Making a City Smart encapsulates learnings from the Smart Cities Mission to outline the WHAT, WHY and HOW a Smart City. It is structured as a workbook with tasks in each section to help cities chart out their own smart city journeys. 

The book illustrates how a Smart City is a city that...

The Ease of Living Index 2020 Assessment Report consists of a comprehensive discussion and analysis of the results of the Ease of Living Index 2020. It presents a cross-country comparison, region-level analysis, and a pillar-level analysis of the rankings. The report also...

The Municipal Performance Index 2020 Assessment Report consists of a comprehensive discussion and analysis of the results of the Municipal Performance Index 2020. It presents a cross-country comparison, region-level analysis, and a pillar-level analysis of the rankings. The...

COVID-19 is not over yet, but the cities are slowly opening up. However, when most of the world was under a massive lockdown, many hidden layers surfaced - are our cities truly inclusive even when not fighting a pandemic? Do our cities consider the diversity in population while building their...

COVID Diaries is a collection of opinion articles from members of the Smart Cities Mission national team as they navigate changes in their daily life and work routines during the Covid 19 lockdown period. The lockdown has been a time of challenges ranging from a sliding global economy, stalled...

The unprecedented nature of the crisis threw most world governments off-kilter as cities scrambled to contain the virus without the luxury of time or the benefit of reflection, analysis, or consultation. India was no different, and our cities, with their high population density and cramped...

The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst pandemic in living memory. Almost every city is on the back foot in coping up with the impacts of the coronavirus spread and the forced lockdowns in their countries. The economies of nations have plummeted, millions of people have lost their jobs, and the fatal...

The urban nature of the pandemic becomes clearer when we consider the megacities and the large Indian cities. 

Originally posted here: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/urbanisation-pandemics-65512/?...

National Urban Innovation Stack (NUIS) – A Digital Blueprint for Urban India

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India released the National Urban Innovation Stack (NUIS) strategy in February 2019. The NUIS program...

The COVID-19 crisis that has hit the whole of humanity and its impact is unprecedented in terms of scale, spread and spill having a far-reaching effect on the well-being of the population. The pandemic brought the entire nation to a halt leaving the government with no option other than a...

Times of economic uncertainty, civil unrest, and disaster are linked to a myriad of risk factors for increased violence against women and children (VAW/C). Pandemics are no exception. In fact, the regional or global nature and associated fear and uncertainty associated with pandemics provide an...

The lockdowns triggered by COVID-19 are taking a disproportionate toll on women in the labour market, as the sectors with high rates of female employment are experiencing heavier job losses while increased childcare needs during school closures exert an outsized impact on working mothers. Still...

As part of COVID-19 mintigation efforts, the GoI has issued several guidelines and advisories for assistance of the states, citizens and other stakeholders. A number of guidelines focusing on prevention, treatment, quarantine, isolation, testing strategy and inclusion of private laboratories,...

Currently, the country is in lockdown till 14th April 2020 in an attempt to prevent the community spread of pandemic coronavirus COVID-19. The lockdown may further extend depending upon containment level. We have witnessed substantial portion of the population going into self-isolation. People...

When the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a global pandemic, countries stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Some countries resorted to socialist(ic) measures ranging from nationalizing private hospitals to state-supervising face mask factory operations, and from freezing prices...

Local governments and sub-national authorities are often the first to respond to public health emergencies, sometimes with wide-ranging responsibilities but often insufficient capacities to deal with them. The Rapid Urban Health Security Assessment (RUHSA) Tool is a resource designed primarily...

This brief sets out key considerations for protecting informal urban settlements from the spread and impacts of COVID-19. There is heightened concern about these settings because of the combination of population density and limited infrastructure. This briefing discusses what is known about...

As the country implements unprecedented measures amidst the global health emergency of COVID-19, Habitat for Humanity India is supporting families and individuals living in vulnerable conditions with no safety net by providing them with essential goods and hygiene items. While housing is at the...

Universal social protection is essential for realizing the human right to social security for all, advancing social justice and promoting inclusive growth, and accelerating progress towards achieving the globally agreed 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development...

