NIUA Newsletter

Hitesh Vaidya, Director NIUA

India assumes the G20 Presidency this year, and NIUA has been named a technical secretariat and knowledge partner for U20. This highlights the crucial role of cities in shaping a sustainable future for all. Exciting times lie ahead for the urban sector. Our initiatives last year delivered significant results, as we analysed urban issues, sought solutions, re-evaluated policies, institutionalised reforms, built capacities, implemented innovations, and evaluated impacts.

We have created a vast knowledge network through partnerships and alliances, and developed seven approaches to encourage dialogue and relevance in today's urban discourse:

Demand-driven frameworks for technical skill enhancement
Modular and contextualised approaches for easy learning
Creative, practical, and experiential learning with a focus on sharing lessons
Peer-to-peer knowledge exchange
Strong network for multi-level governance and private/NGO partnerships
Local capacity building in data solutions and innovation
Developing urban future leaders.

NIUA is a 'think and do' tank, working across the urban ecosystem. We believe that synergy among members is key to sustainable growth and achieving common goals. Your continued support is appreciated as we strive to transform Urban India.

The January edition of our monthly newsletter is in front of you. It gives a brief overview of what we have been doing. Please feel free to share your feedback with me on director@niua.org

Launch of the 'Catalogue of Best Practices for Building Flood Resilience

Launch of City Climate Action Planning (CLAP) Game

Launch of the 'Catalogue of Best Practices for Building Flood Resilience

Release of handbook - Good Practices in Climate Action: A City Climate Alliance Partners

City Climate Alliance

Over 80 City Climate Alliance partners working in the climate action space congregated for the first Alliance@U20 meeting, a year-long partners engagement on the Urban20 (@U20India) platform, held in New Delhi on 16 January 2023. The alliance is an aggregator for capturing climate actions, innovations and transitions with partners. The event explored how partners can collaborate, co-create and connect through the alliance towards the U20 mission. The congregation of partners’ pledged for climate action in cities, which marked the beginning of collective conscious efforts in the year of U20.

The areas of climate finance, urban digital futures, water security, local identity, environmentally responsible behaviour, local planning and governance frameworks were discussed as part of the U20 thematic tracks. Gender emerged as a dominant sector of intervention in every track. Four unique knowledge products were launched by Rahul Kapoor, Director, Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA, and Hitesh Vaidya, Director, NIUA:

City Climate Action Planning (CLAP)NOW: An interactive card game which helps cities in prioritising measures based on climate-risk and develop a spatial strategy for short, medium, and long-term action.
A Catalogue of Best practices for Building Flood Resilience: The catalogue contains a basket of 30 global and local solutions, targeted to help cities choose appropriate measures for building flood resilience. The solutions are grouped under various categories: nature-based, planning, technology, and infrastructure.
Good Practices in Climate Action: A City Climate Alliance Partners - Handbook: A ready Guide for cities for green tranformation for all U-20 cities, brought out in collaboration with the CITIIS program. Additionally, ‘Climate Reports in 5’ – A digital partners report series and relaunch of the U20 India Climate Dialogues monthly webinar series was announced.

Urbanlogue webinar on Role of Tech in steering inclusion in mobility

Building Accessible, Safe and Inclusive Indian Cities (BASIIC)

To commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), NIUA’s BASIIC Programme in collaboration with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) conducted a webinar, Role of Innovative Policies and Technologies in Steering Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Mobility Ecosystem on 1 December 2023.

The webinar focused the underlying problems to address inaccessibility issues in the urban mobility ecosystem. It was also an opportunity to celebrate the home-grown best practices and innovations for such problems. The deliberations stressed on the legal mandates under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD Act 2016) for inclusive mobility. It highlighted the areas that need to be prioritised for fostering inclusive mobility, while ensuring to make PwDs active contributors to the growth of the country.

