Diganta Das
Biographic Data
| ID | 4064026 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Diganta Das |
| GIVEN NAMES | Diganta |
| FAMILY NAME | Das |
| SIGNATURE | DAS D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Nanyang Technological University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0239-1936 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 133 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
‘Without Water, We Cannot Survive’
Political ecology gains salience by interrogating the intersectionalities that produce various ecologies, especially water in urban landscapes. This article locates and reads such intersectionalities, especially relating to youth and gender as they navigate everyday multiplicities that consider water as a site and subject of contestation. It focuses on the theory of urban water as a hybrid socio-natural phenomenon and the cycle of water and socie…
Socially smart Bhubaneswar
This paper examines the social dimension of smart urbanism that underpins urban developmental politics in the Indian Smart City Mission and ensuing urban forms. Using affordance as an analytical lens, the paper unpacks the social dimension of the Smart City Mission known as “Socially Smart Bhubaneswar,” which has led to a reformatted relationship between marginalized communities, civil society and the state, producing a provincialized form of sma…
Pivoting From Smart to Sustainable
India’s rapid urbanisation has intensified socio-environmental challenges that increasingly undermine urban liveability and economic productivity. While initiatives such as the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) sought to enhance quality of life through technological integration, mounting evidence suggests that pollution, urban heat, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and infrastructure deficits continue to shape everyday urban experiences. This perspect…
A Decade of Smart Urbanism in India through the Smart Cities Mission (SCM)
India is at the forefront of Asia’s urban transformation, with its urban population projected to reach 814 million by 2050. The Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched in 2015, aimed to modernise 100 cities by integrating smart technologies to enhance governance, infrastructure, and quality of life. Initially influenced by Western smart urban models, SCM implementation followed a top-down approach, yet over time, cities have adapted smart initiative…
Demand for Scheduled Tribe status for Adivasis in Assam, India
Varanasi—The Making of a Smart Heritage City
One of the oldest cities in the world, Varanasi is home to more than one religion. It is an acclaimed centre of spirituality for Hindus and Buddhists while being equally sacred for Jains and Sikhs. The city is located along the river Ganga, which many believe is a celestial incarnation to grant salvation. Varanasi is a million-plus-population city; an increasingly important provincial metropolitan centre enshrined with the values of commerce, rel…
AI and data-driven urbanism
This paper presents a deep and critical analysis of Singapore's new wave of state-built digital tools and services and how it connects to its larger smart urbanism project, also known as Smart Nation. The COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly Singapore's response, served as a real-world testing ground for smart urbanist strategies. In particular, we analysed the logic that emanates from these novel digital interventions, how they operate on the com…
Southeast Asia's dynamic sand trade and the need for better data
Health Pandemic and Experience of Covid-19 Infected Health Workers
Due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 disease, the world communities were faced extreme stress to deal with the pandemic. The World Health Organisation (WHO) was decided to declare COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. COVID-19 pandemic was brought extreme challenges on health workers including nurses and ward attendants’ work in the healthcare service. The objective of this study was to explored the impact on health workers of India. This …
Covid- 19 and Economic Loss of First Phase of (21- Day) Lockdown in India
To curb Covid-19 spread, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown on 23 March 2020. The present study makes an attempt to estimate the state-wise and economic activity-wise economic loss of 21- day lockdown in India. The data on Net State Value Added (NSVA) by economic activity was collected for five years from the Reserve Bank of India. It was found that the percentage of the daily loss of Net State Value Added (NS…
Regional disparities of growth and internal migrant workers in informal sectors in the age of Covid‐19
Why does the migrated worker face with the crisis of livelihoods in general and informal sectors in India, particularly during the age of corona? Migrant workers in informal sectors constitute a major percentage of total workforces in India, who have contributed for the economic development. Due to the overlapping nature of migration, it would not be possible to estimate the exact numbers of migrated people in India. This article is an attempt to…
Work life experience of Adivasi (indigenous) workers in Tea Plantation Industry on conflict‐ridden areas in India
