india

iBus in Indore, India

The city of Indore is home to more than 2 million people and is steadily growing. Prior to 2006, when the city transport agency was formed, there was no organized public transport system.[read more]

biking in India

Mysore, a historic city in southern India, is home to numerous palaces and ancient monuments. Mysore’s mixture of local commuters, tourists, students, and visiting business professionals, makes Mysore an ideal environment for biking.[read more]

bike-share in India

Around 25–30 percent of trips in cities across India are performed using non-motorized modes — a practice which needs to be preserved and promoted, if urban development is to be sustainable.[read more]

urban sanitation

An ‘intelligent’ toilet with an automated flushing system is set to improve urban sanitation in developing countries, featuring advanced GPRS technology for remote surveillance and maintenance, with minimal drain on resources.[read more]

Mumbai’s rapid growth, high density, and sheer size present significant challenges for its waste management system. The enormous quantity of waste generated in the city makes large-scale, technologically driven “solutions” tempting. However, the opposite approach—a highly decentralized, people-powered model of waste management—has proven successful.[read more]

image via The Atlantic / Mark Bergen

In southern India, a community founded with a spiritual purpose has become a bit of a test bed for green building.Auroville is an “experimental” township in Viluppuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, near Pondicherry. Founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa of the Sri Aurobindo Society and designed by French architect Roger Anger,...[read more]

There is no single path to sustainability. As Thomas Elmqvist wrote in a recent blog post, each city has its own challenges and opportunities for sustainable growth, and yet we all have much to learn from each other. Reading the past weeks of blogs on the Nature of Cities has been fascinating. Looking at the diversity of writings, it is...[read more]

America has a great legacy of institutions that foster the “do it yourself” ethic from an early age, from the Boy Scouts to Popular Mechanics. In international development, this “DIY” attitude is more important than ever – and it begins with empowering the most vulnerable members of society. Thanks to rapid urbanisation, this is most important in cities.[read more]

A Case of Form-Based Codes for Historic City Cores in India It is a surprising fact that a 25-year-old concept still hasn’t found any mention, let alone application, in a rapidly urbanizing third world nation which is losing its historic urban cores at an alarming speed. Recent reports on 330 cities around the globe (not only in the...[read more]

Can India transform its planning practices to equally represent the voices of the most marginalized groups? Photo by ILRI. The urbanization boom in India is not taking place without heated discussions and an attempt at inclusive planning. If crafted correctly, Indian cities can serve as role models in participatory planning. In fact,...[read more]

India is one of the few remaining large countries of the world yet to experience the urbanisation of its population. In most regions – from the US, to Europe and Latin America – more than 75% of people live in urban areas. By contrast, only 31% of India’s people live in cities. This, however, is set to change dramatically in the coming decades. By one estimate an additional 250 million people – equivalent to 80% of current population of the United States – will call India’s cities home by 2030. The number of cities with more than 1 million people will increase from 42 today to 68.[read more]

A view of Jubilee Street, near Bhendi Bazaar, at the heart of the area to be redeveloped. The largest cluster redevelopment project in Mumbai is about to begin – a precedent-setting "upliftment" of 16.5 acres in the heart of the city's southern tip, to be completed in 2017. Southern Mumbai is dense and vibrant, defined by decaying,...[read more]