NITI Aayog has been mandated with transforming India by exercising thought leadership and by invoking the instruments of co-operative and competitive federalism, focussing the attention of the State Governments and Union Ministries on achieving outcomes. As the nodal agency responsible for...

Pune City Connect (PCC) is a Section 8 non-profit company. It is an industry led platform and aims to leverage the individual efforts and innovative spirit of Pune’s corporates, citizens and local government to catalyze the transformation of the city into the most livable city inIndia. Industry...

A seminar organised by Oxford Policy Management in June 2017 brought together practitioners and policy makers to exchange insights on practical challenges for the implementation of social health protection (SHP) programmes, and social health insurance (SHI) in particular. Kicked-off with a...

Launched by the Hon’ble PM in January, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ programme aims to quickly and effectively transform these districts. The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’...

The policy commitment to preventing and reducing undernutrition was reaffirmed by the Budget 2014-15 speech of the Finance Minister, which stated that - “A national programme in Mission Mode is urgently required to halt the deteriorating malnutrition situation in India, as present interventions...

This presenatation enlists the objectives of Smart learning as seen by Ahmedabad and enlistses the initiatives that have been undertaken to achieve the same. Followed be a brief mention of the impact of these changes.

The Objective identified are

• To concrete the concepts of...

This paper examines the role of courts in promoting fulfillment of the right to education in developing country democracies, focusing on India and Indonesia—two countries that have experienced increased education rights litigation in recent years. The paper argues that this litigation has been...

Quality learning is important to prepare students to succeed in the jobs of tomorrow. Yet across the world, a Learning crisis is unfolding. Globally, enrollment gaps between high and low-income countries have narrowed significantly in basic and secondary education. But the World Bank’s 2018...

The ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ Programme aims to expeditiously improve the socio-economic status of 117 districts from across 28 states. The three core principles of the programme are - Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (among citizens and functionaries...

Skills and Jobs in Brazil: An Agenda for Youth is a new report focusing on the challenge of economic engagement among the Brazilian youth. In the context of a fast aging population, Brazil’s greatest economic opportunity is to increase its labor productivity, especially that of youth. This...

This video on Smart Class in Jabalpur, gives a glimpse of the jubiliation experienced by the youth of the city. It enlists the benefits of use of ICT in Schools, how this brings a feeling of being in a small connected world. This change has brought thrill in learning and has even given a boost...

More children are going to school, staying in school for longer, and learning than ever before in East Asia and Pacific (EAP). During the past 50 years, a group of countries in EAP have successfully transformed their economies by investing in the continuous upgrading of knowledge, skills, and...

The ‘Ease of Living’ Index launched by the Ministry serves as a litmus test to help assess the progress made in urban environments through these various initiatives and empower cities to use evidence to plan, implement and monitor their performance. In the first round of the assessment, the...

The global effort to achieve sanitation and water for all by 2030 is extending beyond the household to include institutional settings, such as schools, healthcare facilities and workplaces. This has been reinforced by global education for all strategies highlighting how water, sanitation and...

An updated and credible National Health Data is essential for effective planning, decision-making, monitoring and evaluation of various Health Programmes & Health Sector Development activities.  To achieve this objective, the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI), annually brings out...

The 2005 Hindu Succession Act was legislated to protect women’s rights to an equal share in ancestral property, including land. A unique rural household survey in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and West Bengal was conducted, in which both enumerators for interviews and participants of the...

Safe sanitation is essential for health, from preventing infection to improving and maintaining mental and social well-being.

Developed in accordance with the processes set out in the WHO Handbook for Guideline Development, these guidelines provide comprehensive advice on maximizing the...

By improving their skills, health, knowledge, and resilience—their human capital—people can be more productive, flexible, and innovative. Human capital is a central driver of sustainable growth and poverty reduction. Investments in human capital have become more important as the nature of work...

The brief examines the existing evidence and the potential for bringing together cash transfer programs and parenting interventions on early child stimulation to improve child development outcomes, notably cognitive and language skills. The brief also provides lessons learned from implementation...