FGD on GUIDE in Varanasi

Building Accessible, Safe and Inclusive Indian Cities (BASIIC)

NIUA and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in collaboration with Varanasi Smart City Ltd. (VSCL) organised three Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) on ‘Understanding Good Governance for Urban Inclusion through Data and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (GUIDE)’ in Varanasi on 4, 11 and 12 January 2023. The three FGDs were curated to have a diverse set of participants, where the FGD-1 consisted of men with disabilities, FGD-2 consisted of women with disabilities and FGD-3 of a mixed group of participants. The total number of participants was 31, with men being 55% and women being 45%. The FGDs were organised in continuation to the earlier City Stakeholders' Consultation conducted on 22 November 2022. The aim was to understand the problems related to the delivery of basic and essential services faced by these groups as end-users. Some findings that could improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities included –

The need to map the current employment opportunities and do interventions so they suit the qualifications of persons with disabilities.
Ensuring accessibility to public infrastructure, especially across transport, education, and financial services.
The need for creating robust information systems to ensure that the various existing services are easily available and accessible for persons with disabilities.
Requirement of administrative reforms where the processes followed for different services are streamlined to improve service delivery and governance.
Increasing awareness about the physical needs of persons with disabilities among the entire chain of service providers.

Online ITCN TOT on modules 1- 4

Infant, Toddler, Care-giver friendly Neighborhood (ITCN)

Training of Trainers (TOT) of five training agencies was successfully completed by CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) in January 2023 on four modules under operational level courses, supported by ITCN capacity building programme.

The five training agencies are: All India Institute of Local Self Government, Mumbai ; Centre for Good Governance, Dr. R. S. Tolia Uttarakhand Academy of Administration, Nainital; Engineering Staff College of India, Hyderabad; Kerala Institute of Local Administration, Thrissur; and Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Lucknow.

Module 1 is based on 'Data Baseline Toolkit'
Module 2 is based on 'Data Dashboard Toolkit'
Module 3 is based on two toolkits- ‘designing public spaces for Infants, Toddlers and Caregivers (ITCs)’, and ‘designing streets for ITCs’, developed by World Resource Institute (WRI) India under Nurturing Neighbourhood Challenge, hosted by the Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA in collaboration with Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF).
Module 4 is an introduction to the concept of 'Proximity of Care' for healthy overall development of a young child.

Training agencies will be further organising training of government officials in coming weeks.

ITCN module for capacity building programme

Infant, Toddler, Care-giver friendly Neighborhood (ITCN)

The ITCN Capacity Building Programme, NIUA, with support from Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF), has conducted the Academic Certification of Young Professionals (YPs) on National Urban Learning Platform (NULP). With its aim to build the capacity of young professionals on the issues around young children and caregiver-friendly neighbourhoods, the programme conducted training of 284 Young Professionals from different regions of the country in partnership with School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Delhi and the five on-boarded academic institutions.

The academic institutions include: Jadavpur University, Kolkata; NIT Rourkela, Odisha; Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, Delhi; NIT Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh; Manipal School of Architecture and Planning, Karnataka; and Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai for capacity building of young professionals.

YPs have completed a module-wise assessment on NULP and obtained certification. The platform allows qualifying YPs to progressively access learning materials, to take the assessments for each module and a final course assessment linked to the Academic Certification for Young Professionals under the ITCN Capacity Building Programme.

National Youth Conclave announcement poster

Shaping Youth Future

India's G20 presidency has acknowledged the significance of Urban20 (U20) and Youth20 (Y20) among several other engagement groups. NIUA, MoHUA and Department of Youth Affairs- Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MoYAS) is hosting a 'National Youth Conclave' on March 13-14 March 2023 to bring together young minds to deliberate on the U20 and Y20 priority areas and foster bright leaders of tomorrow.

