Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Identification of 500 Cities under AMRUT, 24/11/2016. 500 cities have been selected for coverage under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). The list of cities is at Annexure-I. The details of State Annual Action Plans (SAAPs) approved and funds released against them during 2015-16 and 2016-17 is at Annexure-II.

India has witnessed rapid economic growth in the last two decades. One of the main factors in sustaining such accelerated economic growth has been the investment and development of critical infrastructure such as road, railways, ports and civil aviation.

This Sustainable Urbanization Strategy outlines how UNDP is responding to rapid urbanization in developing countries and its consequences for sustainable development. It outlines how UNDP will support countries and cities, building upon its past and current work on urbanization.

Reducing water and power use by half and promoting renewable energy and public transport, will be the key elements of the government's urban development strategy for the next 20 years, according to a report.

The momentum of urbanization and its impacts are so massive that we must face up to this trend. In view of the existing cognitive, technical, economic and institutional path dependencies, a policy of business as usual – i.e. an unstructured, quasi-automatic urbanization – would lead to a non-sustainable ‘world cities society’.

The origin of cities can be traced back to the river valley civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley and China. Initially these settlements were largely dependent upon agriculture; however, with the growth in population the city size increased and economic activity transformed to trading . The process of urbanization gained impetus with the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago and accelerated in the 1990s with globalization and consequent relaxation in market economy. (Guest Editorial)

Four Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai Bangalure and Kolkata at the bottom of a global liveability survey of 181 cities prepared jointly by the Barcelona-based University of Navarrara’s IESE B

The African Economic Outlook 2016 presents the continent’s current state of affairs and forecasts its situation for the coming two years. This annual report examines Africa’s performance in crucial areas: macroeconomics, financing, trade policies and regional integration, human development, and governance.

The analysis of urban development of the past twenty years presented in this maiden edition of the World Cities Report shows, with compelling evidence, that there are new forms of collaboration and cooperation, planning, governance, finance and learning that can sustain positive change.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Conversion of City Waste into Compost Manure, 26/04/2016. The Government of India has approved a policy on promotion of City Compost. The salient features of the policy are at Annexure.

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