Jana Urban Space was founded by Swati Ramanathan in 2007 as India Urban Space Foundation with a vision to transform quality of life in Urban India. Today it is a professional services social enterprise ( PSSE) Delivering transformational, world-class work on the spatial dimension of cities. Jana Urban Space is a not-for-profit entity – part of a clutch of purpose-driven organisations under the umbrella of Jana Group.
India Urban Space Foundation convened Urban Expo Mumbai , a unique democratic platform in partnership with Ministry of Urban Development, GoI, and Jasubhai Media. It was the largest event on Indian cities with an expo, workshops, policy programme and an award ceremony for urban implementation excellence – given to three municipalities. The event successfully brought together delegates including elected representatives, bureaucrats, municipal engineers, industry experts, and academcis from 24 states, 44 cities, 2 UT’s along with 18,000 public footfalls. Twenty large cities also showcased their public projects.
Swati Ramanathan received Rajasthan’s highest civilian honor, the Rajasthan Puraskar, for her work on the Jaipur Master Plan 2025.
A six city project that involved the setting up of a central repository of spatial data using GIS for all agencies
A 2 day workshop in Hindi, with a focus on urban planning and GIS application. It included an interactive visioning session between the chief minister and participants (all senior state urban sector bureaucrats). Participants included 25 Mayors / Chairpersons; 47 Commissioners / Executive Officers, and 60 planners, engineers and technical staff from cities and State Government.
A conference organised in Bangalore and Hyderabad by India Urban Space Foundation and the Department of Urban Development (Directorate of Municipal Administration) GoK, in partnership with MoUD, KUIDFC, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and CPRI. The focus of the conference was to discuss initiatives towards sustainable planning and designing of urban sectors and services and discuss methods of financing and implementation.
Organised in partnership with MoUD, HUPA, Sida, World Bank, Cisco Systems
Conference organised in Bangalore and Delhi by India Urban Space and the Wolfensohn Center for Development at The Brookings Institute in partnership with MoUD, NIUA and IFDC. It was an intensive and structured dialogue at the national level to deep dive into the issues and challenges involved in leveraging land values for financing infrastructure. The policy debate captured diverse national and international experience and perspectives.
Partnership for Land Title Implementation in Urban Management (Project PLATINUM) – was initiated to meet the pressing urban challenge – the absence of secure land titles in India and was both a policy document and a national conference on guaranteed land title security, held in New Delhi. It was born out of a MoU signed between the MoUD, GoI and India Urban Space Foundation to implement the next generation of land reforms.
The first set of street design guidelines to fix what’s on , under and above urban roads in India, published in two volumes. volume 01 outlines design principles for what is on, under, and above the right of way with detailed technical guidelines for each; volume 02 provides a model framework tender contract agreement or the Typical Contract Agreement (TCA). This is aimed at eliminating ambiguity for contractors about the technical planning and design specifications.
Tender S.U.R.E Guidelines was awarded the volvo sustainability award for it being a ground-breaking project that provides a systematic and disciplined way to address the details of design, procurement and execution of city roads.
Based on the merits of the guidelines, 200 Cr INR was allocated in Karnataka’s 2012 budget to redevelop 50 roads in Bangalore as per Tender SURE guidelines. Jana Urban Space designed and monitored 10KM of roads in the central business district as a proof of concept to the government. The completion of Tender SURE phase 01 put urban roads on the map and has had a snowball effect in terms of budgetary allocation and project execution of Tender SURE and Tender SURE like projects across the country.
Jana Urban Space designed, monitored, project managed and facilitated inter agency coordination for the redevelopment of 7 Tender S.U.R.E roads (10 KM) in the central business district of Bangalore as a proof of concept. They are the first roads in the city with uniform travel lanes, continuous footpaths, designated cycle tracks, safe intersections and organised underground utilities contained within the footpaths.
Swati Ramanathan was member,Chief Minister’s Advisory Council (CMAC), Rajasthan between 2013 -2018. Under her leadership, the masterplan for Sawai Madhopur was prepared and submitted in 2016 and notified in 2017. The proposal also included building regulations and 3 plan projects to transform quality of life for the city: Project T.I.G.E.R, Project W.I.L.D and redevelopment of S.H-30.
The Smart City Plan for Bengaluru envisions for a ‘LIVABLE BENGALURU’ by creating ‘Connected, Vibrant and Healthy Communities’ underpinned by the 3E framework: Environment, Economy and Equity. The strategic focus is to provide a remarkable improvement to the quality of life of Bengaluru’s citizens through: enabling connected communities, creating vibrant places, and improving urban health. Seven strategic redevelopment projects were proposed in this area as part of the smart city plan, with the intent of rejuvenating central city areas that were frequented and treasured by residents and visitors while making it on of the most thriving, livable and walkable city centers in India
Bengaluru was awarded the smart city status based on the above proposal in June 2017.
Based on the success of the Tender S.U.R.E roads in Bengaluru, the twin cities of Hubballi–Dharwad have embarked on redeveloping 17 kM of roads as per Tender SURE guidelines. These connect to the airport, several education institutions, the green mobility corridor along Unkal Nala and the BRTS. Of this 17 kM, 2.1 km of Shirur Park Road in Hubbali was completed in 2018 under PWD and 2.4 km in Dharward under KSHIP is nearing completion. The remaining 13 km is under construction as a Hubbali-Dharward smart cities initiative.
In 2018, Jana Urban Space was awarded the contract by the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP), Tamil Nadu to develop the 2040 masterplans for Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Kumbakonam under the AMRUT sub-scheme
The award was for best practices to improve the living environment in the category of urban design & regional planning, inner city revitalization & conservation
With the goal of decluttering the urbanscape, the advertisement by-laws aimed to remove all hoardings while regulating signage, outdoor advertising and branding across Bengaluru.
Envisioning a dense, walkable and transit-friendly business district within the neighbourhood of Nungambakkam in the heart of Chennai.
