In this report, ESCAP explores the future of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the dynamic shifts in the region’s urban landscape. It highlights the region’s demographic transformations, including population ageing, and the persistent challenges of urban poverty and inequality. The analysis covers urban areas of all sizes, …
You have been sharply critical of census methods in different parts of the world, in particular India. Why are you unhappy with the Indian census? Starting from 1881, we have had a census every 10 years, except during the war in 1941, when we had a restricted census. Frankly, I …
Metropolitan municipalities can now heave a collective sigh of relief. The Centrally-sponsored scheme for infrastructural development of megacities has brought them a welcome respite, burdened as they were by huge fiscal deficits. Infrastructural development in Calcutta, Bangalore, Bombay, Madras and Hyderabad is to take place through innovative institutional and financial …
IN A SITUATION where material on environmental law is by and large scattered, the bringing together of case, statutory and analytical material, through careful selection and critique, is of significance to teachers and students of environmental law. The value of this book is greatly enhanced by the fact that besides …
IN INDIA'S Industrial Cities, Nigel Crook seeks to correct the growing imbalance in the reigning debate over the ills of technology-wrought urbanisation. In a given situation, where most works of authority tend to focus on the problem of labour supply and the negative role of excess migration, Crook's short but …
THE BOOK focuses on a new environmental agenda for cities, followed by details on environmental problems in the home, workplace and neighbourhood. The treatment of the subject makes interesting reading of a much debated topic. For a change, concrete suggestions emerge for tackling environmental problems, especially health problems. Despite the …
ENVIRONMENTAL planning, generally considered a luxury for developing countries, is becoming an integral part of Egypt's economic strategies. The country's parliament has been debating a comprehensive environment protection law in which stiff prison sentences have been urged for polluters -- even if they are heads of state-owned industries. Egypt's environment …
AN INDICATOR of a society's level of development is the quantity and quality of the energy it consumes. This is made clear by the wide disparity in per capita energy consumption in industrialised and developing countries. USA consumes more energy annually than Africa, Latin America, India and China put together. …
WESTERN urbanisation began with the Industrial Revolution and was accompanied by both economic and social development. But in India and most other developing countries, urbanisation does not reflect development. India's urban population increased from 10.84 per cent in 1901 to 25.72 per cent in 1991, but the majority of Indians …
THE FILM City Life is about everything that the title suggests. But it is so extraordinarily multifaceted and so exuberantly diverse, it defies all description. Twelve film-makers with highly individualised styles have each made a short film on a city the film-maker's choice. Their common theme is urban society. What …
CALCUTTA maidan -- at 294-ha, the largest public ground in the teeming metropolis, is in danger of being developed as commercial property by the Indian army. The maidan belongs to the army's eastern command which has its headquarters in the adjoining Fort William estate. The move, prompted by the army's …
INDIA has been witnessing an explosive urbanisation. The percentage of total population living in urban areas increased from 17.3 in 1951 to 25.7 in 1991. But during 1981-91, the annual rate of urban growth decreased to 3.09 per cent, compared to 3.83 per cent per year during 1971-81. The rate …
THE KATHMANDU valley, for decades the showpiece of Nepal, is literally gasping for breath in a highly polluted environment. Long-time residents are concerned that the host of problems plaguing the valley will also keep tourists away, thereby losing an estimated US $70 million in tourism-related earnings. Overpopulation is the popular …
WEAVERS of Tibetan carpets in Nepal have been named the primary polluter of the Kathmandu valley. In a May notification, the government demanded that it set in place the mandatory pollution control measures or pay a fine of NRs 50,000 (IRs 30,300) or face closure or both. Started as a …
GIRISH CHANDRA REGMI THE ORIGINAL inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley were the Newars, whose culture was distinct from other Asian cultures. The Newars developed unique building methods, resulting in high, narrow houses quite unlike the architecture of other societies. The Newars were master builders, especially skilled in handling space and …
KATHMANDU has more temples per square foot than any other place in the world, wrote Pico Iyer in his travelogue Video Night in Kathmandu. But that reality may soon fade as Nepal strives to deal with the growing pressures of urban life in its capital. Nowadays, only monuments which have …
THE Bagmati, one of nine rivers in the Kathmandu valley but its main source of drinking water and hydel power, is so heavily polluted, local residents have given it the unflattering sobriquet, "Toilet Bowl of the Valley". Though holy to the Hindus, who cremate their dead on its banks, the …
WITH more and more local bodies showing a red bottomline, some of the core urban services may soon be up for grabs, if entrepreneurs are willing to take them on. The sectors under debate include water supply, garbage collection, sewage management and solid waste disposal, sanitation treatment plants and even …