NIUA works on a wide array of projects. It touches upon various aspects of urban development through these projects that support and augment the Institute’s vision of transforming the urban landscape of India. These research projects include topics such as spatial growth, demographic trends, development of toolkits and frameworks, municipal finance, climate change, water, sanitation, hygiene, preparing city master plans, conservation plans. NIUA also conducts customized training programmes to support and assist Government of India’s flagship campaigns and policies. The Institute works closely with various ministries including Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Jal Shakti Mantralaya, city-level urban local bodies, multilateral agencies such as Asian Development Bank, World Bank, bilateral agencies such as EU, United States Agency for International Development, Department for International Development, Agence Française de Développement, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, etc., philanthropic organizations such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Shakti Foundation, and other national and international academic institutions (Click here for Partner’s List).
The multiple projects of NIUA are clubbed under five Theme Areas or Knowledge Domains, and the interventions are classified into five types of instruments.
NIUA is committed to studying in depth the macro parameters that influence urban development and its spatial expansion, with a continual review and analysis of the linkages between urbanisation, migration, urban infrastructure and economic growth.
NIUA provides the knowledge and expertise towards overall strategic and sustainable planning and management of urban areas as well as sectoral focus on areas like heritage management, Transit-oriented Development, and inclusive urban planning and design responding to needs of all age groups, genders, abilities, and economic backgrounds. NIUA recognizes that well-managed built environments are a powerful tool to deliver high quality of life to all urban residents by leveraging the historical, ecological and cultural layers that make our cities so interesting.
NIUA is working towards embedding resilience at the heart of the urban discourse. As an institute working on cities of tomorrow, it understands that urban policies and decisions taken today have a direct impact on a city’s resilience and capacity to respond to these challenges in the future. NIUA is working towards building resilience through the lenses of climate smart-cities, resilient infrastructure, urban river system management and capacity building on ecosystem services.
NIUA actively provides wide-ranging technical assistance to MoHUA, states and ULBs on municipal finance and governance, including pan-India mission-mode capacity building for reform adoption; evaluating municipal health and performance; and direct handholding of a city agency for building its capacities to respond effectively to changing needs and emerging trends.
Social inclusion is crucial towards enabling the creation of a dynamic and adaptable framework for city planning and governance, as it promotes local democracy, participation and inclusion, transparency and accountability, ensuring sustainable urbanisation. In order to influence social development in urban India, NIUA has been working towards promoting and building knowledge through its various initiatives for inclusive cities.
NIUA is committed that more opportunities and different modalities are established to acquire knowledge, develop skills and consolidate expertise, and are made available to individuals, practitioners, policy makers, urban managers and decision makers in order to enable them to formulate evidence-based policies, programmes and projects and take well-informed decisions.
NIUA plays a catalytic role in linking data, information, and ideas with those in search of development solutions. To better encompass the experiences of successful practices, NIUA ensures that knowledge for development is readily available to citizens, civil society, opinion makers, researchers, and government policy makers at all levels.
NIUA is working towards ensuring that urban planning and design practice adequately responds to the inherent demographic and economic forces that underpin India’s urbanization. We work towards capturing universal principles from global practices, national and local experiences that support the development of diverse planning approaches adapted to scale. We accomplish this by helping public and private sectors: build capacity for informed, creative decisions; shape public policy; and implement the best community practices.
NIUA is at the forefront of innovation within the urban realm and aims at fostering initiatives and gathering knowledge about cities of tomorrow. The Institute is committed towards creating an ecosystem that can provide ample advice and information to urban stakeholders to become more innovative at delivering intelligent, inclusive and sustainable urban development at scale, especially in challenging contexts.
Working with global, national and local partners, stakeholders and organisations from across the globe, NIUA is committed to exchange of ideas, knowledge exchange through open data resource development and management, to contribute to a greater urban dialogue but also to increase the reach of its knowledge resources and spur innovation.
