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The new town concept originated from the ideal city model of Ebenezer Howard and expanded from Europe to America in the 1900s. It has reemerged as a site for accommodating population from highly dense urban centers of China and India since the early twenty-first century. The massive infusion of public and private investments has enabled the emergence of new towns in China and India as planned centers of world-class residential, commercial, and work spaces. The rational goal of de-densifying the crowded central cities can lead to a more balanced distribution and use of resources across the metropolitan regions with more spacious housing for the growing middle class in China and India. Yet it is a relatively small number of the wealthy and mobile people who have turned out to be beneficiaries of the mostly high-end housing and well-developed transport infrastructure that evokes social and economic polarizations and political contestations. In this chapter, we will examine: (1) how these top-down planned and developed new towns have reshaped the urbanization process of the megacities in India and China, (2) the socio-spatial influence of these settlements on the central city as well as the surrounding rural areas, and (3) the expected and actual spatial users (both old and new residents) of the new towns? We address these questions by organizing two pairs of cases in a systematic framework: Anting New Town and Thames Town in Shanghai, China and Rajarhat New Town and the Kolkata West International City (KWIC) near Kolkata, India.

Purpose – This work offers an investigation of the planning and implementation of climate-adaptation and vulnerability-reduction strategies in coastal mega-cities of the Global South, utilizing Kolkata, India, as a case study. This research is designed to identify factors that aid the implementation of climate-centered action in resource-constrained environments of developing countries and provide a set of policy guidelines reflecting best practices.

Methodology/approach – This work draws principally upon analysis of semistructured field interviews conducted in Kolkata, India, during December 2010 and January 2011. The findings are informed by additional data sources as well, including field observations, informal dialogues and meetings, and a review of secondary literature.

Findings – This work identifies several key success factors, including organizational restructuring, resource redistribution, technological innovation, use of external consultants, coupling of climate and development projects, and integration of climate approaches into infrastructure projects.

Research limitations – This research draws upon Kolkata as a case study; thus the work's broader applicability and utility depend on the similarities between the situation in Kolkata and that of other urban areas. As a local study, this work may also offer fewer insights for regional and national policy.

Originality and value – This work fills a timely, unmet need for a greater understanding of climate-adaptation action in the context of cities of the developing world. The extensive use of personal interviews provides unique insights into the minds of planning officials and professionals and draws upon their practical experience to draw lessons for a wide range of similar environments.

One major impact of demonetisation is rise of cashless or digital transactions. The extension of the transition from a cash-based to a cashless economy has expanded even more now, based on the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter discusses the various electronic payment methods used by the people, the frequency of using these methods and also to examine the reasons of changing habits in using electronic modes of payments. This study is both theoretical and empirical in nature, based on both primary and secondary data. Digitalising rural and poor population is much in talks but earlier literature did not acknowledge the status of slums and its inhabitants. Slum dwellers are the ones to be in the margin, and therefore are subject to more societal sufferings. In the context of female population particularly, the mechanism of urbanisation and increment in urban slums are subject to unique causes and unique consequences, and still these challenges are greatly underexplored by earlier literature in this field. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to find out the schemes, achievements and challenges for the cashless transaction practised by the female slum dwellers. To be extremely explicit, the sample area consists of two biggest slums of Kolkata and 100 female respondents are inquired for this study, taking 50 from each slum. For analysing the collected data, descriptive statistics tools and percentage analysis have been used. This chapter will also analyse India's gradual transition towards a cashless economy. Through the examination of digitalisation of slum dwellers, this study also attempts to identify whether digital modes result in empowerment of these women, of any kind. By paying a visit in the discussion of women empowerment, this chapter wants to revisit the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2015, that embodies a roadmap for progress which leaves no one behind. The questions impacting achievement of SDG through women empowerment may not seem of utmost concern during the current situation but is equally important and needs to be discussed on a platform of its own.

It is recognised that environmental air pollution is one of the global problems and is a common problem for both developing as well as developed countries. In the era of globalisation, it is the most important global environmental issue. In general, urban air quality is becoming vulnerable especially in the developing countries due to adopting various developmental schemes. Air pollution problem in Kolkata, capital city of West Bengal, is under serious for a long day. As per guidelines of World Health Organization, for residential areas, air pollution level in Kolkata is considerably higher than the standard enumerated. There are several types of air pollutants which are continuously exposing the air of Kolkata. West Bengal pollution control board (WBPCB) has been monitoring ambient air quality (AAQ) for the parameters viz. suspected particulate matters (SPM), respiratory particulate matters (RPM), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and lead (Pb) in Kolkata throughout the years. Present study has been designed to determine the vertical floor-wise air quality status of the city of Kolkata and the seasonal variation of the pollutants over the consecutive years from 2011 to 2017. It is demonstrated that the air pollution is the highest in the winter due to dry weather, second is festive season followed by winter due to heavy movement of vehicles and pedestrians for festival shoppings as well as pandel hoppings and then next is summer. But coming to the point of rainy season, this is the lowest due to wetted air or wind of monsoon. This chapter attempts to understand the long-run trend of air pollution as the periodical average value suggests.

