Urban flooding is the inundation of property in a built environment, particularly in densely populated urban areas, caused by intense rainfall (on impermeable surfaces) which overwhelms the capacity of drainage systems. There has been an increasing trend of urban flood disasters in India over the past several years. The most notable amongst them are Hyderabad in 2000, Ahmedabad in 2001, Delhi in 2002 and 2003, Chennai in 2004, Mumbai in 2005, Surat in 2006, Kolkata in 2007. The most recent devastating ones were Srinagar in 2014 and Chennai in 2015. Causes of increased urban flooding include poor urban planning:

• Land use changes without any regard for proper drainage; for example:
  • surface sealing due to urbanization,
  • deforestation and increased runoff.
  • Indian cities are becoming impervious to water seepage due to hard, non-porous construction material used in built up areas.
• Indiscriminate disposal of solid waste leading to blocked drainage systems.
• Encroachment of the flood plain and thereby obstructing flows.
• Inefficiency or non-maintenance of flood management infrastructure.
• Unmindful construction and encroachment on wetlands. The number of wetlands has reduced to 123 in 2018 from 644 in 1956.

In this context, NDMA issued guidelines on urban flooding which contains following major points

• It designates the Ministry of Urban Development as the Nodal Ministry for Urban Flooding.
• Early Warning System and Communication
  • Create a National Hydro-meteorological Network- for providing early warning in all urban centres.
  • Developing local networks for real-time rainfall data collection with a ‘Local Network Cell’
  • Subdivide Cities/ towns on the basis of watersheds in the IMD headquarters. and develop a protocol for forecasting rainfall for urban areas on the basis of watershed.
• Design and Management of Urban Drainage System
  • A watershed based and ward-based inventory of the existing storm water drainage system to be prepared.
  • Integrated planning and interactions between Water and Solid Waste Management.
  • Other steps like pre-monsoon de-silting of all major drains, rainwater harvesting, Rain Gardens etc. are to be promoted.
• Urban Flood Disaster Risk Management
  • Risk assessment will be carried out with a multi-hazard concept leading to fool proof land use planning.
  • The research should focus on three key areas: risk identification, risk pooling and risk transfer. The risk should focus on both property and people.
  • Identification of potential damage areas, according to the physical characteristics of the area such as land use, topography, drainage area, outfall system and the capacity of the existing storm water drainage system.
  • National Database for Mapping Attributes- The database required for mapping different ward/community level attributes will be made accessible to all ULBs and concerned departments/ agencies/ stakeholders.
• Techno-Legal Regime
  • Storm water drainage concerns will be made a part of all EIA norms.
  • Growth of urban sprawls can be made a part of urban flood management.
• Capacity Development, Awareness Generation and Documentation
  • Urban Flood Education, Institutional & Community Capacity Development, enhanced Role of Civil Society, Awareness on Insurance etc.
  • Role of Public Representatives, Role of Media is also discussed.

Increasing instances of urban flooding calls for better urban planning in accordance with NDMA guidelines to develop sustainable cities.

Despite being outlawed, the 2011 Census reveals that child marriage is rampant in India, with almost one in every three married woman having been wed while she was still under the age of 18 years. Further, according to the NFHS-5, the overall rate of child marriage in India stands at 23.3 percent.

Measures to curb child marriage in India include:

• Legal provisions in the form of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. Further, there are relevant provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 in this regard.
• Conditional cash transfer schemes like Dhanlakshmi, Bhagyalakshmi, etc., which incentivize families to delay their daughters’ marriages.
• Policy Initiatives including the National Plan of Action for Children, 2016, National Policy for Children, 2013, and National Policy for Empowerment of Women, 2016. India is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Despite the above-stated measures, it has not been possible to completely eliminate child marriage in India because of the following reasons:

• Patriarchy: Pressure towards early marriage aims to minimise the dishonour associated with improper female sexual conduct. It is also a means to control the sexuality of females in a patriarchal society.
• Poverty: Girls are perceived as an economic burden and marriage transfers the responsibility to their new family.
• Education: Poor educational opportunities for girls, especially in rural areas, increases girls’ vulnerability to child marriage.
• Ineffective legal and policy reform framework: Ineffective implementation and design issues weaken the impact of reforms in terms of breaking the stronghold of existing tradition and culture.