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar | Email: urajasekar@niua.org
Description: About the Urban Resilience Unit
Established in collaboration with 100 Resilience Cities (100 RC) Program of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Urban Resilience Unit (URU) at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) aims at promoting and support....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Nilesh Prakash Rajadhyaksha | Email: nrajadhyaksha@niua.org
Description: Delhi, India’s ‘first’ city, is slated to become the world’s most populated city within the coming decade, and it is expected to overtake Tokyo by 2027. In terms of sheer size and spread, Delhi’s regional conurbation already matches so....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Depinder Singh Kapur | Email: dkapur@niua.org
Description:
Sanitation Capacity Building Platform(SCBP) is a platform anchored by NIUA and works as a collaborative initiative of experts and organisations committed to support and build the capacity of Urban Local Bodies, National Nodal Trai....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Victor Rana Shinde | Email: vshinde@niua.org
Description: The broad objective of this project is to promulgate sustainable urban development that makes judicious use of vital natural riverine resources. The project will seek to demonstrate that maintaining healthy rivers in the Ganga River Basin is crucial ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Sandeep Thakur | Email: sthakur@niua.org
Description: The 14th FC Cell was sanctioned vide letter no. N-11025/05/2017-LSG on 23.2.2017 from the MoHUA for a period of two years from the date of sanction. An amount of Rs. 1,93,38,000/- was to be released in four instalments. Three instalments have already....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debjani Ghosh | Email: dghosh@niua.org
Description: “Capacity Building for Smart Data and Inclusive Cities” (SDIC) project is built around a three-year collaboration between National Institute of Urban Affairs (India), Institute of Development Studies, Sussex (UK) and the Indian cities of Bhopal, ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Utsav Choudhury | Email: uchoudhury@niua.org
Description: A stakeholder consultation was organized in September 2018 to seek advice on framing the Divyang Friendly Measures and Policy Recommendations that can be implemented through the Smart Cities Mission. National Institute of Urban Affairs in collab....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: A. N. Nanda Kishore | Email: akishore@niua.org
Description: Since June 2018, NIUA initiated an engagement with key relevant stakeholders through series of consultations. Objective to define the strategy for digital interventions under MoHUAurban programs. One of the key recommendations of these cons....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: A. N. Nanda Kishore | Email: akishore@niua.org
Description: Smartnet is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to support the development of cities across India by creating a resource-rich ecosystem of learning, sharing, knowledge dissemination and solutions exchange for city managers and ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar | Email: urajasekar@niua.org
Description: The CapaCITIES project endeavours to understand the climate change implications, strengthening capacities of the city authorities, formulating the climate action plans and strategies across priority sectors to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and buil....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar | Email: urajasekar@niua.org
Description:
Overview:
The CSC Project aims at anchoring climate-friendly solutions for urban infrastructure provision, in the planning and implementation of projects under the Smart Cities Mission; through three partner cities i.e Kochi, C....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Mukut Sharma | Email: msharma@niua.org
Description: NIUA received a grant from the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF) in October 2017, for taking forward the research project (and many definitive knowledge products) on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) done by NIUA in early 2017. The focus w....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Anand Sundararaman Iyer | Email: aiyer@niua.org
Description: Third Party Audit (TPA) of Online Building Plan Approval System (OBPAS) of Delhi and Mumbai for Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) NIUA has been asked to lead the Third Party Audit of Online Building Plan Approval System (OBPAS) of Delhi and Mumbai. This ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Anand Sundararaman Iyer | Email: aiyer@niua.org
Description: Background
The EU aims to contribute to the sustainable urbanisation development and application of sustainable urban and energy policies. Increasing demographic and environmental pressure oblige Indian cities to transport and adopt resilient and ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Riyaz Tayyibji | Email: rtayyibji@niua.org
Description: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Ahmedabad World Heritage City Trust approached (NIUA) in December 2018 with the work of preparing the Heritage Conservation Plan/LAP for the walled city of Ahmedabad. The objective of Heritage Conservation Plan is ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Anuradha Yagya | Email: ayagya@niua.org
Description: The study supported by the UNICEF was initiated in August 2018 and involves in depth assessment of urban vulnerability and the social protection system in the three study cities of Mumbai, Kolkata and Bhopal. The findings and recommendations of this ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debolina Kundu | Email: dkundu@niua.org
Description: SHLC project is funded by the GCRF- Research Councils UK Collective Fund. The projects aims to build research knowledge in the UK, Asia and Africa, to help address urbanization-related challenges in the developing countries. SHLC will conduct compara....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debolina Kundu | Email: dkundu@niua.org
Description: The research project aims to undertake qualitative and quantitative research to understand the situation of children and adolescents with respect to: • rural-urban differentials of children and adolescents in terms of health, nutrition, education, ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debjani Ghosh | Email: dghosh@niua.org
Description: The focus of the Morgenstadt Initiative is on the identification and implementation of sustainable cross-sectoral solutions and transformation processes, such as the optimization of urban infrastructures, processes and services. The measures are subj....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debjani Ghosh | Email: dghosh@niua.org
