Infrastructure Planning and Management

To prepare strategic water resource management plan for water supply in the city of Madurai from assessment of existing water resources present in the city and evolve a technical solution towards water conservation, distribution and maintenance of the system.

Today developing countries like India are facing huge challenges in managing e-waste which is either locally generated or imported from developed countries. e-waste is denoted by two main features: it is hazardous due to its composition of toxic metals and elements, but at the same time it is valuable as it consists of valuable metals such as gold, silver, etc. India is in early stage of attending this emerging problem of e-waste and moving forward to achieve a regularized e-waste management system through "e-waste management and handling rules 2011" which have been implemented on May 1st 2012. There have been debates and discussions on existing model adopted by India which does not include the existing informal sector, which is prominent player in terms of e-waste management and processing. It is important to review the contribution of informal sector and ways to have an integrated system of e-waste management where informal and formal sectors can play the roles in light of newly implemented rules. The objective of this article is to form a base for understanding the role and importance of informal sector in e-waste management system with a case of Gujarat state with main focus on IT related electronics and explore possibility of incorporating informal sector in regularized e-waste management system in light of new rules.

It has been 25 years of prohibition through commencement of legal framework, yet scourge of manual scavenging in India continues. The manual scavenging is still a prevailing practice managing and maintaining our sanitation solutions. The objective of this paper is to act as an advocacy article to strengthen the policy dialogue and advocacy activities leading to local innovations in abolishing manual scavenging. Through this paper, an attempt has been made to understand manual scavenging scenario in today"s context. The study is carried out with exploratory approach with primary data obtained through informal semi-structured interviews with stakeholders related to manual scavenging practice in distinct levels, clubbed with secondary information from published market research reports and government publications. Exploring the facts against the existing law, presence of manual scavenging is evident in Hyderabad and is observed to spread in new avenues of sanitation systems in addition to already established bases like pit latrines, sceptic tanks, toilet cleaning etc. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the factors that can enable the city government to achieve the goal of eradication of manual scavenging, balancing the city needs in the purview of existing policy and legislative environment.