The impacts of child marriage include:

• Violation of human rights: It violates girls’ human rights including their right to life and condemns young wives to long hours of domestic labour, social isolation and domestic violence. It also cements the lack of agency associated with women.
• Early exit from education and reduced economic potential: It cuts short the education of young females and limits their ability to acquire the required skills and knowledge needed to gain employment.
• Malnutrition and health issues: Malnutrition and early pregnancy lead to low birth weight of babies thereby perpetuating the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. Child marriage also increases vulnerability to complications relating to teenage pregnancy.
• Increased economic burden: It leads girls to have children earlier and more children over their lifetime, thus increasing the economic burden of the household.

In order to eliminate the practice of child marriage, a clear strategy by the government based on a comprehensive understanding of the issue is required. It must entail the following:

• Strengthening existing legislations: For instance, Karnataka amended the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2017, declaring every child marriage void ab initio and making it a cognisable offence.
• Renewed action plans: State and district action plans in locations with high incidence of child marriage must be developed.
• Enforcement: Provision for registration of marriages need to be made compulsory, simple and user-friendly.
• Expansion of education: It should go beyond mere access, and focus on attendance, achievements and enable female students to earn adequate income.
• Attitude formation: Teachers should hold regular gender equality conversations to shape progressive attitudes that will sustain into adulthood.
• Engaging civil society: The voluntary sector including influential religious leaders should be involved to change the attitude of communities regarding child marriage.

A new development agenda, striving to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focusing particularly on women and gender issues, should involve the above strategies to end the practice of child marriage.

India has the most malnourished children in the world. The fifth and the latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) India has the most malnourished children in the world. The fifth and the latest round of the has highlighted that India isn’t making as much progress as it should have towards SDG 2.2 (ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030 for children under 5) – since the percentage of stunted, wasted, underweight and anaemic children in India is 36%, 19%, 32% and 67%, respectively.

Nutritional status of the country and associated public threat:

• As per NFHS-5 data, the percentage of stunted, wasted and underweight children has gone down. However, India could not sustain the decrease in the rate of stunting and severe wasting.
  • It has led to cognitive deficits and compromised learning abilities as undernourished children were found to be enrolled in school late; they had higher chances of repeating a grade or dropped out of school altogether.
• About 60% of women and teenage girls are anaemic.
  • It has lowered the ability to survive childbirth which is reflected in higher IMR and MMR.
  • Other than iron deficiency, the iodine and vitamin A deficiency remains a significant public health issue that leads to mental and physical growth retardation, night blindness and preventable child morbidity.
• India houses the world’s largest number of underweight people.
  • Micro-nutrient deficiencies or ‘Hidden Hunger’ contributes to the vicious cycle of malnutrition, underdevelopment and poverty.
  • It has led to an increase in infectious diseases like Tuberculosis and Pneumonia in India.
• India houses world’s third largest population of overweight and obese people. About 3.4% children, 24% women and 23% men in India are overweight.
  • It is leading to an increase in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases like prediabetes in children, and high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type-2 diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, etc. in adults.

To address the nutrition challenges, the government has launched various schemes including POSHAN Abhiyan, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Mid-day meal scheme, National Health Mission etc. To make these initiatives more effective, following steps can also be taken:

• Identify districts that require urgent intervention. Districts can be classified into three groups based on priority into green, yellow and red, and red being the topmost priority districts. This would ensure special focus on the poor districts especially the tribal regions.
• The government should also consider linking village, district, state and national level metrics to track improvements in children’s health.
• An outcome-oriented focus on agriculture, sanitation and women’s education is required, which includes special focus on awareness about nutrition and related program in India.
• Subsidy should be provided to crops other than cereals such as pulses, fruits and vegetables. These crops can be made available through the PDS along with rice and wheat. Further, food fortification can go a long way is tackling the challenge of nutrition.
• Fat tax as introduced by Kerala over fast foods can be implemented all over India.

In order to achieve the SDG of ‘Zero hunger’, India needs a Nutrition Revolution with more strategized outcome-based action plans and women leading at the front.

Access to land is a critical factor for economic growth and poverty reduction. For government, industry, and citizens to be able to use this asset effectively and to minimize land conflicts, digitization can help by improving access to reliable land and property records.

