Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
The Government of Chandigarh on June 16, 2023, published a draft of Chandigarh Energy Conservation Building Code Rules, 2023. These rules shall apply to every building, which is used or intended to be used for commercial purposes, having a connected load of 50 kilowatts (kW) or above or a contract …
The Haryana government has released its draft notification on Haryana Energy Conservation Building Code (HECBC) Rules. It has asked the stakeholders and public to send their comments on the draft rules to finalize the state ECBC rules. It comes after around five years when the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) …
This report provides evidence-based guidance on cost-effective and energy-efficient cooling and ventilation interventions to improve building-level thermal comfort and indoor air quality for a changing climate in South Asia. It focuses on Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan but also covers all the countries in the region, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, …
Institutional constraints and weak capacity often hamper the ability of local governments in developing countries to steer urbanization. As a result, there are not enough cities to accommodate an unabated rural-urban migration and many of those that exist are messy, sprawling, and disconnected. The flipside is the emergence of entire …
To meet the larger vision of achieving Zero Carbon Emission Goal, Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways has launched ‘Harit Sagar’ the Green Port Guidelines. Harit Sagar Guidelines - 2023 envisages ecosystem dynamics in port development, operation and maintenance while aligning with ’Working with Nature’ concept and minimizing impact on …
The affordable housing challenge plagues cities across India. Although city administrations have framed various strategies to tackle the issue, weak implementation, flawed policies, and an inherent lack of capacity to find long-term solutions have allowed slums to proliferate as an alternative. This paper examines the affordable housing issue in Greater …
As the Asia-Pacific region grows increasingly urbanized, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 is a comprehensive and action-oriented blueprint for advancing sustainable cities and communities. It proposes to readdress how plan, finance, develop, govern and manage cities and human settlements in line with the New Urban Agenda. In essence, SDG …
This Report of the Committee deals with the action taken by the Government on the Observations/Recommendations of the Committee contained in the Eleventh Report (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) on the subject “Review of Performance of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojna (PMAY-G)” pertaining to the Ministry of Rural Development. The Eleventh Report …
This report presents case studies that highlight how ADB's teams are working together to design innovative urban projects across the Asia and Pacific region that leverage its value-added services and support sustainable economic growth. Based on interviews with teams in countries including Mongolia, India, and Uzbekistan, the report explores the …
The presence of digital technology within urban governance in India is not new. Computerization and the use of enterprise software was encouraged in municipalities through the 1990s, followed by varied e-governance reforms in the early 2000s. These ranged from centralized policies like the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), to projects such …
Smart city policy goals are becoming mainstream in South East Asia but lack a supply of innovative smart city business models, products and services. ESCAP is joining the movement to support the acceleration of smart innovative solutions for cities through its Smart Cities Innovation Lab project. The project builds on …
This paper discusses impacts of urbanization on natural infrastructure in India’s 10 most populated. Urbanization today is disconnected from the natural environment causing negative outcomes, such as water scarcity, increased groundwater stress, and urban flooding. Using scientific evidence to accurately identify the correlations between urbanization, loss of natural infrastructure, and …
The ASEAN Sustainable Urbanisation Report aims to capture the diversity of urban contexts across ASEAN Member States, in particular the increasing importance of secondary cities and the need to fully harness their potential. It seeks to support a shared understanding of the opportunities and challenges of urbanisation and highlight common …
Drawing from primary data from a household survey of 1800 urban poor households that included landlord and tenants across Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, and Cochin across slum or non-slum low income neighborhoods; the findings reveal poorer housing condition in slums than those living in non-slum areas. It also shows that the households …
The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (Buildings-GSR) is a flagship publication of the UNEP-hosted Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC). The Buildings-GSR provides an annual snapshot of the progress of the buildings and construction sector on a global scale and reviews the status of policies, finance, technologies, …
This report provides a structured perspective to transforming India's building sector and includes a broad range of integrated solutions and innovative financing mechanisms around minimising embodied carbon through cost-effective low-embodied-carbon design decisions and material selection; reducing energy demand through passive measures, super-efficient equipment; and further serving the reduced energy demand …
Globally, 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions emanate from cities. At the same time, cities are being hit increasingly by climate change related shocks and stresses, ranging from more frequent extreme weather events to inflows of climate migrants. This report analyzes how these shocks and stresses are interacting with other …
Building operations in India account for about a third of its energy use. Approximately another 10 percent of the country’s energy is used in the production of building material and construction of new buildings. In the absence of peremptory energy-efficiency improvements and policy measures, the buildings sector is estimated to …
People in the urban informal sector have suffered disproportionately during the COVID-19 pandemic and face a highly uncertain future. While supporting the livelihoods of most of the developing world’s urban poor, the informal sector also deprives them of basic services and social protection. Rendered vulnerable to socioeconomic threats, people in …
Urbanization and regional trade integration are dual megatrends, and each is likely to have a powerful impact on African economies and broader economic development throughout the region. While African urbanization and African trade integration have both been extensively studied and are the subject of ongoing policy dialogue, the relationship between …
