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Saturday, July 19, 2025
TopicUrban local bodies

Topic: Urban local bodies

Kerala’s local self-governance app K-SMART set to go rural. Now, ‘know your land’, file mass petition

The upgraded version of the portal will be launched in over 1,000 local bodies of state. It was initially launched last year in 93 urban local bodies.

Over 30 yrs after 74th Amendment, CAG flags ‘weak compliance’ with law empowering urban local bodies

CAG found while 17 of 18 functions were devolved to urban local bodies by 74th Amendment, just 4 were ‘effectively devolved with complete autonomy’.

Rajasthan BJP may not be ready for a contest yet. ‘1 state, 1 election’ push to delay local polls

Following general election setback & several challenges, BJP govt needs to buy time to show its work before facing polls, say party functionaries.

Only 10% of PPP projects in India are in urban areas. Blame poor planning & low tax collections

According to India Infrastructure Report 2023, Gujarat ranks 1st with 33 Public Private Partnership projects in urban areas, followed by Uttar Pradesh & Maharashtra.

Municipal bonds not a hit among urban local bodies, low creditworthiness a big hurdle — infra report

Other factors include easy availability of govt funds, lack of political will to improve service delivery & systemic absence of timely audits, says India Infrastructure Report 2023

How Centre’s ‘Aaina’ portal could help 4,700+ urban local bodies take long, hard look in the mirror

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs is crafting a single portal to aggregate data from ULBs, spanning domains like planning, finance, & citizen services, to improve their functioning.

Lesson from the pandemic: Empowering local bodies is a priority to improve public health

The 74th CAA needs to be overhauled so that it is not rendered ineffective by state municipal acts. Empowering Urban Local Bodies can save many lives.

In a first, panchayati raj & urban local bodies to spend Centre’s Rs 13,192 cr on health

The health ministry will draw up rules for where the central funds can be spent, in accordance with the 15th Finance Commission’s recommendations.

Urban MGNREGA is a short-sighted idea, Modi govt has shown good sense to drop it

Scope for manual earth work like digging of canals is limited in cities. An urban MGNREGA might not provide employment and create assets as it’s expected to.

Covid must put an end to local govts’ long wait for power and self-rule. Kerala tells us why

Most Panchayati Raj and municipalities’ laws do not clearly demarcate the functions of local bodies. It’s time for constitutional amendment.

On Camera

Critical minerals are the new oil. India can’t afford to depend on China

Mineral security is no longer just an economic concern but a national security imperative, underpinning the country’s ambitions in clean energy, defence self-reliance, and advanced manufacturing.

India-US set to ink mini trade deal soon, reach understanding on agricultural & dairy products

Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.

Not just AK-203, India & Russia to jointly manufacture AK-19 and PPK-20 for domestic use and export 

India-Russia JV is also racing to deliver 7,000 more AK-203 assault rifles by 15 Aug. These are currently being made with 50% indigenisation and this will surge to 100% by 31 December.

RSS chief Bhagwat draws the line at 75. India’s politics stares at the Modi Exception

BJP has no dynastic succession, at least not at the top. You can trace this back to Vajpayee-Advani era. This act of spotting, empowering younger talent is even more striking with the choice of BJP presidents.