From Pedagogy to Practice
Our Journey
Our Journey
Our journey in planning has been one of exploration — across classrooms, cities, institutions, and countries. What started at CEPT many years ago has grown over 50 years, as our thinking and experience evolved, shaped by the people we learned from, worked with, and taught.
1972 Bachelor of Technology, Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
1972 Bachelor of Architecture Sir J.J. School of Architecture, University of Bombay, 1972
Charting a new path on what is planning
M Plan 1974 PG diploma in Planning (equivalent to a Masters degree), School of Planning (CEPT University), Ahmedabad, India
M Plan 1974 Urban and Regional Planning with Honours School of Planning, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1974
Our journey with CEPT is also 50 years. I still remember the day when I came here to be interviewed by Christopher for admission to the School of Planning. I came with this ‘social vision’ of working with the poor on low cost housing and joined the first batch of School of Planning. And, it changed my life. While the passion is still there just as it was then – my vision has grown – with what I learned here, and what we taught here, and then what we did as we stepped out in the world later.
As students of the first batch at SP – we sure were a privileged lot. We were a small group, friends with our teachers – and fortunate to have teachers who have remained inspirational for us even now. We got to see the ground realities of cities (and villages) as never before and were exposed to the new thinking from all over the world.
We were proud that we were charting new paths – from mere town planning and physical planning to a new type of planning that incorporated social analysis, economics, value of inclusiveness, and theories of change. It was an unbelievable experience as a youngster to hear about the way slum dwellers adapt their housing in cities from John Turner himself. We struggled, and yet were excited, that we were constructing an input-output model for the whole state of Gujarat with Dr Alagh and the SPI faculty – Subbu, Kashyap, Radhakrishna, Atul and SS Mehta. Our frequent visits to the Lakhudi slum to study and understand urban slums were revealing and taught us so much that no classroom lectures could ever do. We became friends with many families there.
We worked nights and slept on the drawing boards in studios for the ‘lab projects’ – and also developed our own black and white photos in the CEPT photo lab. Photocopying had just arrived – but was expensive and a painful process.
In those two memorable years – most importantly, we ‘learned to learn’ for ourselves – to understand new ways of doing things – from a better understanding of people’s lives and lessons from innovations. And, to form values that would last a lifetime.
1975 M.R.P. Masters in City and Regional Planning Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 1975
1977 M.A. Regional Science, School of Social Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA, 1977
1975-76 Research and teaching assistant, Department of Regional Science, University of Pennsylvania (part time).
1982 Research fellow, Department of Regional Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA,
(1987 July- December), Visiting Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA. (1982 January August), Adjunct Professor, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA,
1974 - 75 Research Associate, Centre for Population Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge.
1975 - 1976 Research Associate, International Comparison Project of the United Nations at the Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
1976 - 1978 Research Associate, Gujarat Institute of Area Planning, Ahmedabad.
1987 Visiting Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, USA.
1979 - 1992 School of Planning, CEPT, Ahmedabad. Director, 1992, and Senior Professor from 1988 to 1991.
Academic Management, Teaching and Training
1988-1991 Chair, Academic affairs at School of Planning,
1992 Academic management, supervision of administration, institutional development and financial management as the Director of School of Planning, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1992
1996 Development and delivery of training (including course materials) for Project Development for Urban Infrastructure (for School of Planning at Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology at Ahmedabad, 1996)
1977–1984 Professor, School of Planning Ahmedabad, India. Taught courses in Quantitative Methods (Statistics, Computer Programming, and Systems Analysis), Regional Economics, Urban Planning, Urban Land Policies, and Housing Market Analysis. Also carried out research and consulting activities.
1985 - 1992 Director, School of Planning, (CEPT) Ahmedabad, India. As the head of this institution, the overall responsibilities ranged from mobilizing finances, introduction of new schools and departments, curriculum development, teaching, and supervision of administration, financial management, and institutional development work.
We came back to Ahmedabad in late seventies and soon Dinesh and I were both teaching at SP. My first class as a teacher was with Doshi on Housing. From that first class – we went on to develop an entire new program in Housing. It was a great feeling to be at the cutting edge of housing research working on housing market, housing finance, and housing design. What kept us engaged was to strive to respond to the societal trends and emerging priorities. That meant keeping up with what was happening in the sector in the country and globally.
