For the first time, the total number of slums existing in all the cities of the country will be enumerated in the current census exercise.
In 2001, the slum census was carried out for only those cities in which the population was 50,000 or more.

Soon, it may be time to go “on location” of films shot by legendary filmmaker late Satyajit Ray. The tourism ministry, in association with the West Bengal government, has decided to take up “Satyajit Ray Trail” as a mega project on a priority basis. It entails identifying and developing the exact spots where the Oscar-winning filmmaker shot the scenes for his films celebrated and discussed across the world.

The tourism ministry’s plan to teach autorickshaw and taxi drivers the basics in mannerisms and English in the wake of the Common-wealth Games seems to have run out of takers. The ministry maintained that the autorickshaw drivers were not coming forward as a result of which a very less number of such drivers have been trained so far.

More than 50 per cent of the cities (or urban local bodies), covered under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), have been given “investment grade rating” in the area of urban infrastructure by top rating agencies like Crisil, ICRA and FITCH.

India is likely to join the league of five developed nations, who have a housing start up index (HSUI) of their own, by the end of 2010. The work on preparing a database for the index has begun and, once it is started, the indices will be released on a quarterly basis. The housing index is viewed as a key indicator of economic activity in the

It has been nearly a month since the common reciprocal agreement on unrestricted plying of buses in national capital region cities of Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan was signed.

After the sanitation ratings, it is time for the cities to look out for the “surveillance ratings” being carried out by rating agencies for various urban local bodies (ULBs) in the country. These ratings are crucial as they may be used by the cities to leverage funds from financial institutions, both national and international.

Several government buildings in the Lutyens Delhi have been asked to remove the unsightly wires and other fittings, like air-coolers and air-conditioners to spruce up the aesthetic quotient of the area in the wake of the Commonwealth Games-2010.