Urban Governance

Yes, blame the state

From sanitation and transport to industrial innovation, the state shapes the systems and incentives that determine public behaviour and business performance.

Best of Opinion: Tax reform must be guided by long-term economic objectives

Today's editorials and columns examine foreign portfolio outflows, municipal governance, capital-gains taxation, RBI liquidity management and a book exploring the science of brain health

Building empowered cities

Strong local governments are essential for sustained growth

Best of BS Opinion: Modest charges will enable healthy growth of UPI

Today's Best of BS Opinion weighs UPI's funding model, freight corridor gains, India's AI strategy, Delhi's student housing crisis and J S Deepak's memoir

Best of BS Opinion: Mining reforms risk undermining fiscal federalism

Today's pieces examine mining reforms and fiscal federalism, India's need for a caregiving policy, stronger bank boards, urban governance and lessons in crisis leadership

Why India's cities need stronger municipal governance and funding

Fragmented authority, weak municipal finances and limited devolution continue to hamper service delivery, prompting fresh calls to strengthen city governments across India

Best of BS Opinion: G7 Summit delivers surprisingly constructive outcomes

Today's opinions examine the G7 summit, a changing US Federal Reserve, Karnataka's development priorities, India's infrastructure model and Indira Jaising's constitutional journey

Best of BS Opinion: Reforming institutions, governance for a changing India

Today's Opinion page examines fertiliser subsidy reform, urban governance failures, market regulation, industrial financing and antibiotic resistance through the lens of institutional accountability

Best of BS Opinion: Can India's AI gap be a blessing in disguise?

Today's Opinion page examines AI-driven market exuberance, Dharmendra Pradhan's political prospects, the growing importance of E-E-A-T, and India's deepening urban governance challenge

Indian cities need governance, planning and finance reforms: Rajiv Gauba

India must overhaul urban governance, planning, and finance to support rapid urbanisation and achieve Viksit Bharat by 2047, says NITI Aayog's Rajiv Gauba

Indian cities don't lack infrastructure, what they lack is civic trust

While our cities need investment, they also need something harder to build and easier to ignore to become truly livable

Best of BS Opinion: New GDP series welcome, but more needs to be done

A new GDP base year, US-Israel strikes on Iran, India's urban planning crisis, and artificial intelligence's impact on the IT sector dominate today's Opinion page

Density alone will not make India's cities globally competitive yet

India is economically urban but not productively so. The Economic Survey flags how weak institutions, not density itself, are holding back cities from realising agglomeration gains

India is getting richer, but its cities are not getting more livable

India isn't short of ideas, expertise or funds. Our cities are struggling because they are treated as outposts of an empire: administered by unaccountable viceroys

Economic Survey flags supply-side gaps hurting India's urban potential

The Economic Survey 2025-26 says India's cities drive growth but suffer from daily stress due to poor planning, overuse of private transport and fragmented governance

Best of BS Opinion: Duopoly risks, urban woes and global disruptions

From Vodafone Idea's AGR moratorium and concerns over telecom duopoly to urban governance failures, global trade disruptions and India's openness to capital, here is today's opinion newsletter

India's urban crisis deepens as states choke city-level governance

Cities are crumbling, but the local bodies that govern them remain powerless

India's cities face governance gaps due to delayed urban elections: Report

A new study has found that 61 per cent of urban local governments in 17 states saw delayed polls in recent years, citing disempowered state election panels and undefined electoral timelines

Govt aims to empower urban staff: Khattar at Capacity for Change conference

The conference was organised by the National Institute of Urban Affairs, under the aegis of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)

Urban Governance Management

Earlier tourism haven Cape Town and now, IT hub Bangalore. Both show how urban governance management is to key to solving key crises like water. > >