The second major change has been the technology revolution – for analysis and communications. Dinesh and I still recall the days when we carried our pack of computer cards to the PRL Computer labs for our PhD thesis – and dreaded the thought of dropping them by mistake. From then on, technology has dramatically changed the possibilities of improved planning and management, and increased the possibilities of more involvement of the poor communities through mobile-based crowd sourcing. The possibilities are immense. Even as teachers – we need to adapt our methods to the changing world where the students have access to information as never before. But learning to sift through these, and the ‘learning to learn’ paradigm is still the same. Ability to write is needed even more though not necessarily through academic papers but also good blogs and the 48 characters text in twitter.
During the 14 years that we were here at SP – we worked hard with our students and enjoyed our interactions with them. The joint dinners at Professors’ Quarters were memorable. And, we were always Meera and Dinesh to the students. The first name basis was universally accepted and yet from Doshi we have learned how to respect all – and address everyone with a ‘tame’ in Gujarati.
1986 PhD PhD in Economics S. P. Institute of Economic and Social Research Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India, 1986
1982 PhD University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA in Regional Science and Urban Economics, 1982
For nearly 14 years, we stepped outside CEPT. These years — with NIUA, the FIRE project, UNICEF, and the World Bank — exposed us to new terrains. We worked on issues of urban finance, housing, decentralization, water and sanitation, and informal labor markets. Our work in Africa, particularly on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), taught us about the diversity of contexts, the power of donor politics, and the emergence of “sector-wide approaches.”
anecdotes or experiences
In the eighties and nineties India changed dramatically and moved to a more inclusive agenda – along with an increasing belief in Markets. A paradigm shift was taking place in the country in the way cities were developing. In housing finance, new companies and new business models were emerging. New companies were being set up which went on to scale new heights in finance and corporate management. We were fortunate to be associated with pioneers like HDFC in private sector (Deepak Parekh still remembers us, and Nasser remains a friend). The public sector agency HUDCO supported many research activities of CEPT (and continues to do so). We also engaged with UNICEF to do social sector work in health, and with researchers at the World Bank for many a discussion on new approaches on housing and urban infrastructure development.
We realized that for better cities – we needed not just landuse planning or social planning, but better urban management and urban financing. Slum related plans were not just improved housing but needed access to all services. In doing this we ended up exploring issues of access to finance and community-based approaches. It was equally important to focus on their employment opportunities and the formal-informal market segmentation. I have been fortunate enough to pursue these interests in my doctoral studies and subsequently in my professional work with UNICEF, USAID and the World Bank.
1992 - 1994 Senior Fellow - Coordinator, Research Cell, Human Settlement Management Institute, HUDCO, New Delhi.
1995 - 1999 Senior Urban Finance Advisor, New Delhi Indo-USAID Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion- FIRE Project
1999 – 2000 Urban Specialist, World Bank, New Delhi.
2000 - 2006 Senior Financial Specialist, Water and Sanitation Program, Africa. World Bank, Nairobi.