This paper formulates a comprehensive pension fund framework for enhancing system capacity to manage economic and social risks. The National Social Protection Fund (NSPF) attempts to quantify informal sector, incorporated under a unified national protection scheme. The new protection mechanism...

The social audits in India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) are among the few examples of the use at scale of a collective social accountability mechanism in a national social protection programme. In their scope, and by the fact that they are legally required...

This publication discusses how countries in Asia and the Pacific can overcome public sector inefficiencies in the health system and how governments can obtain better outcomes on their journey towards universal health coverage. As governments in Asia and the Pacific invest more on health,...

The Opportunity 2030 dashboard provides an interface to interactively compare scenarios for different benefits and regions assessed in the Opportunity 2030: More Jobs; Better Health; Liveable Cities report. The research presents analysis on the impacts of climate action through...

India has reduced its poverty rate drastically from 55% to 28% in ten years. 271 million people moved out of poverty between 2005/6 and 2015/16. While progress has been remarkable, the country still has the largest...

In order to have a robust, scalable and a sustainable PPP model for provding services for NCDs  from the private sector by the district hospitals, NITI Aayog, MoH&FW and the World BankGroup acting as technical partner have jointly worked to develop a comprehensive Guidelines and Agreement...

India's vaccination coverage to prevent rotavirus infection, a leading cause of severe diarrhoea in young children, was the lowest among the 15 countries which introduced it last year, a new report said. It also pointed out that India lost over 2.6 lakh children under five years from pneumonia...

The video was presented during the National Workshop on Accelerating Implementation of Urban Missions: AMRUT and Smart Cities held at Vigyan Bhavan on 08th December 2017.

This video reiterates the vision of Vishakhapatnam to build a resilient, healthy metropolis for people. Further this...

Khushi sustainable livelihood Centres - More than just Skilling

For every smart city, the Khushi program which is inspired by the Pune Lighthouse model focusing on counselling, holistic support, changing self-image of the students and providing them a skill of their...

The World Development Report 2018 (WDR 2018)—LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise—is the first ever devoted entirely to education. And the timing is excellent: education has long been critical to human welfare, but it is even more so in a time of rapid economic and social change. The best way...

The food regulator in India, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched a national campaign to give training to street food vendors for improving their hygiene practices and safety standards. However, suitable facility/ equipment are equally important for preparation and...

On 28th October, 2016, ten sectoral Groups of Secretaries were set up by the Government for undertaking a Mid-Term Review of policies and programmes of the Government. As part of this exercise, the Groups were required to examine the performance of flagship schemes of the Ministries/Departments...

The National Health Policy of 1983 and the National Health Policy of 2002 have served well in guiding the approach for the health sector in the Five-Year Plans. Now 14 years after the last health policy, the context has changed in four major ways. First, the health priorities are changing....

Interventions on green space in urban settings can help address public health issues related to obesity, cardiovascular effects, mental health and well-being. However, knowledge on their effectiveness in relation to health, well-being and equity is incomplete. To explore the effectiveness of...

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD and launched by Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development on 29th September 2015.

This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall...

Modernising GVMC Schools and transforming them as smart campus has been conceptualized by Visakhapatnam Smart City, to create modern education infrastructure for all strata of the society by focusing on:
• Equip schools with technology based learning resources
• Equip schools to have...

The GII 2017 marks the 10th edition of the GII, providing data and insights gleaned from tracking innovation across the globe for more than a decade. The GII was created to measure and understand which economies and regions respond best to the challenges of innovation, and has helped to shape...

This time it was decided to split the Economic Survey into two volumes: Volume 1 as in the previous two years continued to be analytical/policy-oriented and was released just before the Budget. Volume 2 could come out at a time when data for the full year gone by became available (also in the...

India's fast-growing cities face three key challenges in improving public health outcomes. The first is the persistence of weak links in the chain -- notably, slums badly underserved with basic civic services -- that can pose public health threats to all. Richer residents corner public resources...

Plan India In an attempt to develop collective perspectives and generate a normative consensus on the status of girls and women in India, has broken new ground and pioneered a gender vulnerability assessment tool designed to be used by policymakers, development practitioners, academicians,...