Advantages of digitization of land records:

• Reduction in litigations and burden of cases: A NITI Aayog paper suggests that land disputes on average take about 20 years to be resolved. Land disputes add to the burden of the courts and impact sectors and projects that are dependent on these disputed land titles.
• Promoting agricultural credit: Land is often used as collateral for obtaining loans by farmers. Digitization of land records and online creation of equitable mortgages would help in faster disbursement of agriculture credit.
• Development of new infrastructure: The economy of the country is shifting from agrarian to manufacturing and services-based. However, several new infrastructure projects are witnessing delays due to a lack of updated land records.
• Urbanization and housing: Slum dwellers do not have access to a clear land title or ownership rights. Further, since many colonies in which the poor reside are unauthorized, it is difficult for Urban local bodies to provide basic services to them. Easier online approvals of plans and occupancy certificates will provide clarity over ownership status.
• To check benami transactions: Unclear titles and non-updated land records enable carrying out property transactions in a non-transparent way. The Standing Committee on Finance in 2015 noted that the generation of black money through benami transactions could be eliminated by the digitization of land records and their regular updation.

Challenges Faced in Digitization of Land Records:

• Lack of unified legal framework: The system of land records was inherited from the Zamindari system. The legal framework in India does not provide for guaranteed ownership, and how information about land records is collected and maintained further exacerbates the gaps in these records.
• Land unavailability in the development of infrastructure: These delays occur because of non-availability of encumbrance-free land, non-updation of land records, resistance to joint measurement survey of land records, demands for higher compensation by landowners, and filing of large number of arbitration cases by landowners.
• Lack of manpower: One of the major roadblocks in ensuring continuous updation of land records is the lack of skilled manpower in the land record departments of states.
• Poor synergy across land record departments: The Revenue department is the custodian of textual records; the survey and the settlement departments manage the spatial records and the registration department responsible for registering land transactions, lacks synergy in functioning.
• Digital divide: Lack of awareness and digital illiteracy are prevalent, especially in rural areas.

To address these challenges, there is a need for wider adoption of technologies such as geographical information systems, data warehouses, and webs. It would help in making land records management efficient and easier for decision-making, strategy planning, and productive modeling. Also, an online or digital record department could be established for the betterment of online land records maintenance.

Capital account convertibility (CAC) means the freedom to conduct investment transactions without any constraints. Typically, it would mean that there would be no restrictions on the number of rupees (local currency) that can be converted into foreign currency. It implies freedom of currency conversion related to capital inflows and outflows, and therefore sometimes referred to as Capital Asset Liberalisation. At present, India allows full convertibility in the current account but only partial convertibility in the capital account. The two Tarapore Committee Reports- 1997 and 2006– laid out a path to move towards full CAC. However, the process of liberalizing the capital account, in the last three decades since liberalization began, has remained a gradual and cautious one.

Merits of full CAC:

• Improved access to international markets: CAC would facilitate further liberalization and attract foreign investments.
• Bring in financial efficiency: An open capital account could bring with it greater specialization and innovation by exposing the financial sector to global competition. It may reduce the cost of capital.
• Increase the choices for investments: Residents get the opportunity to base their investment and consumption decisions on global interest rates and global prices for tradeable, which could enhance their interests and welfare. For instance, Indian investors would be able to invest in foreign securities and assets.
• Hedging investment risks: By offering the opportunity to use the world market to diversify portfolios, an open capital account permits both savers and investors to protect the real value of their assets through risk reduction. Arguments against full CAC:
• Export of domestic savings: Speculative activity can lead to an outflow of capital from the country as seen in the case of some South-East Asian economies during 1997-98.
• Tax avoidance: CAC could weaken the ability of the authorities to tax domestic financial activities, income, and wealth.
• Cost-push inflation: Mostly the market-determined exchange rates are higher than officially fixed exchange rates. Thus, CAC could raise import prices and cause cost-push inflation.
• Disruptions in the economy: Improper management of CAC can lead to currency depreciation and affect trade and capital flows.

Still, the preconditions for convertibility set out in the Tarapore committee (gross fiscal deficit being less than 3.5% of GDP, an inflation rate of 3-5% over three years, the effective CRR being 3%, and gross NPAs of 5% or less) remains to be achieved. Thus, efforts must be made in this regard if the benefits of CAC need to be achieved.