Sixth edition of the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) 2023 report by Janaagrahav
(an NGO) released
Report provides the first nation-wide analysis of local governance in Indian cities and expands on the scope of city-based analysis and evaluation of municipal performance through a citizen-centric lens.
this report includes the study of 82 municipal legislations, 44 town and country planning acts, 176 allied acts, rules and notifications, 32 other policy/scheme documents, and 27 additional datasets pertaining to urban development in India.
Key insights on India’s city systems:
- India has not made progress on citysystems reforms aligning with the pace of urbanisation.
- Urban legislations of 51% states/UTs are not available in the public domain in accessible formats.
- 39% of India’s capital cities do not have an active master plan.
- Eastern states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal) have relatively better urban legislations, followed by Southern states.
- Highly urbanised and large states perform better than less urbanised and smaller states specifically in urban planning.
Five systemic challenges to India’s city-systems:
- Lack of a modern, contemporary framework of spatial planning and design standards for public utilities.
- Weak finances, both in terms of financial sustainability and financial accountability.
- Poor human resource management.
- Powerless mayors and city councils and severe fragmentation of governance across municipalities, parastatal agencies and state departments.
- Absence of systematic citizen participation and transparency.