Sustainable development goals and Indian cities: Inclusion, diversity and citizen rights

Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda, and Climate Change

Ashok Kumar

PART I: Sustainable Development, Climate Risk and Resilience

2. Climate Risk and Resilience of Indian Cities

Anjana Devanand, Subimal Ghosh and Pradipta Banerji

3. Indian Cities on the Ladder of Sustainable Development: What Can Make it a Success Story?

Rajasree Ray

PART II: Rights, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Quality

4. What is Right for the City or Right to the City: Criticality of Citizenship and Governance

M. Satish Kumar

5. Cities and the Dilemmas of Diversity

Suzanne Speak and Ashok Kumar

6. New Empirically Driven Approaches to Inclusive Human Development in Cities

Luís M.A. Bettencourt

7. Judging the Quality of Urbanisation in Cities and Towns of India

Arup Mitra and Jay Prakash Nagar

PART III: Housing and Shelter

8. Incongruence between Housing Policy Intentions and Housing Needs

Ashok Kumar

9. Universal Access to Shelter in Indian Cities

P.S.N. Rao

PART IV: Carers of Indian Cities

10. Mapping India’s Urban Planners

Sanjeev Vidyarthi and Ashok Kumar

PART V: Interconnections and Interdependencies

11. Epilogue: Our Interconnected and Interdependent Future in the World of Pandemics

Ashok Kumar

This book critically examines Sustainable Development Goals and cities in developing countries with special reference to climate change, inclusion, diversity, and citizen rights in India. It discusses global issues of sustainability and climate change in the context of rapid urbanisation and focuses on the role of equitable and just processes of urban development aimed at protecting social diversity, redeeming natural environments and, pursuing economic growth geared towards improving the quality of life.

The volume looks at the nature of opportunities and future challenges presented to cities and codifies ways to transcend these. It explores key themes such as mitigation of risks from heat island effects, devastating floods, and extreme weather events like droughts; improvement of air quality; compact development; reduction in urban sprawl and protection of agriculturally productive lands for long-term food security; growth of small and medium towns; protection of rural landscapes; access to basic services like water sanitation, primary education, and housing; protection of forest and green spaces for the conservation of biodiversity; renewable energy sources; enhancement of mobility through efficient public transit systems like metro systems or suburban rail; effective and equitable governance for the vulnerable; balanced regional development; inclusive human development; securing the right to the city; and climate risk and resilience. Based on new research and data presented by global experts on climate change and sustainability, this book advances multiple discourses of sustainable urbanisation by connecting social challenges such as democracy, equity, diversity, and inclusion to create an enabling environment for a better future for cities in the developing world.

Lucid and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of urban studies, urban planning, development studies, sociology, public policy and administration, political sociology, city studies, geography, architecture, and economics and also to professionals and NGOs.