World Cities Day & Urbanization

• Every year on October 31, World Cities Day is observed to raise awareness of the need for international cooperation in advancing global urbanisation and addressing its difficulties.
• By 2050, seven out of ten people on the planet will reside in cities, according to the UN.

What is the World Cities History Day?

2022's theme is "Act Local to Go Global."

History:

• World Cities Day was established by a resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on December 27, 2013.
• 2014 saw the inaugural occasion for the celebration.
• The UNGA's choice to create World Cities Day was motivated by the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, which took place in 1976.
• According to SDG 11 objectives, the UN-Habitat initiative encourages the creation of sustainable cities.
• The United Nations agency responsible for human settlements and environmentally friendly urban development is called UN-Habitat.
• For this reason, it runs the annual Urban October program, which starts on the first Monday of the month and runs through World Cities Day on October 31.
• Significance: By bringing together all parties involved in local and international urban development, World Cities Day assists in addressing the issues associated to urbanization.
• Urbanization is a sign of a country's expanding economy.
• However, social, economic, demographic, and environmental issues are obstacles to this type of development.
• The displacement of original residents, the cutting down of trees, the loss of animal habitats, problems with healthcare, food supply, and pollution are some of the most obvious obstacles to rapid urbanisation.

Urban problems in India:

Although India is one of the less urbanized countries of the world with only 30 percent of its population living in urban agglomerations, the country is facing a serious crisis of urban growth at the present time. Although Urbanisation has been an instrument of economic, social, and political progress, it has led to serious socio-economic problems.

Urban Sprawl:

• The rapid growth of urban population both natural and through migration, has put heavy pressure on public utilities like housing, sanitation, transport, water, electricity, health and education.
• This is due to the fact that such large cities act as magnets and attract large numbers of immigrants by dint of their employment opportunities and modern way of life.
• Such hyper-urbanization leads to projected city sizes of which defy imagination. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, etc. are examples of urban sprawl due to large-scale migration of people from the surrounding areas and rural areas.

Overcrowding:

• Overcrowding is a situation in which too many people live in too little space. Overcrowding is a logical consequence of over-population in urban areas. It is naturally expected that cities having a large size of population squeezed into a small space must suffer from overcrowding.
• Delhi has a population density of 9,340 persons per sq km (Census 2001) which is the highest in India. This leads to tremendous pressure on resources and efforts to decongest Delhi by developing ring towns have not met with the required success.

Housing:

• Overcrowding leads to a chronic problem of shortage of houses in urban areas. An Indian Sample Survey in 1959 indicated that 44 per cent of urban households (as compared to 34 per cent of rural families) occupied one room or less.
• For about a third of urban Indian families, a house does not include a kitchen, a bathroom, a toilet—and in many cases there is no power and water supply.
• The major factors are shortage of building materials and financial resources, inadequate expansion of public utilities into sub-urban areas, poverty and unemployment of urban immigrants, strong caste and family ties and lack of adequate transportation to sub-urban areas where most of the vacant land for new construction is located.

Unemployment:

• Urban unemployment in India is estimated at 15 to 25 per cent of the labour force. This percentage is even higher among the educated people. One of the major causes of urban unemployment is the large scale migration of people from rural to urban areas. But the growth of economic opportunities fails to keep pace with the quantum of immigration.

Growing of Slums:

• The natural sequel of unchecked, unplanned, and haphazard growth of urban areas is the growth and spread of slums and squatter settlements in the Indian cities, especially of metropolitan centres.
• In India Slums have been defined under section 3 of Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act 1956. As areas where buildings:

(i) Area in any respect unfit for human habitation.

(ii) Area by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light, sanitation facilities or any combination of these factors, which are detrimental to safety, health and morals.

• Due to inherent ‘non-legal’ status, a slum settlement has services and infrastructure below the adequate minimum levels. As such water supply, sanitation, electricity, roads, drainage, schools, health centres, and market places are either absent or arranged informally.
• The largest slum population of 10.6 million has been reported from Maharashtra; followed by Andhra Pradesh (5.1 million), Uttar Pradesh (4.1 million), West Bengal (3.8 million), Tamil Nadu (2.5 million), Madhya Pradesh (2.4 million) and Delhi (2.0 million).

Transport:

• With traffic bottleneck and traffic congestion, almost all cities and towns of India are suffering from acute form of transport problem. Transport problems increase and become more complex as the town grows in size.
• In most cities the rush hour or peak traffic hour lasts for about two hours and during that period buses and trains are crammed to capacity, roads are overcrowded with vehicles and the movement of traffic becomes very slow.

Water:

• The supply of water started falling short of demand as the cities grew in size and number.
• Majority of the cities and towns do not get the recommended quantity of water. Gap in demand and supply of water in four metro cities, viz., Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai varies from 10 to 20 per cent. The condition is still worse in small cities and towns.

Sewerage Problems:

• Urban areas in India are almost invariably plagued with insufficient and inefficient sewage facilities. Not a single city in India is fully sewered. Resource crunch faced by the municipalities and unauthorised growth of the cities are two major causes of this pathetic state of affairs.
• Most cities do not have proper arrangements for treating the sewerage waste and it is drained into a nearly river (as in Delhi) or in sea (as in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai), thereby polluting the water bodies.

