The paper examines the quality of life in smart cities versus all cities and towns in India. This is pursued based on a number of indicators including housing characteristics, access to basic amenities and assets, which when combined are termed as deprivation index. This is then examined in relation to certain indicators of development. Though within the group of the smart cities the deprivation index does not indicate wide variation compared to all urban centres, the objective of inclusive urbanisation does not seem to have been achieved significantly. However, the other programmes (e.g., AMRUT) available to larger number of cities are expected to mitigate inequity issues. On the positive side, the smart cities programme is one of the pioneering attempts of the government to recognise the economic efficiency of large cities. After all it is equally important to create and showcase space which is of international standard and can attract both domestic and foreign investment to enhance growth.

This paper is an empirical attempt to understand the dynamics of female migration in India in context to their involvement as workers in different industries and the post-migration shift in their employment status. Female migrants crossed 312 million mark in the last decade, exhibiting a sign of changing pattern of migration beyond the conventional, towards voluntary movements motivated to gain employment opportunities in different economic sectors. The probability of getting absorbed in the secondary or the tertiary sector of employment is positive and significant for those women who had been unemployed prior to migration, while it is higher in tertiary sector in effect of rising education. Also, women are found working in their post-migration status, even if the primary reason of migration was matrimony. Further, despite female migration painting an encouraging picture in terms of economic prospects, disparities along caste and economic are still seen to be prevalent.

Small and medium towns have gained a newfound prominence over the last few years. These towns play a significant role in regional and rural development. Despite the growing focus on the small and medium towns, these lower order settlements are facing the challenge of urban management such as meeting of the basic urban infrastructure and services which are needed to attract investment. This paper explores the demographic and functional components of the settlements to understand the economic and social geographies of small and medium towns. The analysis undertaken in this study includes rank – size distribution and centrality indexes techniques to highlight the changes which have occurred in a settlement pattern over last years (1961 – 2011) and the functional importance of the lower order settlements. Based on the evidences, two important inferences can be drawn. First, the presence of lower order functions to serve the surrounding settlements and an economic base consisting mainly of primary and secondary activities and second, the potential imprints of urban growth that are so far less examined in the urban theory and practice. This paper argues that the study on small and medium towns is significant, since it breaks the syndrome of contemporary urbanization which is mainly metropolitan and large cities focused, and hence argues on propagating and integrating smaller settlements into urban policy discourse.

One of the many characteristics of urbanization in India is that it is growing at fast rate and polarizing on a few nodes. The urban population has increased form 27.81 per cent in 2001 to 31.16 per cent in 2011. The share of million-plus cities in total urban population of India has increased from 23. 6 per cent in 1961 to 42.6 per cent in 2011, while, their number has increased from 7 to 53, recording more than 7 times increase during this period. India, as a whole, recorded 17.8 per cent growth rate of population during 2001-11, while the incidence of crime recorded under IPC increased by 31.4 per cent and crime against women increased by 59.01 per cent during the same period. It has been found that million-plus cities sharing 13.31 per cent of total population of India, accounted for 21.62 per cent of total incidences of crime recorded in 2014. The study highlights that in 2014, million-plus cities recorded 383.7 rate of total cognizable crime against the national average of 235.6. Similarly, in respect of crime against women million-plus cities recorded 56.9 rate of crime against 45.1 witnessed by India as a whole in 2014. Thus, on the one hand, the incidences of crime are growing at a faster rate in India and, on the other; criminalization is concentrating in bigger cities. This study is, therefore, focused on the magnitude of crime against women in million-plus cities of India.

Assam, the North-Eastern state of India, is one of the highest rainfall-receiving states of India. The study is an attempt to examine annual rainfall and temperature trends over ten selected stations of Assam. The Mann–Kendall test has been carried out to analyse the trend of mean rainfall and temperature data series during the period of 1901–2014. Though no clear trend has been observed for the region as a whole, there are seasonal trends for some seasons and for some of the hydro-meteorological subdivisions. However, there is an increasing temperature trend in all the selected stations. Mann–Kendall tests too clearly indicates the increasing trends for all the stations and their computed p-values are found to be less than or equal to 0.05 (α<=0.05).