The objective of constructing the India Youth Development Index (YDI) 2017 is to track the trends in Youth Development across the States. The Index enables recognizing the high and low performing states, identifies the weak domains and informs the policy makers the priority areas of intervention...

With almost one-fifth of the world’s population living in India, the health status and the drivers of health loss are expected to vary between different parts of the country and between the states. Accordingly, effective efforts to improve population health in each state require systematic...

18% of the world's population lives in India, and many states of India have populations similar to those of large countries. Action to effectively improve population health in India requires availability of reliable and comprehensive state-level estimates of disease burden and risk factors over...

Antimicrobial resistance is a serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society and is driven by many interconnected factors. Single, isolated interventions have limited impact and coordinated action is required to minimize the emergence and...

This report on High Impact Opportunities for Energy Efficiency in India describes four High Impact Opportunities (HIOs) for making improvements in energy efficiency in India in the residential, industrial and agricultural sectors. These HIOs have been taken from the long list of HIOs identified...

While all children are vulnerable to air pollution, the youngest children are most at risk. New UNICEF analysis focusing on very young children finds that almost 17 million babies (children under the age of one) live in some of the most severely affected regions of the world, where outdoor air...

For a long time, the focus of electricity access has been largely at the household level. It is only recently that access to electricity is also being recognised as critical for public services like electricity for health facilities, schools and street lighting. In health facilities, regular...

As the debate about whether the internet is safe for children rages, The State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World discusses how digital access can be a game changer for children or yet another dividing line. The report represents the first comprehensive look from...

2017 has been a landmark year for the Indian healthcare landscape with the release of Government’s National Health Policy 14 years after the previous version. This, coupled with significant traction in the healthtech space, prompted NASSCOM Research team to develop and release one-of-a-kind ...

The India Early Childhood Education Impact (IECEI) study is a collaborative, three-tier research study that brings together elements of quantitative and qualitative inquiry to the understanding of ECE in rural India. Conceived as a five-year longitudinal study (2011-2016) of a cohort of four...

Health and life insurers are among the many players scrambling to determine how blockchain could be adapted to improve the way they maintain records, execute transactions, and interact with stakeholders. Key questions center on whether blockchain’s unique attributes could help insurers cut costs...

From the first summit held in 2013, the National Summit on Good ion and Replicable Practices and Innovations in Public Healthcare Systems in India, has, in a short space of time, become an institutional mechanism for the sharing of innovations supported by the National Health Mission. This is...

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by the Prime Minister on 2nd October 2014, focuses on promoting cleanliness in public spaces. Public health care facilities are a major mechanism of social protection to meet the health care needs of large segments of the population. Cleanliness and hygiene in...

Providing healthcare to the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the urban area is the core focus of the National Urban Health Mission, in addition to serving the larger urban population. It is well established that urban health issues are distinct and require new skills and capacities to...

The National Urban Health Mission aims to improve the health status of the urban population with a special focus on the urban poor, disadvantaged and vulnerable population. Providing healthcare to such vulnerable and disadvantaged groups is ridden with complexities because of their limited...

To effectively respond to the needs of the urban poor and vulnerable, it is essential to have knowledge of the existing situation and the gaps in service delivery. Towards this end, the ‘Vulnerability Mapping Guidelines and Tools under NUHM’ is a much-needed document by which we can not only...

In line with this mandate, NITI Aayog is collaborating with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India and exploring opportunities to enhance private sector engagement through public-private partnerships for addressing the growing burden of NCDs in the country. The...

India's fast-growing cities face three key challenges in improving public health outcomes. The first is the persistence of weak links in the chain -- notably, slums badly underserved with basic civic services -- that can pose public health threats to all. Richer residents corner public resources...

In line with UNESCO’s efforts to reaffirm a humanistic vision of education, this report seeks to emphasise the transformative implications of SDG 4.7.  The present study contributes to recovering a vision of education based on a shared respect for human dignity and an ethos emphasising...

This paper brings together a number of case studies on how cities from the UK and beyond have supported university-business collaborations.

Knowledge intensive businesses and services are significant drivers of growth, and are increasingly urban. For many UK cities, their greatest...