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The three-century-old city of Varanasi stands at crossroads between choosing to preserve its Heritagescape and generating a new-age urban landscape. The paper begins by exploring the concepts of Heritage and Heritagescape by taking a contextual stand, whereby it is constructed around the core argument that heritage is a tool in the hands of the powerful and what tangible and intangible aspects of the natural and human world shall be designated and retained as heritage is only a matter of power and power relations. The paper makes a conscious attempt to critically analyze the present-day urban transformations that the city is undergoing owing to its commitment toward a Smart City Mission and the resultant destructions and the contestations that emerge as a response to that. It concludes thereafter that the Smart City Mission in Varanasi has led to manipulative handling of heritage. Though it was launched with the promise of creating urban opportunities without having to pay up for the consequences, it seems unsuccessful in winning over the soul of the city and failing to the idea of sustainability in the process. The paper uses photographs and information from the field, digital and print media, and scholarly articles to substantiate the arguments made. It is more like an analytical essay, justified through evidence from the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 is affecting the entire population of India. Understanding district level correlates of the COVID-19's infection ratio (IR) is essential for formulating policies and interventions. Objective: The present study aims to investigate the district level variation in COVID-19 during March-October 2020. The present study also examines the association between India's socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the COVID-19 infection ratio at the district level. Data and methods: We used publicly available crowdsourced district-level data on COVID-19 from March 14, 2020, to October 31, 2020. We identified hotspot and cold spot districts for COVID-19 cases and infection ratio. We have also carried out two sets of regression analysis to highlight the district level demographic, socioeconomic, household infrastructure facilities, and health-related correlates of the COVID-19 infection ratio. Results: The results showed on October 31, 2020, the IR in India was 42.85 per hundred thousand population, with the highest in Kerala (259.63) and the lowest in Bihar (6.58). About 80 percent infected cases and 61 percent deaths were observed in nine states (Delhi, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana). Moran's- I showed a positive yet poor spatial clustering in the COVID-19 IR over neighboring districts. Our regression analysis demonstrated that percent of 15–59 aged population, district population density, percent of the urban population, district-level testing ratio, and percent of stunted children were significantly and positively associated with the COVID-19 infection ratio. We also found that, with an increasing percentage of literacy, there is a lower infection ratio in Indian districts. Conclusion: The COVID-19 infection ratio was found to be more rampant in districts with a higher working-age population, higher population density, a higher urban population, a higher testing ratio, and a higher level of stunted children. The study findings provide crucial information for policy discourse, emphasizing the vulnerability of the highly urbanized and densely populated areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First world spaces within third world cities emerge as a consequence of the uncontrolled injection of capital. In this age of new urbanism, cohabitation becomes a concern which demands discussion. Therefore, the basic objective of this research has been to capture the spatial interface of class and inhabitancy, within an understanding of the 'right to the city' concept, in the way it exists in the city of Kolkata, India. The argument has been developed by spatially segregating the city in terms of economic cores and peripheries and subsequently cores within cores and peripheries, and peripheries within cores and peripheries. The argument concludes with the understanding that, to those occupying different physical realities of the city, poverty or the lack of it, inhabitation or the lack of it, and rights or the lack of them are everyday existential truths and thus the claims are not directed towards an inter-category shift but are more intra-category in nature, given the categorical realities of each individual citizen (or, rather, 'city'zen). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has been conducted on the native‐immigrant fertility differential in low‐income settings. The objective of our paper is to examine the actual and ideal fertility differential of native and immigrant families in Assam. We used the data from a primary quantitative survey carried out in 52 villages in five districts of Assam during 2014–2015. We performed bivariate analysis and used a multilevel mixed‐effects linear regression model to analyse the actual and ideal fertility differential by type of village. The average number of children ever‐born is the lowest in native villages in contrast to the highest average number of children ever‐born in immigrant villages. The likelihood of having more children is also the highest among women in immigrant villages. However, the effect of religion surpasses the effect of the type of village the women reside in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]