This chapter deals with an important but neglected aspect of female labor force participation (FLFP) in urban India. Contemporary literature typically focuses on the entire urban sector and ignores one important aspect of urban living – the slums and its dwellers. This study fills that critical gap by examining two different household surveys side-by-side: a primary survey of households living in slums and slum-rehabilitated colonies, and the nationally representative Indian Human Development survey-II. This study brings outs a comparative picture of nature/type of FLFP and its various correlates from both slum and non-slum areas of three metro cities of India, viz. Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. It further explores the similarities and the differences of the correlates for FLFP among the slum clusters of these cities. It is found that despite being poorer and marginalized, the slum dwelling women’s LFP rate is not extra-ordinarily high vis-á-vis their non-slum urban counterparts. In slums, a higher proportion of women are engaged in self-employment (including family business) and casual employments (includes domestic helps), whereas in non-slum areas relatively more women are engaged in regular salaried jobs. Regression analysis identifies correlates that have similar effects, but with different intensity, across-the-board – relationship between education and FLFP reflects a flat-bottom J-shaped pattern; being married, higher child dependency ratio and household heads with higher education significantly constrain women’s work choice; strong income effect of other household members earning on FLFP, but asset holding has no bearing. However, there are other factors that affect FLFP differently in slums and non-slum areas. Policy prescriptions are drawn.

The Gangetic delta, sustaining the Sundarbans mangrove forest at the apex of the Bay of Bengal is recognized as one of the most diversified and productive ecosystems in the Indian subcontinent. The deltaic lobe is unique for its wilderness, mangrove gene pool and tiger habitat. However, due to intense industrial activities in the upstream zone, and several anthropogenic factors, the aquatic phase in the western part of the deltaic complex is exposed to pollution from domestic sewage and industrial effluents leading to serious impacts on biota. The presence of Haldia port-cum-industrial complex in the upstream region of the lower Gangetic delta (adjacent to western sector of Indian Sundarbans) has accelerated the pollution problem to a much greater dimension. The organic and inorganic wastes released from industries and urban units contain substantial concentrations of heavy metals. The present article aims to highlight the level of selective heavy metals (zinc, copper, and lead) in the water and muscle of a commercially important shellfish species (Penaeus monodon, commonly known as tiger prawn) collected from two sectors (western and central) in the Indian Sundarbans. Heavy metals are accumulated in the prawn muscle in the following order – zinc > copper > lead – which is similar to the order in the ambient estuarine water. Significant spatial variations of heavy metal concentrations in estuarine water and prawn muscle were observed between the selected sectors, which reflect the adverse impact of intense industrialization, unplanned tourism, and rapid urbanization on the mangrove ecosystem and its biotic community, particularly in the western Indian Sundarbans.

The notion of sustainability broadly builds upon the development of the present without hampering the needs of the future generation. Accordingly, the contemporary development programmes, in general, emphasise on minimising the adverse bearings of climate change and arresting the irreversible ecological degradation following the implementation of the growth-oriented economic models. While such idea of sustainable development is expected to be applied across different sectors, the traditional urban development projects such as the Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns (IDSMT) (1979), the Mega-City Scheme (1993), and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) (2005) focussed mainly on physical infrastructure with inadequate emphasis on the ecological aspects and sustainability. However, with the experiences of globalisation and the negative impact of changing climate, the recent urban development initiatives across the world have gone through considerable redesigning, and the idea of eco-city, compact city, sustainable city, etc., have taken the central place in the project proposals. In this connection, the Smart City Mission (SCM) (2015) of the Government of India has emerged as an important initiative to facilitate improvement in the standard of living along with economic growth through the development of urban infrastructure and integration with intelligent technologies. This chapter attempts to understand how the projects under the SCM have incorporated various ecological aspects to transform the cities into liveable and sustainable ones for the future generation. Using secondary data and carrying out a comparative analysis of selected smart city proposals, this chapter finds that there is still a lack of adequate emphasis on ecological sustainability in many smart city proposals. This chapter suggests revisiting the smart city proposals, and initiatives should be made towards the development of urban areas in a sustainable way.