India

Kerwin Datu reflects on the implications of treating the world's diverse mixed-use slums as residential only enclaves.

India's Bajaj Auto company introduces an ultracheap small car focused on the country's rickshaw industry. Meanwhile, an unrelated study finds that the unorganized auto-rickshaw sector presents a huge business opportunity.

Planners and development experts explain why modeling Delhi after cities like Singapore, Hong Kon and Mumbai is misguided and dangerous.

This piece from The New York Times goes inside the economic powerhouse of Mumbai's Dharavi slum to profile the informality that both troubles it and brings it prosperity.

New legislation by the Maharashtra State Governments would allow private land owners to apply for city boundary expansions as a tool to ease congestion.

Delhi was being celebrated as a capital for the first time, under British rule, a hundred years ago. This short piece from the Economist compares today's Delhi with the images of fanfare in December 1911.

The Indian government is betting big with simultaneously building a massive high speed freight corridor between Delhi & Mumbai as well the physical infrastructure for 24 new cities that will become an industrial corridor.

Various reports detail how Mumbai can become a world-class city by listing infrastructure and development goals, but, as Nayantara Kilachand points out, "cultural and social nuance" need to be--but aren't--factored in.

Pending government approval, state housing department plans to grant all slum-dwelling families in Mumbai houses may become reality. The houses are free for families settled prior to 1995.

Sri Lanka, an island nation of 20 million people, has just completed its first express highway, which, as Toll Roads News is quick to point out, is financed through a toll system.

Amy Kazim explore how chaotic urban growth and a political preference for rural government is beginning to hinder the development of India's largest cities.

In Mumbai, a tight-knit community of Ismaili Muslims are beginning work on their 16.5 acres redevelopment project. The cluster of land, which is said to be in the heart of the city's southern tip, is to be completed by 2017.

The government plans to build 24 industrial cities that stretch from New Delhi to Mumbai for a corridor bigger in land size than Japan, write Matthias Williams and Lyndee Prickitt for Reuters.

Social activists have reacted sharply to the Indian Planning Commission's report that 25 rupees (50 cents) and 31 rupees a day is sufficient for people in rural and urban areas, respectively. Jyoti Malhotra reports on the ongoing debate.

The UN released new demographic projections Thursday that forecast India's urban population will more than double in the next thirty years. UN Under Secretary General Joan Clos said there is an urgent need to discuss urban issues in response.

With high scores in five broad categories, Melbourne, Australia received the highest spot in livability rankings from The Economist's research unit.

Pollution is threatening the structural integrity of the Taj Mahal, prompting local officials to scramble for ways to preserve the historic site.

The total number of cars around the world exceeded the billion-unit mark in 2010, according to a study by Wards Auto. This figure has essentially doubled since 1986 when the 500-million-unit mark was crossed.

Rahul Mehrotra talks to The Hindu about sustainable cities, community participation, and infrastructure. The article also has a review of his most recent book "Architecture in India Since 1990."

The doubling of car traffic in the past 20 years in Mumbai has created a transit culture that has become dangerous for pedestrians. More than 44 percent of Mumbai citizens walk to work, and 78 percent road fatalities are pedestrians, a study finds.