Local Bodies In India Research Articles

Gender Quota and Women’s Participation in Rural Local Bodies in India: The Context, Constraints and Consequences

Gender quota in democratic institutions is now widely regarded as a tested tool to promote gender justice despite limitations. In this article, an attempt has been made to capture and analyse in the light of secondary source material including my own small study in one of the Indian States, West Bengal, on the impact of reservation of seats for women as elected women representatives in rural local government in India, with special reference to the challenges experienced by them. It has been argued that, despite a number of inherent structural constraints, women elected leaders have been able to prove their competence to run the institutions of governance and to bring about positive change in the agenda of governance and development. It has also been suggested that there is a need for a much more proactive role of the state which has created space for women through an amendment of the Constitution.

Market-based Financing Through Municipal Bond in India: Investor’s Checklist Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

This paper aims to analyze the investor’s perspective toward municipal bonds and to inspect the success potential of municipal bonds in India from 2010 to 2020. The research’s conceptual model is drawn using PLS-SEM for the factors impacting investor decisions toward investment in bonds issued by urban local bodies in India. Results show that “credit rating,” “yields,” “tax benefit,” and “financial soundness” significantly affect the choice of investment in municipal bonds by retail investors. However, “transparency,” “liquidity,” and “investor awareness” are not found to be significant. Bond issuers can use the model to recognize the factors impacting investors’ prioritization for investments in municipal bonds, which can also help them target a bigger investor base. The study relies on subjective data provided by retail investors and may not be the clear-cut performance indicators. The limitation of the time frame for the study over 10 years will restrict the results specifically for that period. The importance of retail investors in developing countries’ municipal bond markets has been overlooked. The study’s key contribution will be to assist and empower new retail investors to have confidence in participating in this fixed-income financial instrument.

Technology Use by Urban Local Bodies in India to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article provides a comprehensive review of the use of information and communication technologies by urban local bodies in India in their war against the COVID-19 pandemic based on a detailed survey conducted during the pandemic period. India reported its first case of COVID-19 in late January, and government authorities have been on a war footing since then to curb the spread of the virus. Following a tradition that has been instilled within government agencies since the Modi Government came into power in 2014, local, state, and central government agencies turned to a widespread use of geospatial, surveillance and information and communication technologies as part of a strategy to monitor and track movement, manage individuals, and enforce quarantine norms. However, several important questions arise from the blind use of technology that remain unanswered. The use of technology by government agencies raise key questions on privacy, civil liberties, and suitability and viability of their use.

Establishing metropolitan governance and local governance simultaneously: Lesson from India's 74th Constitutional amendment act

Metropolitan regions are an increasingly relevant scale for political decision making and determining urban utilities and services functions. Metropolitan institutions functions with autonomous local governments, parastatal organisations and public-private enterprises. Therefore, it is always difficult to network between the decentralised municipal governments and create a hierarchy of planning, development and inter-local collaboration for governmental services delivery. One may expect that output legitimacy or legitimacy by performance is the dominant source for legitimacy in metropolitan governance. This paper examines India's metropolitan governance, its functioning under the decentralisation, the varied implementation of the act by states, its relevant comparison with global cases, and the opportunity of efficient collaboration between decentralised local governments within a metropolitan governance mechanism. The 74th Constitutional amendment act (74th CAA) 1992 provides the necessary legislative backdrop for decentralisation and establishment of the local governments or urban local bodies in India. The amendment act also pave ways for institutionalisation of metropolitan governance by establishing metropolitan/regional development authorities. The purpose of this metropolitan institution is to establish a framework of democratic governance, provide infrastructure services and improve regional prosperity. However, this contribution of the amendment act is not highlighted much in literature. The paper narrates the functioning of the metropolitan institution for the integration among the decentralised local governments and the relevant issues from two empirical evidences. It divulges the mechanisms of establishing metropolitan governance and decentralisation in India. In the process, it showcases the contribution of 74th CAA towards the establishment of the metropolitan governance. It also outlines the potential and challenges present in this dual system.

Opportunities and struggles of decentralized governance reform for urban municipalities in India

The most important policy argument concerning urban governance in India is the enactment of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA), 1992. This Act gives constitutional recognition to urban local bodies in India, namely, municipal corporations, municipalities and nagar panchayats and empowers them to function as institution of self-governance. However, the implementation of the Act has not taken place in totality. The reform mainly favored large urban local bodies such as municipal corporations and the concerns on functional autonomy and finances of smaller urban local bodies remained ignored. Therefore, this study highlights the present situation of local governance structure in the small and medium urban local bodies. This study examines, from a micro perspective, the capacities of small and medium urban local bodies in governing, managing and financing of urban services for the local development.

