This Crisis Is An Opportunity To Re-envision Our Cities

Context: The pandemic holds lessons that should spur India to reshape its urban agglomerations into spaces where everyone can thrive.

Cities at the centre of India’s development agenda ($5 trillion economy)

• Cities are engines of growth and prosperity: Labour markets that attract a diverse group of workers and industries, spurring ‘knowledge spillovers and innovation.
• Hubs of higher productivity and wages: in turn attracting more talent.
• Global experience: Countries that prioritised and planned for urbanisation achieved higher growth and employment.
• Positive spillovers: Getting urbanisation right addresses climate and environmental risks.

Lessons from Covid-19 pandemic

• Migrant crisis: Cities failed to provide for their most vulnerable residents during pandemic, triggering an unprecedented reverse migration back to rural areas.
• City is ‘a living whole’: Compartmentalised approach to public health, housing, transportation, water and sanitation is inadequate.
• Need for city resilience: Environmental challenges (E.g. Kerala floods, Chennai floods etc.) and pandemic risk is increasing.

Way forward: A holistic approach to investing in cities: Four key areas that we must invest in to build truly integrated, inclusive and resilient cities – data, technology, engaging communities, and innovation.

• Data: High-quality open data and research helps policymakers make evidence-based decisions.
  • India Urban Data Exchange, developed in partnership with ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) and Indian Institute of Science – Platform for the use of public data for social good.
  • Property Rights Research Consortium, a group of leading think-tanks, provides data and policy support on land administration and urban housing issues.
• Technology: with process innovations can increase transparency and state capacity to deliver basic urban services.
  • eGovernments Foundation, working with MoHUA to deploy the National Urban Innovation Stack, an open-source platform for transparent municipal operations
  • Transerve, leveraging geo-spatial technology for city planning and improving service delivery.
• Engaging communities: Grassroot organisations and community leaders play a critical role as first responders and in delivering essential supplies.
  • Reap Benefit launched ‘Covid Hub’, a crowd-sourced citizens’ network that supports last-mile delivery of healthcare, food and income relief.
• Innovation: Fosters ‘top-of-the-funnel innovations in urban governance.
  • MoHUA and Nudge Foundation launched an ‘Equal Cities Challenge’, a contest to encourage solutions that can improve living conditions for the urban poor.