CDSA is a pioneering institution in contextual, convergent urban, rural and regional sustainable development planning registered as non-profit Trust and Society under the relevant Acts of 1860 and 1950 respectively in India. CDSA aims to work towards development which is leading to the attainment of a higher quality of life in a sustainable and inclusive manner with equity and justice for vulnerable sections of society. CDSA conducts research on development problems and processes, teaches and trains participants about them and helps governments and other agencies and other public bodies by training their personnel and consulting them about public policy and decision making.
Health Threat Monitoring
The world at large is facing a common threat in the form of the COVID 19 outbreak. India in particular will face great challenges in the coming months in terms of dealing with the challenge of mitigating and finally stopping the spread of COVID19 throughout the country. Indian cities as well as villages shall face the threat of COVID19 outbreaks due to densely populated settlements and return migration from cities to villages. To monitor this threat as well as any upcoming epidemics, Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA) has created the social protection, migration and health threat tracking system which uses the Oikomatrix framework and QCM platform and iNagrik mobile application.
Oikomatrix
CDSA is aims to conduct research on development problems and processes, to experiment with planning methods, to develop techniques of evaluation which give accurate feedback on the nature and type of changes taking place in the society. To understand the complexity and dynamic nature of human settlements and society, Centre has developed a robust and versatile framework called Oikomatrix comprising of various modules for measuring and analyzing various parameters of human settlements affecting quality of life, risk, sustainability and social development.
You can support us in development of new tools and algorithms to understand our settlements in a better way.
Pedestrian Safety
The rapid increase in population in Indian cities entails an increase in vehicle users and in turn a high probability of an uptick in accidents involving pedestrians. We at Centre for Development Studies and Activities, conduct various action research projects to find various approaches, methods and interventions to curtail road accidents of various types. These include awareness drives with citizens and school children to stricter adherence to traffic rules, new methodologies to analyse urban traffic and design interventions to increase pedestrian safety.
Urban Local governance
Rapid urbanization in India, sends a clear message that cities and city governments will have to prepare themselves for managing resources and providing equitable service delivery to their citizens in a sustained manner. 74th Constitutional Amendment Act granted powers and functions to urban local bodies as well as communities under their jurisdiction enabling participatory local self governance. CDSA has initiated a movement called the Quantified Cities Movement which uses the Oikomatrix – an ecosystem framework developed by CDSA – to create decentralized, evidence based, participatory, local urban policies.