The digital frontier in India’s master planning: The case of GIS-based Master Plans

RC21 Conference on Urban and Regional Development, ‘Inequalities and the City: Old Issues, New Challenges,’ Vienna, 20–22 July 2026

This talk introduced the concept of the ‘digital frontier’ to analyse how the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) GIS Master Plan is reconfiguring statutory urban planning across Indian states. It used the state government as the main unit of analysis and adopted a comparative approach to examine how different state contexts have shaped the implementation of the reform. The analytical framework highlighted five dimensions: the political, historical, and planning legacy of each state; the division of labour between actors; the distribution of decision-making authority; the changes in planning workflows and routines; and the resources and capacities available to state governments. The talk used these dimensions to explore how a centrally initiated digital planning reform interacts with existing state-level planning institutions and practices, and whether its implementation represents a reconfiguration of statutory urban planning.

More information
https://rc21-vienna2026.org/