Sustainable Development Goals and Indian Cities: Inclusion, Diversity and Citizen Rights

1. Introduction: Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda and Climate ChangeAshok KumarPART I: Sustainable Development, Climate Risk, and Resilience2. Climate Risk and Resilience of Indian CitiesAnjana Devanand, Subimal Ghosh and Pradipta Banerji3. Indian Cities on the Ladder of Sustainable Development: What Can Make it a Success Story?Rajasree RayPART II: Rights, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Quality4. What is Right for the City or Right to the City: Criticality of Citizenship and GovernanceM. Satish Kumar5. Cities and the Dilemmas of DiversitySuzanne Speak and Ashok Kumar6. New Empirically Driven Approaches to Inclusive Human Development in CitiesLuís M.A. Bettencourt 7. Judging the Quality of Urbanisation in Cities and Towns of India Arup Mitra and Jay Prakash NagarPART III: Housing and Shelter 8. Incongruence between Housing Policy Intentions and Housing NeedsAshok Kumar9. Universal Access to Shelter in Indian CitiesP.S.N. Rao PART IV: Carers of Indian Cities10. Mapping India's Urban PlannersSanjeev Vidyarthi and Ashok Kumar PART V: Interconnections and Interdependencies11. Epilogue: Our Interconnected and Interdependent Future in the World of PandemicsAshok Kumar

This book critically examines SDGs and cities in developing countries with special reference to climate change, inclusion, diversity and citizen rights in India. It discusses global issues of sustainability and climate change in the context of rapid urbanisation and focuses on the role of equitable and just processes of urban development aimed at protecting social diversity, redeeming natural environments and pursuing economic growth geared towards improving the quality of life. The volume looks at the nature of opportunities and future challenges presented to cities, and codifies ways to transcend these. It explores key themes such as mitigation of risks from heat island effects, devastating floods, and extreme weather events like droughts; improvement of air quality; compact development; reduction in urban sprawl and protection of agriculturally productive lands for long-term food security; growth of small and medium towns; protection of rural landscapes; access to basic services like water sanitation, primary education and housing; protection of forest and green spaces for the conservation of biodiversity; renewable energy sources; enhancement of mobility through efficient public transit systems like metro systems or suburban rail; effective and equitable governance for the vulnerable; balanced regional development; inclusive human development; securing the right to the city; and climate risk and resilience. Based on new research and data presented by global experts on climate change and sustainability, this book advances multiple discourses of sustainable urbanisation by connecting social challenges such as democracy, equity, diversity and inclusion to create an enabling environment for a better future for cities in the developing world. Lucid and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of urban studies, urban planning, development studies, sociology, public policy and administration, political sociology, city studies, geography, architecture, economics as also to professionals and NGOs.