The Tea tribes are also known as Adivasis in Assam. They work as wage labourers in Tea Plantation Industry. This study asks three questions: (a) What are the levels of exploitation of Adivasis in general and in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) of Assam in particular due to conflict? (b) What are the causes of lower level of educational attainment and employment nature of Adivasi youth? (c) What is the status of Adivasi women in general …
Pandemic in a smart city
On 23 January 2020, Singapore announced its first COVID-19 case, becoming one of the first countries to be affected by the virus outside China. The government acted swiftly, closed its borders, introduced circuit-breaking measures, and deployed public health and medical expertise in tackling the virus. Both technology and human resources were used extensively for contact tracing, quarantining, and pathogenic management. While all these measures h…
Hydrating Hyderabad
The city of Hyderabad plays a significant role in urban transition processes at play in India. Cyberabad, a section of the city of Hyderabad, developed through the rapid urbanisation of rural villages and land, becoming a high-tech, state of the art, globally connected enclave. On weekday mornings in the neighbourhood of Madhapur, smartly dressed HITEC City workers, with ID tags, emerge from hostel accommodation and walk alongside large, black bu…
Smart City
This entry explores “smart cities,” a concept that has appeared in the urbanization discourse in recent decades. Being a relatively new concept, there are different understandings of what being “smart” constitutes. Therefore, this entry seeks to explore the ways in which “smart cities” have been characterized in the realm of geography and urban studies. Different ways of measuring “smartness” are analyzed, and different examples of “smart city” i…
In pursuit of being smart? A critical analysis of India’s smart cities endeavor
India aspires to modernize through 100 smart cities and achieve higher living standards. They are projected as planned models for other cities to emulate and position themselves as growth engines. The government has devised specific criteria for smart cities and encourages intra-city competition and cooperation with private partners. This paper argues that the 100 smart cities strategy reduces cities to a neoliberal commodity, through which impro…
Water Insecurity in Urban India
This research is an attempt to examine the everyday experiences of water insecurity among poor women in urban India. Their everyday living around a limited amount of water was captured visually to exhibit local idioms of struggling. There is empirical evidence that the narratives of becoming a global city often exacerbate the presence of social polarization and inequality in cities of the Global South. This includes unequal access to water, espec…
India's Recent Development Dynamics and Challenges
This is Editorial
Making of high‐tech H yderabad
Over the past few decades, cities and city regions have become the core of the global economy. Regional governments are increasingly drafting city development policies and implementing them through various visioning documents with the aim of making cities more global, networked and competitive. Welfarist governments especially in the global South are becoming increasingly entrepreneurial, and in the process poor citizens are getting pushed to the…
Hyderabad
Urban Pulse—A Geography of Serial Seduction
Diverse strands of geographic inquiry share a concern for the role of seductive projections of various forms in shaping urban policy and material realities at a distance. We trace a case of urban policy transfer from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia to Hyderabad, India. Drawing on our respective empirical investigations of the two Asian cities, we consider a geography of urban policy replication. At one level, this involves direct political connection…
Colonial and Postcolonial Geographies of India
Urban Pulse—A Geography of Serial Seduction
Diverse strands of geographic inquiry share a concern for the role of seductive projections of various forms in shaping urban policy and material realities at a distance. We trace a case of urban policy transfer from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia to Hyderabad, India. Drawing on our respective empirical investigations of the two Asian cities, we consider a geography of urban policy replication. At one level, this involves direct political connection…
Pandemic in a smart city
On 23 January 2020, Singapore announced its first COVID-19 case, becoming one of the first countries to be affected by the virus outside China. The government acted swiftly, closed its borders, introduced circuit-breaking measures, and deployed public health and medical expertise in tackling the virus. Both technology and human resources were used extensively for contact tracing, quarantining, and pathogenic management. While all these measures h…
In pursuit of being smart? A critical analysis of India’s smart cities endeavor
India aspires to modernize through 100 smart cities and achieve higher living standards. They are projected as planned models for other cities to emulate and position themselves as growth engines. The government has devised specific criteria for smart cities and encourages intra-city competition and cooperation with private partners. This paper argues that the 100 smart cities strategy reduces cities to a neoliberal commodity, through which impro…