The study initially identifies socio-economic determinants of women’s contribution to the total household income in the city of Kolkata, based on a primary survey of 300 households. The poor identified in our study areas were forced to adopt various ‘survival strategies’. Diversification of income sources is, perhaps, the most important instrument for the households to escape from poverty.  The analysis highlights heterogeneity among these poor women’s paid activities and the intense ‘informalization’ of their employment. It has also been revealed that both caste and educational attainments of the women have no statistically significant bearing on women’s employment and earnings. As expected, women as head of households make bigger contribution to the households’ income portfolio. It is also found that the contribution of women to the household income increases as her age rises, and also when she hails from a BPL family. However, contribution of women to the total household income diminishes if the size of the household is large.

Planning and development of new cities have witnessed protests against land acquisition and resulted in evolution of new models of land acquisition. Navi Mumbai and Greater Noida have experienced evolution of new models of land procurement. Further, land will be acquired for proposed Jewar international airport in Greater Noida. This paper reviews the process of land acquisition for city planning and development in Navi Mumbai and Greater Noida with the objective of identifying both positive and negative outcomes. Experiences of land acquisition for Navi Mumbai suggest that allotment of developed plots should be integral part of compensation. Field study of Ulwe and Kopar reveals that projects affected persons are satisfied with 12.5 percent scheme of allotment of developed plots. However, majority of farmers want enhanced compensation as reflected through a large number of court cases against compensation. Negotiation meetings play crucial role in deciding the compensation. Field survey of Kishorpur village reveals that majority of farmers are willing to sell their agricultural land to government for Jewar International Airport. All farmers preferred compensation of monetary value, share in developed land and employment security.

Planning and development of new cities have witnessed protests against land acquisition and resulted in evolution of new models of land acquisition. Navi Mumbai and Greater Noida have experienced evolution of new models of land procurement. Further, land will be acquired for proposed Jewar international airport in Greater Noida. This paper reviews the process of land acquisition for city planning and development in Navi Mumbai and Greater Noida with the objective of identifying both positive and negative outcomes. Experiences of land acquisition for Navi Mumbai suggest that allotment of developed plots should be integral part of compensation. Field study of Ulwe and Kopar reveals that projects affected persons are satisfied with 12.5 percent scheme of allotment of developed plots. However, majority of farmers want enhanced compensation as reflected through a large number of court cases against compensation. Negotiation meetings play crucial role in deciding the compensation. Field survey of Kishorpur village reveals that majority of farmers are willing to sell their agricultural land to government for Jewar International Airport. All farmers preferred compensation of monetary value, share in developed land and employment security.

Urban biodiversity is an important aspect of human civilization because of its vast contributions towards environmental security, financial prosperity, community welfare and increasing cities’ resilience to face environmental challenges like climate change. The global loss of urban biodiversity is one of the major concerns of this century. To reduce the rate of biodiversity loss in a city, assessment of the ecological performance of urban areas with respect to biodiversity and pertinent framing of effective planning policies to integrate biodiversity into the urban environment are essential. This article provides a brief overview of the present status of urban biodiversity in the Indian city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) using City Biodiversity Index (CBI) as a quantitative evaluation tool and a theoretical framework for arresting biodiversity loss at city-level. This existing status is benchmarked for formulating conservation strategies and evaluating intermittent improvement. Research methodology includes extracting data from reports, scientific journals, interviews and structuring these in the CBI format to evaluate the required quantitative estimates.  Based on this study and performance of the CBI indicators, sectors which require immediate attention for conservation are identified followed by first-order recommendations for biodiversity-based strategies for reinstating nature to achieve a resilient, biodiverse city of Kolkata.