Water and Sanitation
Stumbled on to the world of sanitation – while doing a study in Nepal for UNICEF and World Bank .. Then learned more during the7 years in Nairobi – with the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)…
PRSP study… how it was difficult to remember the names of countries in Africa their capital cities.. and this study actually helped me to learn about the diversity
Was really surprised to see how the World Bank, AfDB and other European countries through their bilateral funds played such an important role in many African countries. In some of these 90% of funding for the capital budget came from these sources. This led to a lot of concern with countries having to follow different priorities of different donors. As a result, a new approach came into focus – Sectorwide Approach. It put an emphasis on a sector level approach developed by the country partners themselves and viewing the overall sector priorities. This was also in accordance with the Paris accord It is interesting that it is still in vogue as per a 2020 comment by ILO. “A SWAp is a systematic approach allowing development partners (DPs) to work together in partnership with government by pooling resources into common basket to support sector/subsector-wide development in an integrated manner under the government's common policy framework .” (Link)
1992–1997 Director, (NIUA) National Institute of Urban Affairs, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, New Delhi. As the Chief Executive of the institute, responsibilities included overall administration, financial management, supervision of research activities, institutional development, research and publication; drafting policy inputs to the GOI on urban development, decentralization, municipal finance, urban poverty reduction, shelter, and capacity building; and liaison with national and international agencies on behalf of Government
1997- 2000 Regional Advisor South Asia, Urban Management Programme, UN-HABITAT, New Delhi/Bangkok. Established the sub-regional office of for South Asia and worked in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Iran, and Bhutan. Also supported activities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam
2000 -2005 Global Coordinator, Urban Management Programme, UN-HABITAT, Nairobi. A multidonor Programme supported by UNDP/World Bank and executed by UN-HABITAT. I was Responsible for Programme management (of annual budget of USD 5 million) and supervision of six regional and sub-regional offices of the programme working in 120 cities in 57 countries and worked closely with UNDP, World Bank, DFID, SIDA, SDC, and other partners
2005- 2006: Officer-in-Charge, Urban Development Branch, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT) Nairobi. Coordinated activities of its three sections – Governance, Disaster, Post-Conflict and Safety, and Environment and programmes related to localizing MDGs and Managing HIV/AIDS in cities
Returning to India, we also experimented with consulting — through Vistaar and other projects. This was an attempt to see how research and ideas could actually influence practice on the ground. It gave us a closer view of the challenges city governments face and reinforced our belief that planning must be about dialogue and partnerships, not just plans on paper.
More insights.... like which cities, what projects, what lessons about working with government officials
2010 onwards Executive Director, Center for Water and Sanitation at CEPT;
2007 onwards Professor Emeritus, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India (Pro-Bono); International Consultant: Water and Sanitation, Urban Development, Infrastructure Finance, Municipal development and strengthening
January 2007 onwards: Professor Emeritus, School of Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad India. Executive Director, Centre for Water and Sanitation (CWAS), teaching course on urban management and development innovations
In 2008, we returned once more to CEPT. What began as the Performance Assessment System (PAS) project — benchmarking water and sanitation across Gujarat and Maharashtra — grew into something larger. CWAS (Center for Water and Sanitation) became not just a center but a family.
We worked with small towns like Wai and Sinnar, showing how scheduled desludging could transform sanitation. We developed tools for benchmarking, finance, and accountability. Over the years, CWAS has become a reference point for inclusive sanitation, not only in India but globally.
Focus on understanding community views and priorities, issues of equity and participation
public purpose and planners as facilitators, Responding to priorities and emerging issues, learned to work from micro to macro .. we had speakers talk to us to reflect these views from john turner to many national scholars- those who had worked with government and led NGos
Other experiences in academics -
2009 Advisor for City Infrastructure Planning for Student Projects at the Infrastructure Planning Program, Ph.D and Masters Dissertations, Faculty of Planning and Public Policy, CEPT University, 2009 onwards.
2018-22 Development and teaching of module/ course on ‘Sanitation Financing’ at the IHE, Delft, Netherlands each year from 2018 to 2022.
2013 to 2015 External Examiner for the M. Sc course on International Planning and Sustainable Urban Management at the Reading University, UK, March 2013 to 2015.
Throughout this journey, our inspirations have been many. From Doshi’s humanism to Benninger’s rigor, from Dr. Alagh’s economics to Piers Cross’s sectoral insights, we have drawn from a wide pool of mentors and colleagues. But the greatest inspiration has always been our students. They have been our family, colleagues, and friends — pushing us with new ideas, accompanying us on field visits, and carrying forward the values of equity and public purpose.
As we look back, we realize our journey has been less about moving from one institution to another, and more about carrying forward a way of thinking: that planning must be contextual, inclusive, and always open to learning.
Learning to learn
Student teacher close links and friendships
Spending time with students - even on Sundays
Great teachers from whom we learned even more outside of classes
SP as a family and
great fun we had hosting them in our small house
Have always strived to look for meaningful activities, a focus on the poor – and where our actions will bring value
Need to remember and write down many anecdotes – which both convey meaning and some humour, interest etc..