Hyderabad
Regional disparities of growth and internal migrant workers in informal sectors in the age of Covid‐19
Why does the migrated worker face with the crisis of livelihoods in general and informal sectors in India, particularly during the age of corona? Migrant workers in informal sectors constitute a major percentage of total workforces in India, who have contributed for the economic development. Due to the overlapping nature of migration, it would not be possible to estimate the exact numbers of migrated people in India. This article is an attempt to…
Hydrating Hyderabad
The city of Hyderabad plays a significant role in urban transition processes at play in India. Cyberabad, a section of the city of Hyderabad, developed through the rapid urbanisation of rural villages and land, becoming a high-tech, state of the art, globally connected enclave. On weekday mornings in the neighbourhood of Madhapur, smartly dressed HITEC City workers, with ID tags, emerge from hostel accommodation and walk alongside large, black bu…
Work life experience of Adivasi (indigenous) workers in Tea Plantation Industry on conflict‐ridden areas in India
The Tea tribes are also known as Adivasis in Assam. They work as wage labourers in Tea Plantation Industry. This study asks three questions: (a) What are the levels of exploitation of Adivasis in general and in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) of Assam in particular due to conflict? (b) What are the causes of lower level of educational attainment and employment nature of Adivasi youth? (c) What is the status of Adivasi women in general …
India's Recent Development Dynamics and Challenges
This is Editorial
Colonial and Postcolonial Geographies of India
Urban Pulse—A Geography of Serial Seduction
Diverse strands of geographic inquiry share a concern for the role of seductive projections of various forms in shaping urban policy and material realities at a distance. We trace a case of urban policy transfer from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia to Hyderabad, India. Drawing on our respective empirical investigations of the two Asian cities, we consider a geography of urban policy replication. At one level, this involves direct political connection…
Making of high‐tech H yderabad
Over the past few decades, cities and city regions have become the core of the global economy. Regional governments are increasingly drafting city development policies and implementing them through various visioning documents with the aim of making cities more global, networked and competitive. Welfarist governments especially in the global South are becoming increasingly entrepreneurial, and in the process poor citizens are getting pushed to the…
Hyderabad
Water Insecurity in Urban India
This research is an attempt to examine the everyday experiences of water insecurity among poor women in urban India. Their everyday living around a limited amount of water was captured visually to exhibit local idioms of struggling. There is empirical evidence that the narratives of becoming a global city often exacerbate the presence of social polarization and inequality in cities of the Global South. This includes unequal access to water, espec…
India's Recent Development Dynamics and Challenges
This is Editorial
Smart City
This entry explores “smart cities,” a concept that has appeared in the urbanization discourse in recent decades. Being a relatively new concept, there are different understandings of what being “smart” constitutes. Therefore, this entry seeks to explore the ways in which “smart cities” have been characterized in the realm of geography and urban studies. Different ways of measuring “smartness” are analyzed, and different examples of “smart city” i…
In pursuit of being smart? A critical analysis of India’s smart cities endeavor
India aspires to modernize through 100 smart cities and achieve higher living standards. They are projected as planned models for other cities to emulate and position themselves as growth engines. The government has devised specific criteria for smart cities and encourages intra-city competition and cooperation with private partners. This paper argues that the 100 smart cities strategy reduces cities to a neoliberal commodity, through which impro…
Covid- 19 and Economic Loss of First Phase of (21- Day) Lockdown in India
To curb Covid-19 spread, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown on 23 March 2020. The present study makes an attempt to estimate the state-wise and economic activity-wise economic loss of 21- day lockdown in India. The data on Net State Value Added (NSVA) by economic activity was collected for five years from the Reserve Bank of India. It was found that the percentage of the daily loss of Net State Value Added (NS…
Regional disparities of growth and internal migrant workers in informal sectors in the age of Covid‐19
Why does the migrated worker face with the crisis of livelihoods in general and informal sectors in India, particularly during the age of corona? Migrant workers in informal sectors constitute a major percentage of total workforces in India, who have contributed for the economic development. Due to the overlapping nature of migration, it would not be possible to estimate the exact numbers of migrated people in India. This article is an attempt to…
