Smart Responses to COVID-19: How Indian Cities are Fighting through Action and Innovation (Volume I)’,  a Smart Cities Mission report compiled by WRI India spotlights how 25 smart cities are combating the pandemic through innovative measures across 5 key areas.

Informal sector holds the key to Indian economy’s revival post-Covid. Government must have plans in place to help them prosper.

With India in its third phase of lockdown, and with the loosening of travel restrictions, the question now is: how will this pandemic impact people's movements and activities going forward?

The struggling bus transport sector has received a massive blow due to the Covid-19 crisis. It is estimated that the bus transport sector will lose around Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2020 due to no and low-ridership amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Ajay Nagpure, Nitya Kaushik, June 05, 2020, News 18

With new studies linking Covid-19 risk to bad air, India must collect and systematically study data from before, during and after the lockdown, and develop long-term strategies to reduce both indoor and outdoor pollution.

Across the world, cities are using this opportunity to rebuild smarter and more efficient public system. Meanwhile, India is witnessing increased use of personal vehicles.

New mobility companies, such as operators of ride-hailing apps, vehicle-sharing networks, and route planners, are poised to become a more sought-after option in the post-lockdown commute.

Dr. OP Agarwal (CEO, WRI India) focuses on how transport systems must be so designed that passengers are at a safe enough distance from each other.

To kick start our economy while adhering to social distancing, it is important for us to be open to new ideas, adapt smartly and reinvent our urban mobility system writes Dr. OP Agarwal (CEO, WRI India).

Public spaces bind communities, they are the lungs of a city, but the current reality has nudged people to question the impact of public spaces on their health and well-being.

As social distancing continues into the foreseeable future, streamlining other aspects of metro operation such as crowd management, last-mile connectivity, and air-conditioning and ventilation will be vital.

Madhav Pai writes about how in the new normal in Mumbai, social distancing will demand that only 50 people commute at any given time in a 74-seat coach. In the new system, trains will have to halt a little longer at each station to allow people to alight and board smoothly in a queue.

Amit Bhatt writes about how transport is a derived demand, which means that people and goods don’t use it just for its sake, but for what it produces. Delhi metro, he notes, will have to boost capacity six times to keep passengers safe.

Rejeet Mathews and Akanksha Gupta write that it is now time for us to construct cities in a sustainable and equitable way, in tune with the local climate as well as the immunity, health and well-being of its people.

OP Agarwal (CEO, WRI India) and Kunal Kumar (Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission) write that in the ongoing pandemic, India has managed to keep the number of those infected relatively low, despite its high population density.

Amit Bhatt writes on how as India moves forward towards an electric journey; it needs a strategy based on its unique mobility characteristics. Amit Bhatt writes on how as India moves forward towards an electric journey; it needs a strategy based on its unique mobility characteristics.

WRI India’s aqueduct tools highlight how India ranks 13th for overall water stress and ‘has more than three times the population of the other 17 extremely highly stressed countries combined’ — which includes arid regions in West Asia and North Africa.

Amit Bhatt points out how Gurugram has tried to redesign some of its dangerous intersections but these trial designs barely lasted. So, why is safety, in road design, being ignored?

MoHUA, WRI India and Bernard van Leer Foundation launched the ITCN-Urban95 India Challenge – an open call for all Indian cities to plan and design cities with an infant, toddler and caregiver-centric (ITCN) approach.