Urbanization

Budget announcement

 Cities will be incentivised to improve their credit worthiness for municipal bonds. This will be done through
property tax governance reforms and ring fencing user charges on urban infrastructure
 AMRUT – Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation – 500 AMRUT cities

Urban infrastructure Development Fund

 Like Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, an Urban Infrastructure Development Fund will be established
 Use of priority sector lending shortfall to create urban infra in tier 2 and tier 3 cities
 UIDF will be managed by National Housing Bank
 Focus on ongoing projects for effective utilisation of funds
 Encourage projects with lower carbon footprint
 Tier 2 cities – 50k to 1 lakh; Tier 3 cities – 20k to 30k

PMAY:

 PMAY for affordable housing to all citizens – to assist middle income community, economically disadvantaged
groups
 70% of the four crore houses built for poor had been given to women
 Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme is aimed to provide beneficiaries with an interest subsidy to take loans to purchase
or build a house
 Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) – announced during COVID 19 pandemic to help migrant workers and
urban poor employed in informal sector – in PPP model

Urban Health and Wellness Centres are vital with increasing urban population

Best Practice

 Urban growth and expansion of green cover at same time – Hyderabad – Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City of the
World
 World Green City by International Association of Horticulture Producers (IAHP)
 Telangana Ku Haritha Haram (the green garland of Telangana) – key afforestation initiative of Telangana

Green infra

 Municipalities can earn money from trading of carbon credits in international market by identifying projects fo
biomining in landfills, non motorised transport, sewage treatment, urban forest, solid waste management,
bioremediation and rooftop solar panels
 Municipalities can raise money from capital markets through bonds to fund new projects and improve civic infra

Street vendors

 Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 – rights and obligations of
street vendors

PM SVANidhi scheme

 Nodal ministry – Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

 Micro credit scheme launched in 2020 to provide handholding support to street vendors to tide over the pandemic
induced economic stress
 To approximately 50 lakh street vendors
 Collateral free loans of 10000 of one year tenure with subsequent loans of 20000 and 50000 with 7% interest
subsidy
 Out of the total credit given only 9% were given to hawkers from minority communities

Aspirational toilets in cities

 Launched in 2022 as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0

 Aim
 o To help make cities open defection free
 Allocation to SBM 2.0 – 2.5 times more than the money allotted to the first phase of the mission that was launched
in 2014
 A quarter of all new public restrooms in Indian cities will have high end facilities
o Luxurious bath cubicles, touchless flushes, breast feeding rooms, automatic sanitary napkin incinerators
 High end public conveniences
o With attached libraries, cafes and shopping complexes to help raise funds for their maintenance and
upkeep
 Focus areas
o Tourist and religious destinations
o Iconic cities with high footfall
 SMS based feedback mechanism for users

City Liveability Index Programme

 Assess living conditions in 116 cities including 99 smart cities

 Rank them on National basis
 Based on 57 core parameters and 22 supporting parameters

CITIIS programme

 Second phase of City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain

o Under the ambit of Smart Cities Mission
 Aim
o To promote integrated waste management and climate oriented reform actions
 Implemented in 18 cities
 Duration – 4 years – 2023-27