Urban Crimes:

• Growing materialism, consumerism, competition in everyday life, selfishness, lavishness, appalling socio-economic disparities and rising unemployment and feeling of loneliness in the crowd are some of the primary causes responsible for alarming trends in urban crime.
• According to study made by Dutt and Venugopal (1983), violent urban crimes like rape, murder, kidnapping, dacoity, robbery, etc. are more pronounced in the northern-central parts of the country.
• Even the economic crimes (like theft, cheating, breach of trust, etc.) are concentrated in the north- central region.
• Poverty related crimes are widespread with main concentration in the cities of Patna, Darbhanga, Gaya and Munger. This may be due to widespread poverty prevailing in this region.

Problem of Urban Pollution:

• With rapid pace of urbanisation, industries and transport systems grow rather out of proportion. These developments are primarily responsible for pollution of environment, particularly the urban environment.

Inequality:

• The share of urban areas in the total national economic income had been estimated at 60 per cent and the per capita income was about three times higher than rural per capita income.
• But this is not sufficient partly, due to high cost of living and partly, because of growing economic disparity in urban areas. Rich are becoming richer and poor are becoming poorer.

What are the Related Initiatives?

India’s Initiatives for Urbanisation:

• Smart Cities
• AMRUT Mission
• Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban
• HRIDAY
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban

Government Initiatives for Slum Dwellers/Urban Poor

• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana
• Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (self-reliant India)

Way Forward:

• Despite the fact that car-centric expansion has accelerated motorization in Indian cities, there are chances in this country's core strength of extensive use of public transportation, walking, and cycling.
• The time has come for proactive policies to make sustainable modes work for everyone, including the wealthy and those at all income levels.
• In India, transportation regulations have evolved to be more egalitarian and progressive. However, the sector's investments and execution are sluggish.
• In order to cut travel times and encourage transit-oriented development, as well as mixed-use and mixed-income development, India also requires proactive regulations. These measures will help make cities more livable and accessible for everybody.

Digital Rupee

• The first pilot in the Digital Rupee, Wholesale segment according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will start on November 1st, 2022.
• The first trial in the Digital Rupee - Retail category will debut in a month in a few key areas with closed user groups made up of consumers and retailers.

Describe Digital Rupee.

• A digital version of currency notes produced by a central bank is known as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or Digital Rupee.
• It is a digital method of payment that supports contactless exchanges.
• It is characterized as the Reserve Bank of India's legal tender.
• Background: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would shortly launch its digital currency when presenting the Union Budget 2022.

Forms:

There are two different types of CBDC.

• Retail (CBDC-R): Retail CBDC might be accessible to everyone.
• Wholesale (CBDC-W) is intended for specialised financial institutions with limited access.
• Benefits include "supporting India's digital economy, enhancing financial inclusion, and improving the efficiency of the monetary and payment systems."
• A digitised currency will lower transaction costs and make it simpler for governments to access all transactions taking place inside authorised networks.
• In contrast to actual notes, a digital currency will have an infinite lifecycle. According to the CBDC, "CBDC is intended to supplement, rather than replace, present forms of money and is envisaged to provide an extra payment pathway to users, not to replace the existing payment systems."

Adoption of digital currency has risks

• cyberthreats and hacks
• invasion of privacy

Bitcoin versus digital currency: differences

• A decentralized digital asset and medium of exchange based on blockchain technology is known as a cryptocurrency. It has, however, mostly generated controversy because of its decentralised character, which refers to its operation without the use of any middlemen like banks, financial organisations, or central governments.
• On the other hand, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that would be accepted as legal cash online.
• In that it would be backed by the government, the digital rupee will vary from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies.
• Second, the digital rupee will be similar to holding a physical rupee equivalent since it has intrinsic value due to government backing.

Future Possibilities

• Future pilots will concentrate on other wholesale transactions and cross-border payments as a result of the lessons learned from this trial.
• In order to create a CBDC ecosystem and ensure its sustainability, it is crucial to solve the current challenges and for CBDC to operate as an inclusionary tool by resolving the concerns through innovation

Deinococcus Radiodurans: Mars

• In a recent study, scientists imitated the intense ionising radiation on Mars and discovered that ancient bacteria may be able to endure considerably longer than previously thought near to the planet's surface.
• The robust bacterium could live for 280 million years if it were buried, according to a new study, shattering the previous record. This implies that signs of life may still be dormant and hidden beneath Mars' surface.

With regards to Deinococcus radiodurans

• Numerous terrestrial microbes demonstrated that they could be able to thrive on Mars, but one in particular, Deinococcus radiodurans, appeared to be especially well-suited to residing there.

• The microbe was given the moniker "Conan the bacterium" by the researchers because it could withstand extremely high radiation levels while being frozen.
• This implies that when the first samples from Mars return to Earth, researchers may even uncover microbes and their byproducts.
• The research team exposed six distinct terrestrial bacteria and fungi under conditions resembling life on the red planet in order to determine whether any life forms might survive the extreme environmental conditions there.
• They accomplished this by freezing the germs and bombarding them with protons and gamma rays.

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