Description: NIUA is the designated strategic partner of the MoHUA in capacity building to provide single window services to the Ministry, States as well as ULBs. The Institute is involved in facilitating the dissemination of information on training modules, docu....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debolina Kundu | Email: dkundu@niua.org
Description: The research project aims to Produce evidence based research Provide policy advice to the national agencies in line with SDGs Develop bilateral partnership between India and Germany to explore issues and challenges of urbanisation Develop a comparabl....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Nabamalika Joardar | Email: njoardar@niua.org
Description: The India Smart Cities Fellowship Programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) under the Smart Cities Mission to cultivate youth leadership and usher vibrancy in the design of India’s urban future. National Instit....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debolina Kundu | Email: dkundu@niua.org
Description: Environment and Urbanization ASIA journal is prepared by NIUA and published by SAGE Publications. It aims to support the exchange of ideas and information in the fields of human settlements and the environment across Asia. Its audience is researchers....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Debolina Kundu | Email: dkundu@niua.org
Description: Urban India is a peer-reviewed, bi-annual journal, published regularly by National Institute of Urban Affairs since 1981. Since inception, the journal has been publishing meaningful urban research and facilitating informed debates on India’s urban ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: A. N. Nanda Kishore | Email: akishore@niua.org
Description: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India proposes to build National Urban Innovation Stacks (NUIS) – a collection of digital platforms - together with programmatic support to enable stakeholders across the urban ecosys....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: A. N. Nanda Kishore | Email: akishore@niua.org
Description: The DataSmart Urban 95 initiative is being undertaken by the Bernard Van Leer Foundation (BvLF) in partnership with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). The objective of this partnership it to mainstream the needs of infants, toddlers, and....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: A. N. Nanda Kishore | Email: akishore@niua.org
Description: Since 2016, AMRUT Mission focuses on reforms and capacity building of the ULBs. The reforms aim at improving delivery of citizen services, bringing down the cost of delivery, improving financial health, augmenting resources and enhancing transparency....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar | Email: urajasekar@niua.org
Description: In the context of India’s complex urban challenges and in addition to increasing climate risks, sustained actions ensuring cities prepare for and develop the ability to thrive in a varying climate is crucial. Given the rate of investments which are....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Paramita Dey | Email: pdey@niua.org
Description: “Sustainable Cities Integrated Approach Pilot in India” is one of the Child projects under GEF’s Sustainable Cities Programme in the GEF 6 cycle. The participating cities include Bhopal, Jaipur, Mysuru, and Vijayawada-Guntur. The aim of the pro....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Keruwala Naim Aiyubbhai | Email: nkeruwala@niua.org
Description: The CITIIS (City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain) program is conceptualised to assist Indian cities in implementing urban infrastructure projects that are integrated, innovation driven and sustainable. The selected projects will improv....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: | Email:
Description: The issue of hazardous entry of persons into sewers and septic tanks and resultant deaths because of such unsafe practices still prevalent among cities and towns. In order to stop this practice, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has l....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Kakul Misra | Email: kmisra@niua.org
Description: Centre for Digital Governance(CDG) at NIUA serves as the home for all programs and platforms under NUIS. The National Urban Innovation Stack (NUIS) is envisioned to act as a digital public good in wide-ranging domains, including e-Governance, capacit....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Anirudh Gupta | Email: anirudhgupta@niua.org
Description: CCSG is envisioned as an open digital platform that allows cities of all sizes to rapidly roll out and configure for local requirements a core set of municipal services to improve Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business, at a relatively lower cost ....Read More
Status: In-Progress | Contact Person: Sreenandini Banerjee | Email: sbanerjee@niua.org
Description: The National Urban Learning Platform (NULP) is a program at NIUA, supported by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). NULP is envisioned as a means of digitally consolidating key skills and knowledge required by urban stakeholders and mak....Read More
Status: Completed | Contact Person: Kamna Swami | Email: kswami@niua.org
Description: The primary goal of the IHUWASH project is to improve the urban WASH sector performance through incubation and acceleration of innovative solutions, technologies, programs and service delivery models within a collaborative framework. To achieve ....Read More
Status: Completed | Contact Person: Nabamalika Joardar | Email: njoardar@niua.org
Description: The India Smart Cities Fellowship is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) under the Smart Cities Mission to cultivate youth leadership and usher vibrancy in the design of India’s urban future. In 2019, a pioneer batch ....Read More
Status: Completed | Contact Person: Kanak Tiwari | Email: ktiwari@niua.org
Description: Child Friendly Smart Cities (CFSC) project aims to promote policies and practices to make Indian cities child friendly within the urban agenda of building smart cities. NIUA has partnered with the Bernard van Leer Foundation to develop a programme of....Read More
Status: Completed | Contact Person: Paramita Dey | Email: pdey@niua.org
Description: <p>Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was launched by Honorable Prime Minister of India on October 2, 2014. The main objectives of SBM urban is to address both elimination of open defecation and Solid Waste Management in all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) ....Read More
Status: Completed | Contact Person: Hitesh Vaidya | Email: hvaidya@niua.org
Description: The lab works as a research and capacity-building unit with focus on the development of 'smart cities' and serving as an incubation center for smart solutions. The lab works around three objectives: Knowledge Capture, Capacity Building and undertake ....Read More