There has been a growing consensus that India urgently needs to enhance the capacity of officials handling the new challenges and opportunities created by booming towns and cities. Indeed, India’s macro economic growth and poverty reduction is increasingly tied to how cities work. As the city-based services and industrial sectors begin to enter new national and international markets, demands for the modernization of India’s urban local bodies (ULBs) have increased. At the same time, poverty in India acquires more and more an urban face, increasing the demand for better services to the urban poor. If economic growth and poverty reduction is to be maintained in the long run, therefore, it is imperative that India’s towns and cities become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. In that context, these ULBs, which are traditionally staffed by civil servants with generalist educational backgrounds, urgently need to be trained to manage the new challenges and opportunities posed by India’s growing urbanization.
Taking this into consideration, the WBI’s Urban and Local Government Program has been supporting a successful Urban Management Certification Program in India. In partnership with two pioneering institutes, the Hyderabad based Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), and the Pune based Yashwantrao Academy for Development Administration (YASHADA); ULBs officials have been trained in a broad range of urban management issues, from managing municipal finance and delivering public services and infrastructure efficiently to promoting good urban governance and poverty reduction. Combing new concepts with problem-solving training, participants are encouraged to take the knowledge and skills they learn straight back to their working environment. For instance, in Karnataka, officials who have been trained are working to improve energy efficiency through public-private-partnership. In Nagpur, property tax has become more transparent, increasing accountability of a vital source of city revenue. In Navi Mumbai, water is now being supplied 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, in more than half of its territory, including the slums.
Recognizing the success of this initiative, the Advisory Committee on Certification in City Management, chaired by the Government of India’s Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, recommended scaling up and rolling out the certification program through additional institutions across the country. Taking this into account, this WBI initiative is entering a new phase, reaching out new partners and bringing e-learning technology to broaden the scope and impact of the urban management certification program. In time, a new breed of urban managers will emerge, fully capable to transform India’s urban landscape in tandem with its booming economy.
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