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This piece originally appeared in The Indian Express

No responsible city government can afford to ignore the benefits of rapid transport. As cities grow, investments are needed to ensure that the majority of citizens can travel safely and rapidly. Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) systems are best placed to solve commuter problems in Indian cities. They take about a tenth of the cost and implementation time of metro systems, and can be easily expanded.

Any new public service must withstand...

Over 140,000 people lost their lives on our roads last year, giving India the dubious distinction of having the highest number of road accident victims in the world. As our country continues to motorise exponentially, this problem will only grow– unless we make urgent and far-reaching changes to our road safety approach.

Cyclists and Pedestrians Most at Risk

Any road safety strategy will mean nothing if it neglects to consider the mobility and safety of the most vulnerable road user groups, that is pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. In most major cities in India,...

India has the highest number of traffic-crash deaths in the world. Of the 140,000 fatalities that occur annually, more than 40 percent take place in urban areas. A large percentage of these are pedestrians and bicyclists, who typically comprise more than half of the road users in Indian cities. Often, motorists are booked for recklessness, whereas the actual cause and subsequent solution may lie elsewhere. Yet, the popular discourse around road safety is focused on measures that make vehicular-use safer, such as enforcing traffic rules, the use of helmets and seat belts and avoiding drunk-...

How can Mumbai become a Smart City that the nation is proud of? The recently published Draft Development Plan (DP) for Mumbai was so poorly received by various stakeholders that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scrapped it on the 21st of April, 2015. It has to be reworked in just four months – an opportunity to bring in much needed change in the planning discourse.

Since the DP followed a traditional process of proposing land uses and development control regulations, it is no surprise that the plan did not deliver on the local needs, sentiments and aspirations of citizens. This...

This blog post originally appeared on Insights.

India’s Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that sends a powerful message: Industries need to get on board with renewable energy targets—or risk getting fined.

Last month, India’s high court dismissed a petition filed by Hindustan Zinc Limited, a leading zinc producer in the...

India has a relatively low level of motorization as compared to developed countries, and yet accounts for 10 percent of the global road traffic crash fatalities (Photo Credit: Neha Mungekar/WRI India)

On 20 May 2015, over 50 participants — including road safety experts, urban planners, research think thanks and media houses from India, USA, Colombia, Mexico, UK, Brazil, Belgium, Canada and Namibia —engaged in a global conversation about Road Safety on Twitter following the Third UN Road...

This blog post originally appeared in TheCityFix

India has the highest number of accident fatalities in the world. But the pressing issue of road safety is rarely taken seriously. This is particularly apparent, given the high frequency and intensity of risks that motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists take on a daily basis.

Statistics of road...

This blog post originally appeared in RTCC.

Cities exist in a region and cannot be defined by their geographic or municipal boundaries alone. The future trajectory of urban growth is often defined by migration patterns from surrounding regions, which in turn, is substantially determined by the relative socio-economic opportunities. It is therefore critical to understand the economic geography of land, water, and energy resources of the region, to be able to properly...

India will be one of the last major countries in the world to experience the urbanisation of its population. In 2010, 31 percent of India’s people lived in its cities. By 2030, this is expected to rise to 40 percent. This means that an additional 220 million people move to cities across the country.

Which cities will these people go to? Is it possible to create jobs for these people? Will they have a good quality of life?

An enormous challenge

Approximately 100 million people will go to or be...

The year will see global leaders make some critical decisions for the world economy and the environment, impacting the future of current and future generations. India’s newly elected government represents a unique new opportunity to deliver this. The country’s economy, now valued at $2.1 trillion, needs to follow a trajectory of robust, equitable and sustainable growth that includes all of its 1.25 billion citizens. All eyes have been on India as it announced its Union Budget for 2015-16, an important vehicle for transporting millions of its citizens out of poverty. Being the new...