Work life experience of Adivasi (indigenous) workers in Tea Plantation Industry on conflict‐ridden areas in India
The Tea tribes are also known as Adivasis in Assam. They work as wage labourers in Tea Plantation Industry. This study asks three questions: (a) What are the levels of exploitation of Adivasis in general and in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) of Assam in particular due to conflict? (b) What are the causes of lower level of educational attainment and employment nature of Adivasi youth? (c) What is the status of Adivasi women in general …
Pandemic in a smart city
On 23 January 2020, Singapore announced its first COVID-19 case, becoming one of the first countries to be affected by the virus outside China. The government acted swiftly, closed its borders, introduced circuit-breaking measures, and deployed public health and medical expertise in tackling the virus. Both technology and human resources were used extensively for contact tracing, quarantining, and pathogenic management. While all these measures h…
Hydrating Hyderabad
The city of Hyderabad plays a significant role in urban transition processes at play in India. Cyberabad, a section of the city of Hyderabad, developed through the rapid urbanisation of rural villages and land, becoming a high-tech, state of the art, globally connected enclave. On weekday mornings in the neighbourhood of Madhapur, smartly dressed HITEC City workers, with ID tags, emerge from hostel accommodation and walk alongside large, black bu…
Health Pandemic and Experience of Covid-19 Infected Health Workers
Due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 disease, the world communities were faced extreme stress to deal with the pandemic. The World Health Organisation (WHO) was decided to declare COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. COVID-19 pandemic was brought extreme challenges on health workers including nurses and ward attendants’ work in the healthcare service. The objective of this study was to explored the impact on health workers of India. This …
Varanasi—The Making of a Smart Heritage City
One of the oldest cities in the world, Varanasi is home to more than one religion. It is an acclaimed centre of spirituality for Hindus and Buddhists while being equally sacred for Jains and Sikhs. The city is located along the river Ganga, which many believe is a celestial incarnation to grant salvation. Varanasi is a million-plus-population city; an increasingly important provincial metropolitan centre enshrined with the values of commerce, rel…
AI and data-driven urbanism
This paper presents a deep and critical analysis of Singapore's new wave of state-built digital tools and services and how it connects to its larger smart urbanism project, also known as Smart Nation. The COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly Singapore's response, served as a real-world testing ground for smart urbanist strategies. In particular, we analysed the logic that emanates from these novel digital interventions, how they operate on the com…
Southeast Asia's dynamic sand trade and the need for better data
A Decade of Smart Urbanism in India through the Smart Cities Mission (SCM)
India is at the forefront of Asia’s urban transformation, with its urban population projected to reach 814 million by 2050. The Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched in 2015, aimed to modernise 100 cities by integrating smart technologies to enhance governance, infrastructure, and quality of life. Initially influenced by Western smart urban models, SCM implementation followed a top-down approach, yet over time, cities have adapted smart initiative…
Demand for Scheduled Tribe status for Adivasis in Assam, India
‘Without Water, We Cannot Survive’
Political ecology gains salience by interrogating the intersectionalities that produce various ecologies, especially water in urban landscapes. This article locates and reads such intersectionalities, especially relating to youth and gender as they navigate everyday multiplicities that consider water as a site and subject of contestation. It focuses on the theory of urban water as a hybrid socio-natural phenomenon and the cycle of water and socie…
Socially smart Bhubaneswar
This paper examines the social dimension of smart urbanism that underpins urban developmental politics in the Indian Smart City Mission and ensuing urban forms. Using affordance as an analytical lens, the paper unpacks the social dimension of the Smart City Mission known as “Socially Smart Bhubaneswar,” which has led to a reformatted relationship between marginalized communities, civil society and the state, producing a provincialized form of sma…
Pivoting From Smart to Sustainable
India’s rapid urbanisation has intensified socio-environmental challenges that increasingly undermine urban liveability and economic productivity. While initiatives such as the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) sought to enhance quality of life through technological integration, mounting evidence suggests that pollution, urban heat, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and infrastructure deficits continue to shape everyday urban experiences. This perspect…
Geography (15 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Economics (10 works) · Engineering (7 works) · Smart Cities and Technologies (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Smart city (6 works) · Socioeconomics (6 works)