Placemaking India Week event

Climate Centre for Cities (C-Cube)

'Placemaking India' held its second placemaking week in Mangalore from 30 November - 4 December 2022. Ambika Malhotra, consultant at the City Climate Alliance, NIUA talked about placemaking and placemakers from a climate lens. She explored how the three dimensions – of the citizen, the city and the citadel, have an impact and a role to play in placemaking. Furthermore, different scales and methods of supporting cities and communities in achieving climate justice through placemaking were highlighted.

Workshop on Climate Action through Urban Heat Island (UHI) Mitigation

Climate Centre for Cities (C-Cube)

Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) India, International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH), and NIUA organised a stakeholder workshop, Climate Action through Urban Heat Island (UHI) Mitigation in Hyderabad on 5 January 2023. The workshop explored opportunities for implementation of mitigation measures in alignment with the draft Cool Roof Policy for Hyderabad. During the workshop, Anshul Abbasi, Lead (Policy and Planning) at C-Cube presented the linkages of Urban Heat Island (UHI) mitigation with National Mission on Sustainable Habitat 2.0 and the Long-term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS).

C-Cube has developed various training modules for cities to mitigate UHI through the rejuvenation of water bodies, enhancing green cover, and biodiversity conservation. These have been successfully delivered to more than 3500 officials across 40 cities and are being scaled across the country with the support of Capacity Grid of academic institutes. Other demonstrative strategy projects being carried out, like the Climate Action Plan and Flood Resilience Strategy were discussed, as to how these will help cities mitigate heat islands.

CITIIS’s Capacity-Building Workshops for Municipal Officials in Odisha

City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS)

NIUA and the Housing and Urban Development Department, Odisha conducted the third Cluster Training of Municipal Officials under the CITIIS program on 12 January 2023. Over 130 municipal officials, elected representatives and TULIP (The Urban Learning Internship Programme) interns from 10 ULBs across four districts participated in a day-long workshop on Rejuvenation of Urban Water Bodies.

The training sessions, held at the E-Learning Centre, VSSUT Burla, in Sambalpur, aimed to build the participants’ capacity to map and assess the health of urban wetlands and develop community-led restoration strategies. The Commissioner of Sambalpur Municipal Corporation, Pradeep Kumar Sahoo, graced the opening ceremony.

A three-day workshop on town planning was also organised on 16-18 January for 43 TULIP interns at Unnati Bhawan, Bhubaneswar.The workshop aimed to familiarise the interns with various town planning functions, build their skills through a “learning by doing” approach, and enable them to support the Town Planning officials of 35 selected ULBs in Odisha. The interns were also introduced to their respective ULB Heads and Planning Officials after the welcome address delivered by Sushanta Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary-cum-Director, Town Planning, Housing & Urban Development Department.

Finalists of Student Thesis Competition, Season 3 (STC 3) Onboarded

Water & Environment

The Water and Environment Vertical at NIUA formally onboarded 20 finalists for the third season of the Student Thesis Competition on 9 January 2023. Students will now commence work related to their thesis with expert advice from NIUA, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), and their professors to arrive at unique solutions for some of the most pressing challenges faced by urban rivers.

Director General NMCG, G. Asok Kumar and NIUA Director, Hitesh Vaidya encouraged the students to come up with practical solutions that can be implemented as well as scaled up.

Outreach and onboarding Workshop for River Cities in Uttarakhand

Outreach and onboarding Workshop for River Cities in Jharkhand

Water & Environment

In total 14 more cities joined the River City Alliance (RCA), a platform for river cities in India to ideate, co-learn and exchange information for sustainable management of urban rivers set up by NIUA and Namami Gange. Six river cities from Uttarakhand and eight cities from Jharkhand were onboarded at outreach and onboarding events held at Dehradun and Ranchi on 13 and 19 January 2023 respectively.

