Mathur Ritika Passi

cooperation between rival political parties
and inadequate fund availability). But
India’s policy on smart city development
provides for Greenfield Development (city
extension) around cities to address the needs
of the expanding population.
Target 11.b
The Indian government’s National Action
Plan on Climate Change, formulated by the
Prime Minister’s Council, highlights the need
to simultaneously implement eight 12 national
missions in an integrated manner. The
Sustainable Habitat Mission, for example,
aims to promote energy efficiency through
three initiatives, namely improvements in
energy efficiency in buildings, development
of technology to produce power from waste,
and reduction of energy use in the urban
transport sector. A participatory approach is
being followed in implementing the mission,
and stakeholders are getting the opportunity
to compete on the best management model.
Target 11.c
India’s premier institution, Housing and
Urban Development Corporation Limited,
is engaged in providing loans to various
government agencies and the general public
(including the underprivileged) for building
construction since 1970. The institution
has also been engaged in development
of environment-friendly construction
technologies that provide for the use of costeffective
building materials. Their experts,
based in district-level building centres,
train local workers in constructing houses
based on locally available materials. In this
manner, the cost of construction is brought
down significantly.
Challenges in the Way Forward
The 10 targets set under SDG 11 are most
suitable for India. These targets aim to
address the problems being experienced
in a wide range of urban sectors (housing,
transport, etc.), and in which the country
is lagging behind. Additionally, weightage
is given to the need for enhancing
“inclusive and sustainable urbanisation
and capacities for participatory, integrated
and sustainable human settlement planning
and management” (target 11.3). This
could be said to be the most important
and challenging target for India, where
sectoral improvements would be difficult to
achieve without formulating effective urban
governance mechanisms.
The Indian experience shows that major
hurdles in achieving desired urban
transformation include funding shortages,
ineffective implementation and monitoring
of urban policies and programmes, weak
enforcement of laws and poor regulation
of activities. For instance, the government
is not in a position to bear the entire
expected cost of INR 980 billion needed
to implement its mega schemes, i.e., Smart
Cities and AMRUT, and is hoping to rely
on alternative sources, including capital
markets and the BRICS Bank. 13 Another
example is that the legislative provision
of the Constitution (Seventy-fourth
Amendment) Act, 1992, pertaining to the
devolution of powers and responsibilities to
municipalities, has not yet been effectively
implemented due to reluctance shown by
state functionaries.
Programmes and projects are also
not properly implemented because of
low capabilities of many government
functionaries working in various planning
and programme implementation agencies,
i.e., parastatal and local-level institutions.
The prevalence of this problem defeats
the purpose of a policy, and the target
population does not benefit significantly.
As urban areas are witnessing noteworthy
demographic, social and economic changes
over time, appropriate expertise is needed
to respond to the new challenges. Training
functionaries in developing a superior
understanding of smart solutions, such
as compact development, participatory
planning and implementation, financial
management and land monetisation, would
be a useful exercise. At the same time, it
needs to be ensured that local institutions
possess sufficient funds and equipment that
are needed to implement new ideas and
lessons learned by the functionaries during
training.
Furthermore, the use of digital technology
in the management and provision of
various urban services is still very limited.
This is despite the existence of important
technical and management institutions in
the country, such as the Indian Institutes
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