Pune

Water is life because plants and animals cannot live without water. Water is needed to ensure food security, feed livestock, take up industrial production and to conserve the biodiversity and environment.  Although, India is not a water poor country, due to growing human population, severe neglect and over-exploitation of this resource, water is becoming a scarce commodity.  While this is a growing concern all over the world, India is most vulnerable because of the growing demand and in-disciplined lifestyle.  This calls for immediate attention by the stakeholders to make sustainable use of the available water resources to ensure better quality of lives.Read More

This report on “Dynamic Ground Water Resources of Maharashtra (2004)” presents the groundwater estimates for the State of Maharashtra as computed by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA) based on the guidelines given by the Groundwater Estimation Committee (GEC-1997) constituted by Ministry of Water Resources (Government of India). The report gives the groundwater potential of different districts of the State on watershed basis and also information about the semi-critical, critical and over-exploited watersheds.

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This report on Indian urban infrastructure and services is an outcome of the High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) chaired by Isher Judge Ahluwalia set up by the Ministry of Urban Development in May, 2008 for estimating the investment requirement for urban infrastructure services. The report documents the nature of the urbanisation challenges facing India. Its central message is that urbanisation is not an option. It is an inevitable outcome of the faster rates of growth to which the economy has now transited. Indeed, urbanisation is itself a process that will support growth. The Committee has made recommendations on how to deal with these challenges of urbanisation.

The Committee has held several meetings with officials from the Government of India, state governments and local governments and also met with academicians and other stakeholders such as Asian Development Bank with interest and expertise in Indian urban issues.

The report argues that the challenge of managing urbanisation will have to be addressed through a combination of increased investment, strengthening the framework for governance and financing, and a comprehensive capacity building programme at all levels of government. The Committee has projected very large investment requirements for providing public services to specified norms and also supporting the growth process. The challenge of financing these investments is inextricably linked with the challenge of governing the cities and towns of India.

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