The six member cities from Uttarakhand are Kashipur, Nainital, Haldwani, Uttarkashi, Selaqui and Vikasnagar. The key dignitaries present at the event included Ashok Kumar Pandey, Additional Director, Urban Development Directorate, Government of Uttarakhand, Shivani Pandey, Director Finance, State Program Management Group, Uday Raj Singh (IAS), Managing Director, Uttarakhand PeyJal Sansadhan Vikas Evam Nirman Nigam and Himansu Badoni, Executive Director (Projects), NMCG.

The eight cities to join RCA from Jharkhand are Chas, Jamshedpur, Deogarh, Mango, Ranchi, Giridih, Adityapur and Medininagar. Amit Kumar, IAS, Project Director, State Program Management Group (SPMG), Government of Jharkhand and Gajanand Ram, Town Planner, Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Jharkhand were the key dignitaries present at the event.

Water and Environment Team at ‘Convening of Stakeholders for CEEW Study’

Water & Environment

A meeting of stakeholders was organised by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) on Reuse of Treated Wastewater in India: Market Potential and Pointers for Strengthening Governance on 13 January 2023. Ishleen Kaur, Senior Environmental Specialist with NIUA’s Water and Environment Vertical and other participants discussed the potential of reusing treated wastewater and strengthening governance for the same in India.

MoU signed with NDMC for implementation of NUDM

National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM)

NIUA and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for reforms and digitalisation in the fields of municipal accounting, finance, and budgeting on 17 January 2023. The pact aims at encouraging partnership between key stakeholders through efficient knowledge sharing and information exchange.

To begin with, seminars on municipal finance will be conducted during ‘Urban-20’ under the aegis of the G-20.

NUDM Workshop on Augmentation in Property Tax

National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM)

75 States/UTs representatives participated in the second session in the series of best practices for online delivery of urban services, organised by NIUA on 24 January 2023. The topic was Augmentation in Property Tax Collection - Geotagging and Mapping of ULB Properties in Telangana, where participants learned and deliberated on the successful institutional structure adopted by Telangana.

The session provided insight into the geo-tagging process, methodology, achievements and budget involved.

Signing of MoU in Bihar

Signing of MoU in Kerala

National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM)

- Kerala launched three UPYOG modules in eight pilot Urban Local Bodies on 26 January 2023. The modules are Trade License, Public Grievance Redressal and Birth & Death Certificates, which will provide the citizen with better digital access to municipal services.

- Bihar has moved one step forward for implementation of NUDM. The state government has floated a tender for onboarding an Implementation Partner to improve citizen-centric online e-governance in the state.

Features of the content guidelines

National Urban Learning Programme (NULP)

NULP has released guidelines for creating learning-content for the platform. It is a reference guide to understand the content requirements, formats, and methods of creating, reviewing and publishing content on NULP. The guidelines will help city officials share their experiences and knowledge within the ecosystem.

Major updates on the course

National Urban Learning Programme (NULP)

NULP has updated the e-certificate course on Mainstreaming Urban Climate Action by TERI, International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) and the Delegation of European Union to India. The course is designed to empower the audience to build their technical capacities and gauge the application of climate change knowledge in decision-making, urban policymaking, and governance processes.

NULP State Engagement Workshops

NULP State Engagement Workshop in Jaipur

National Urban Learning Programme (NULP)

To introduce the functionality of NULP and collate the learning needs of ULBs in Haryana and Rajasthan, engagement workshops were conducted in December 2022 - January 2023 in Gurugram, Faridabad, Rohtak, Karnal and Jaipur.

The officials were given a live walkthrough of NULP and existing programmes. They also shared the best practices and problems from their respective Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and participated in various activities.

As a way forward, team NULP will now create content with partners, based on the collated learning needs.

LCCM course on NULP

National Urban Learning Programme (NULP)

Leaders of Climate Change Management (LCCM) program has been developed to support India’s ambitious climate targets, starting from 2022, which is catering to the needs of both the public and private sector. The online training program is hosted on National Urban Learning Platform (NULP). Cohort 1 has successfully completed their online training on NULP with 80% completion rate and Cohort 2, with an additional core module, has begun their online training on NULP on 4 January 2023.

