- Smart Cities Mission
- Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0: It aims to provide an overarching roadmap to formulate, implement and monitor urban climate actions in India. criterias:
- urban planning, green cover and biodiversity: 25%
- energy and green buildings: 25%
- mobility and air qlty: 20%
- water mgmt: 15%
- waste mgmt: 15%
- Data Maturity Assessment Framework 2.0: assess the data readiness of 100 smart cities on the systematic pillars across 5 components namely policy, people, process, technology and outcomes.
- India Smart Cities Fellows Report: It promotes youth leadership and usher vibrancy in the design of India’s urban future
- TULIP (The Urban Learning Internship Program) Report: It is a platform to connect graduates to ULBs and Smart Cities to co-create new solutions for our cities
- Handbook of Urban Statistics: It is the first of its kind document with a special focus on Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in Indian cities. It captures the data related to the nature and cause of disability, the socio-economic condition of PwDs and their access to various physical and social infrastructures.
- ICT initiatives under Smart Cities:
- ICCC Maturity Assessment framework (IMAF): It is a self-assessment tool kit developed to assess the maturity of Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC) across key aspects of functionality, technology, governance and citizen/stakeholders engagement.
- Smart City ICT standards: It facilitates interoperability between products in a multi-vendor, multinetwork and multi-service environment that exists in a smart city