Investigations on fine fraction of aged municipal solid waste recovered through landfill mining: Case study of three dumpsites from India.

Reclamation of the dumps/landfills having huge quantities of decades-old garbage (aged waste or legacy waste) in an environmentally sound manner is one of the major challenges faced by the developing nations in general and in particular by urban local bodies in India. The article presents the feasibility of landfill mining operation specifically to recover soil-like material at old dumpsites of India for re-use in geotechnical applications. Aged municipal solid waste was collected from three dumpsites of India and initial tests were conducted on the soil-like material of the municipal solid waste. Initial tests results of grain size distribution, compositional analysis, organic content, total dissolved solids, elemental analysis, heavy metal analysis and colour of the leached water from finer fraction of aged municipal solid waste are presented. From the preliminary investigation, it was found that organic content in 15-20-year-old dumpsites varies between 5%-12%. The total dissolved solids ranges between 1.2%-1.5%. The dark coloured water leaching out from aged waste, with reference to local soil, is one of the objectionable parameters and depends on the organic content. The concentration of heavy metals of the finer fraction were compared with the standards. It was found that copper, chromium and cadmium are present at elevated levels in all the three dumpsites. The study concluded that the bulk of the soil-like material from aged municipal solid waste landfills can be used as cover material for landfills at the same site. However, some treatment in terms of washing, thermal treatment, blending with local soil, biological treatment, etc., is required before it can be re-used in other geotechnical applications.

GIS use by an urban local body as part of e-governance in India

ABSTRACTGovernment organizations in the developing world have been at the forefront of ongoing reforms that have prompted their use of GIS and other information and communication technologies for urban governance. However, there have been very few examinations of GIS spatial knowledge construction in a non-Western context. Particularly, very little is known about the growing and varying use of GIS and spatial information by urban local bodies in India in the midst of India’s changing urban governance culture. This article presents an in-depth examination of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), one of India’s leading urban local bodies as the corporation implements e-governance strategies including the use of GIS and spatial information. Drawing from Critical GIS literature and GIS implementation and diffusion literature, this article uses an integrated approach to examine SMC’s GIS spatial knowledge construction. The article demonstrates that in the case of SMC, GIS knowledge construction is not only shaped by SMC’s proactive role in positioning itself with the national government’s priorities and agendas, but also by the presence of powerful actors who play an instrumental role in introducing change and innovation. This article is part of a larger project that aims to investigate the process of GIS spatial knowledge construction situated in contemporary India.

An analysis of funding of local bodies in urban and rural areas

The paper aims at briefing of the allocation as well as sources of funds of the local bodies in India. The local bodies of the three tier system of Indian government can be bifurcated into centre, state and local self governing bodies. The historical background traces the history of the governance. The various sources of both rural and urban system have been discussed. The role of finance commission has also been explained. Also the coustitutional provisions have been enumerated in the present study.

Financing of Urban Local Bodies in India

The rising level of urbanisation in India draws attention to inadequate infrastructure levels in urban areas. While many factors play a role in infrastructure development, this paper examines the financial requirements for such growth. The paper examines the broad fiscal position of urban local bodies in India and the arrangement under different five year plans and various Commissions – central and state. Considering India’s growth prospects on the horizon, and the ensuing financing requirements, this paper eventually makes some suggestions in an attempt to enhance the municipal bond financing market and contribute towards infrastructural development.

An Analytical Study of State Control and Supervision over Local Bodies in India

An Analytical Study of State Control and Supervision over Local Bodies in India

Institutional innovations for urban infrastructural development: The Indian scenario

Empowering urban local bodies in India to take up development responsibilities by using financial intermediaries to tap capital markets has serious implications for the pattern of urban development and organisation of space within cities. The policy of liberating the local bodies from government regulatory and legislative controls may oblige the former to come under the direct or indirect control of corporate and financial institutions, resulting in dilution of their social commitments. It is important to keep watch on the process by which cities are segmented and basic amenities are denied to the poor because of this growing dependence on private resources for infrastructural investment.

State Finance Commissions and Urban Local Bodies in India: An Assessment of their Recommendations

State Finance Commissions and Urban Local Bodies in India: An Assessment of their Recommendations

Rationalization of Urban Local Bodies in India

Rationalization of Urban Local Bodies in India