Aerial view of the Nature-based sewage treatment solution

Solar Installation at a household for the Sustainable Neighbourhood project

Morgenstadt Global Smart Cities Initiative (MGSCI)

MGSCI partners met in Kochi on 16 January 2023 to discuss the demo-installations for the proposed project Sustainable Neighborhood. The meeting was chaired by Mayor of Kochi M. Anilkumar. Implementation partners from NIUA, Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development, Fraunhofer Institute as well as city-level stakeholders such as SCMS School of Engineering & Technology (SSET), Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT) and Moopens Energy Solutions.

The 15 houses in the wards of Elamakkara North and Puthukkalavattam, selected under the project, have been supplied with rooftop photovoltaic systems, forming a network which will be monitored and optimised for local use of energy. At the Government Higher Secondary school in the same neighbourhood, a nature-based sewage treatment solution, a pavilion with a green roof, a green façade and a cool roof have been installed to demonstrate the benefits of these solutions. The Mayor of Kochi strongly supported the ongoing activities and urged the stakeholders to ideate on scaling up of the demo-installations along with planning for the management of the solutions once the project is completed.

Cover page of Urban India Volume 42 Issue II

Urban India Journal

Volume 42.Issue II of Urban India, a bi-annual journal published by NIUA was released in January 2023. It includes articles focusing on Housing and Real Estate Sector, Urban Carrying Capacity, Solid Waste Management, Street Vendors, Multidimensional Poverty, Slums and Access to Services. The articles included in the volume have brought to the fore the most challenging issues and policy concerns of planning and management of cities based on original research.

Announcement Banner for Second Batch of PG Courses by TISS-NIUA

Academic Programme

The School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad and the NIUA, have invited applications for the following two academic programmes jointly offered by both institutions-

M.A. in Cities and Governance (A Full-Time Two-Year Degree Programme)
Post Graduate Diploma programme in Cities and Governance (One Year)

These two interdisciplinary programmes, offered through a state-of-the-art pedagogy, present global content with strong national relevance. The unique curriculum equips students with the perspective to envision, and develop skills to create inclusive and sustainable city spaces. The key focus areas that blend conceptual understanding with professional skills include institutional governance, city financing, planning frameworks and techniques, data science, and project management.

NIUA Newsletter

From the Director’s Desk

3 Knowledge Products Launched during Alliance@U20 Conference

NIUA and ITDP Discuss Inclusion of PwDs in Mobility Ecosystem

5 Recommendations to Improve Service Delivery to PwDs Emerge from FGDs

TOT of 5 Agencies for Operational Course Concludes under ITCN

Certification for Young Professionals under ITCN Begins on NULP

U20 -Y20 National Youth Conclave goes Live on 13-14 March

Looking at Placemaking from a Climate Lens: Placemaking India Week

C-Cube Work Presented at Climate Action Through UHI Mitigation Workshop

CITIIS Conducts Workshops for Municipal Officials and TULIP Interns in Odisha

Finalists of Student Thesis Competition, Season 3 Onboarded

Outreach and Onboarding Workshops for River Cities in Uttarakhand and Jharkhand

Potential of Reusing Treated Waste Water Discussed at a CEEW Event

MoU Signed with NDMC for Implementation of NUDM

NUDM Conducts Workshop on How to Augment Property Tax Collection

NUDM State Engagement News

Guidelines for Creating Learning Content Released on NULP

NULP Updates Course On Mainstreaming Climate Action

NULP Introduced to ULBs of Haryana and Rajasthan

Cohort 2 of LCCM Begin Their Learning Journey on NULP

Sustainable Neighbourhood Partners Meet Held in Kerala

Urban India Volume 42 Issue II Released

Admission Announcement for Second Batch of PG Courses by TISS-NIUA