In the wake of prolonged political and climatic instability, Nepal, nestled between the borders of northern India and southwestern China, is rebuilding itself and requires the energy – literally and figuratively – to do so. Water is the country’s most important resource, but only 1% of the country’s total energy comes from hydropower. Despite Nepal’s [...]
Nearly 100 million people globally lack safe, secure housing each night. In India, the issue has become particularly acute as real estate prices skyrocket, migrant populations increase and policies of city beautification demolish the few affordable slums available. Although figures from the 2011 census are yet to be released, the 2001 census counted 780,000 street [...]
Everyday life in urban slums is difficult for women. Shacks are inadequately equipped for daily needs, forcing women and girls to make early morning and late night treks to collect water or use the public toilet. These seemingly innocuous events become sources of great risk and anxiety for urban poor women who fear for their [...]
Like in much of the world, India’s road accidents are attributed to challenges such as drunk-driving or lax enforcement of driving safety standards. With the rise of mobile telephony, a negative externality has been the increase in traffic accidents due to mobile phone use while driving. But there is also the larger issue of infrastructure, [...]
On March 16, 2012, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled the new budget for fiscal year 2012-2013. Expectations were high: India has seen its growth rate slow, and analysts predict that this slowdown may last over the next two-to-three years. Indian businesses were clearly anxious to understand the government’s plans, but so were everyday citizens: what [...]
April 20, 2012
Rapid urbanization and industrialization in South Asia has complicated regional water and sanitation issues. Though statistics indicate that access to safe drinking water in cities has improved in recent years, millions of urban poor still face a daily struggle for this most vital resource. More worrisome is that the trend is likely to see a [...]
April 20, 2012
Today, 43% of the world’s children–19 years old or younger–live in urban areas. Since 1955 when the urban child population was 27%, every succeeding decade has seen this rate grow by approximately 3%. Informal settlements or slum communities offer a hard lifestyle for adults, but arguably more so for children. Urban life may make facilities [...]
April 20, 2012
In cities across South Asia there are children working and living on the streets. While UNICEF has quoted the numbers as running into the tens of millions across the world, nobody has as yet provided a credible estimate. It seems clear that the number of children living on urban streets are increasing due to population [...]
March 21, 2012
India has progressed in education over the past decade, and today, there are near universal enrollment rates in primary school. With the recent Right to Education Act, the focus on children’s schooling has further intensified. However, while enrollment rates are now impressively high for primary schools, secondary schooling, especially for girls, is seeing much lower [...]
March 21, 2012
Like in much of the world, India’s road accidents are attributed to challenges such as drunk-driving or lax enforcement of driving safety standards. With the rise of mobile telephony, a negative externality has been the increase in traffic accidents due to mobile phone use while driving. But there is also the larger issue of infrastructure, [...]
March 21, 2012
Cities have grown at thunderous rates in the last few decades. Settlements have proliferated wherever space is available, even in disaster-prone hillsides, floodplains or along water bodies. Ad-hoc or absent city planning across a patchwork of disconnected city and state offices has left residents at risk on a number of fronts. In South Asia, however, [...]
March 21, 2012
Everyday life in urban slums is difficult for women. Shacks are inadequately equipped for daily needs, forcing women and girls to make early morning and late night treks to collect water or use the public toilet. These seemingly innocuous events become sources of great risk and anxiety for urban poor women who fear for their [...]
February 21, 2012
As the modern Indian city expands, the once-fertile farming lands on the periphery are quickly being devoured by real estate developers ready to erect concrete housing blocks with little thought given to the existing people, their livelihoods or the land itself. The farmers, many of whom have tilled the grounds for generations, hand over their [...]
February 21, 2012
In the wake of prolonged political and climatic instability, Nepal, nestled between the borders of northern India and southwestern China, is rebuilding itself and requires the energy – literally and figuratively – to do so. Water is the country’s most important resource, but only 1% of the country’s total energy comes from hydropower. Despite Nepal’s [...]
April 20, 2012
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