New Delhi, May 17, 2013: A slum cluster in west Delhi has a problem that can shame the government for its lofty claims of making Delhi an ideal city. About 750 people in this Punjabi Bagh neighbourhood don’t have a single toilet. As a result, they have been forced to defecate in the open. And this has been on for almost a year.
Upset with officials’ attitude, the slum dwellers had protested outside Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board last year but to no good.

New Delhi, May 14, 2013: Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Netherlands Minister for Infrastructure and Environment Melanie Schultz van Haegen signed a Memorandum of Understanding on technical cooperation in the field of "Spatial Planning, Water Management , and Mobility Management" at the Hague, Netherlands, today.
At the bilateral meeting, Kamal Nath spoke about the urbanization challenge being faced by India and the determination of the Government of India to address it in partnership with the technical and professional experts and bus

Panaji, Goa, May 15, 2013: Goa has the largest urban population among small states in the country. This was revealed by the Census 2011 data released by the directorate of census operations on Tuesday. The state's literacy rate has also increased to 88.70%.
The primary census abstract states that 62% of the Goan population lives in urban areas as compared to 49% in the 2001 census.
"Among small states, Goa has highest urban population in Goa," census operations director A K Wasnik said.

New Delhi, Apr 1, 2013: A new Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) report, Linking Service Delivery Processes and Outcomes in Rural Sanitation: Findings from 56 Districts in India, finds that when higher quality of service delivery processes are adopted at the district level, it is more likely that households to sustain behaviors linked to toilet usage and safe disposal of child feces.

Bhuvaneshwar, May 7, 2013: The Naveen Patnaik Government has no resources for development of its urban population which includes ever growing slum dwellers. For 31 per cent of its population which lives in the towns and cities, the Odisha Government spends just three per cent of its annual budget.
Of Rs 60,303 crore State Budget for 2013-14, outlay for Housing and Urban Development Department stands at Rs 2,385 crore.

Bhuvaneshwar, May 7, 2013: Children of around 20 per cent households in the city are still deprived of toilet facility for which they resort to open defecation.

Vijaywada, May 5, 2013: Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh today said that 4,000 towns from different parts of the country are to be brought under the ambitious 'PURA' (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) project.
Addressing a meeting after inaugurating a 'PURA' project along with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Ramesh said that small towns in the country are still treated as major panchayats and they need basic amenities like roads, drinking water, sewerage treatment, street lighting.

New Delhi, May 2, 2013: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Rs. 22,507-crore National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) that seeks to address healthcare challenges in towns and cities with focus on urban poor.
The scheme will now be introduced as a sub-mission under the National Health Mission (NHM).

New Delhi, Apr 25, 2013: The Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development Smt. Deepa Dasmunshi in reply to a written question informed the Rajya Sabha today that the Eleventh Plan had several schemes to promote urbanization.

Kochi, Apr 19, 2013: The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has promised to provide technical support and capacity building training to implement Kochi corporation's city sanitation plan (CSP). After holding talks with German representatives, Kochi mayor Tony Chammany said that the project would help to improve sanitation in urban areas.