Policy

Institutional innovations in land development and planning like public–private partnerships, negotiable developer obligations, and flexible zoning regulations have taken centre stage in policy discussions. Given this, an unprecedented large-scale land pooling policy has been enacted in Delhi to facilitate planning and development by making landowners partners in development. The policy is proposed to be implemented in land pooling zones by sector-based planning. Although the policy proposes a paradigm shift in its approach by empowering private sector and landowners, rigidity in land use distribution and development control regulations at the sector level make implementation difficult. The development of city-level commercial and public/semi-public facilities is difficult in the sector sizes proposed by the Delhi Development Authority. Alternatives would be the optimisation of “developable area” in sectors and making land use regulations and development control norms open to negotiations with private developers or landowners.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic stimulus packages announced by the national government are analysed and an attempt is made to identify the plausible fiscal and monetary policy coordination. When credit-linked economic stimulus packages are partial in its impact on growth recovery, an accommodative fiscal policy stance in the forthcoming Union Budget 2022–23 is crucial for the economy.

This article reflects on the disaster resilience responsibility framework within the National Disaster Management Plan, 2019. It argues that the DRRF lacks clarity as a guidance document for the central ministries identified as nodal agencies for addressing individual hazards. The nodal ministries and agencies require guidance for understanding how their existing epistemologies can evolve to speak to the social conceptualisation of disasters in order to carry out tasks assigned to them under the DRRF. It goes on to suggest that the plan can provide this guidance and facilitate this epistemological transition by creating new knowledge spaces for these nodal ministries/institutions.

The public distribution system in India is a major instrument for achieving the goal of “Zero Hunger.” Despite the vast amounts of resources spent, the PDS suffers from several inefficiencies largely attributable to the monopoly of agents involved in the last-mile delivery of grains. To address this issue, several state governments in India have started implementing a novel intervention called portability. This intervention offers beneficiaries the choice of when and where they can avail of their food entitlements while the government controls what and how much. We use detailed and large-scale programme data from Andhra Pradesh to analyse the uptake of portability among the beneficiaries and identify its underlying drivers.

With rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, the problem of water pollution in India has escalated dramatically over the last few decades. The regulatory apparatus, has, however, lagged behind. Major gaps in standard setting, including lack of standards for ambient water quality, poor monitoring and weak enforcement by the pollution control boards are the major proximate causes. Controlling water pollution will require a concerted effort to address these regulatory failures.