Blogs By Our Fellows

What makes a city respond well to a crisis? Bengaluru already knows the answer, because we have lived both the failures and the successes. When the city flooded in 2022, it was not chaos alone that defined the response. Rescue teams and civic agencies were able to identify which pockets were submerged, which apartment basements […]

What happens when participation isn’t symbolic, but structural? In the climate conversation, we often hear who suffers first or suffers most. But often left out and equally important is who responds first and how. The burden of climate disruption has long been heavier on the margins: low-income neighbourhoods, informal workers, vulnerable geographies. But what if […]

The signs of climate disruption in cities are no longer abstract. We have seen how Bengaluru experiences this crisis; unevenly, and often through gaps in governance, funding, and execution. We’ve also been familiar with how climate action hinges not just on what’s planned, but on who carries it, and how long they stay with it. […]

Climate action often begins with urgency. Plans are announced, budgets committed, and pilots launched. But somewhere between the drawing board and the footpath, momentum wanes. Policies don’t fail for lack of intent, they stall when intent isn’t carried through. In governance, this drop-off isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it’s just the difference between someone who stays […]

Nationally, it is seen that the non-attainment cities are working towards improving air quality through various measures targeting several sectors. The control measures range from the odd-even vehicle scheme targeting the transport sector in Delhi, deployment of anti-smog guns in the construction and road dust sector in Noida, Gurugram, and Faridabad, expansion of CNG in […]

Source:https://citizenmatters.in/dehradun-citizens-forum-mayoral-dialogue-local-governance/, 2025 After spending the first few weeks of the fellowship immersed in legal frameworks and state-level policies, I found myself at a crossroads. The gap between policy and practice was clear, as I’d concluded in the earlier blog, but I didn’t want this to become yet another story of how things don’t work. I […]