‘Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India’ : NITI Aayog

In News

• The report, titled ‘Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India’, was released by NITI Aayog.
  • It has urged all central universities and technical institutions states to offer postgraduate degree programmes (M.Tech. Planning) to cater to the requirement of planners.
    • The report noted that only a little more than 1000 students every year pursue this degree in India.

Key Challenges faced by Planning Courses as per the Report

• Lack of Enrollment in Planning Education
  • The All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) in India shows that 
    • only 938 students were enrolled in undergraduate planning education in 2018-19 while 
    • 1028 were enrolled in M.Plan and  only 8 candidates enrolled for PhD in planning.
    • The AISHE report 2019-20 showed a slightly better enrolment, particularly, in the Ph.D. 
    • It also noted that programme-wise enrolment at all the levels of degrees in planning remains a fraction in comparison to the other fields like arts, sciences, and business administration.
• Less appealing from employment perspective
  • The urban and regional planning education courses offered in India do not appear appealing (in comparison to other fields) to a wide spectrum of prospective students due to following reasons.
    • Unclear future employability, 
    • Low return on investments, 
    • Lack of awareness in the employers and 
    • Quality of education/infrastructure.
• Lack of Knowledge/ Awareness among General Public
  • Also, urban planning as a profession is not widely known to the general public.
  • It can be another reason for the low application level in the degree programmes at undergraduate levels.

Opportunities for the Government to Rope in

• Market Size and Requirement
  • It has been estimated that currently, approximately 17,000 urban planners may be available in the market while the actual need may be much higher.

Solutions to increase Enrolment and increase Awareness

• Synergize Educational Institutes with Different Ministries
  • All institutions offering such course should synergize with 
    • the Union ministry of rural development
    • the ministry of panchayati raj and 
    • state governments.
  • It will help  to develop demand-driven short-term programmes on rural area planning.
• Regulation by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
  • The AICTE may retain the names of specializations based on industry requirements while limiting them to an appropriate number.
• Need to resolve faculty shortage
  • Faculty shortage for conducting degree and PhD programmes in planning need to be resolved in a time-bound manner by 2022.

Conclusion and Way Forward

• There is a need for increased interaction between planning agencies and citizens.
• By promoting planning courses, the government can boost Skill India and AtmaNirbhar Bharat Project.
• These Urban Planners can help in better management of towns, municipalities and smart cities.

Source: IE