Urban water and wastewater management are relatively under-studied subjects in India. The Indian urban space has been understood in an undifferentiated manner, which ignores the specificities deriving from the stage of urban development, the sources of water, as also the diverse nature of aquifers characterizing urban settlements.
A close examination of Bihar's recent growth experience reveals several paradoxes. These are paradoxes only with reference to certain orthodox positions widely held in development economics. Resolving these paradoxes helps formulate a more incisive understanding of what bottlenecks lie in the way of eliminating poverty in Bihar and opens the way for working out solutions to the problem.
India's groundwater dependence and the crises of depletion and contamination of groundwater resources require the development of a robust groundwater dependence framework. Understanding the challenges of developing a groundwater governance framework for regions of extensive groundwater development versus relatively less-developed areas of groundwater development is important.
The Twelfth Plan proposes a fundamental change in the principles, approach and strategies of water management in India. This paradigm shift was the outcome of a new and inclusive process of plan formulation, which saw the coming together of practitioners and professionals from government, academia, industry and civil society to draft the Plan.
The MGNREGA, the flagship rural employment scheme of the Government of India, was launched in February 2006. It is perhaps the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world. Six years after its implementation, the basic principles and high potential of the MGNREGA are well established.
The report was prepared by Dr. Mihir Shah, Member, Planning Commission to examine ways in which the Operational Guidelines of MGNREGA could be revised.
With the long awaited approval of the post-Parthasarathy Committee common guidelines for watershed development finally being given in February 2008, it is time now to push hard for actualising the suggested radical reforms at the cutting edge level of implementation.
