Smruti Koppikar is an award-winning Mumbai-based journalist and currently the Founder Editor of Question of Cities, an online journal on cities and ecology.
Articles by Smruti Koppikar
Maharashtra votes 2024: Dynasties abound, but who speaks for the Maharashtrian?
Pawars, Patils, Deshmukhs, Shindes, Chavans, Bhonsles, Thackerays, Khadses, Ranes, Deoras, Gaikwads and more have their younger generation in the political fray
Updated on May 03, 2024 11:28 AM IST
Maharashtra votes 2024: For state choking on pollution, eco-governance only cure
Most of the cases in Maharashtra were violations under environmental laws such as the polluting cement ready-mix plants and construction sites
Updated on May 02, 2024 02:04 PM IST
Maharashtra votes 2024: How co-ops, RDBs became lynchpins of state politics
The state has nearly 22,000 agricultural credit societies, which are the bedrock of the cooperatives network, offering short-term agricultural credit to farmers
Published on May 01, 2024 11:17 AM IST
Maharashtra votes 2024: Why is the state losing big projects to Gujarat?
The finance sector has shown a preference, natural or politically nudged, towards the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City, near Ahmedabad
Updated on Apr 30, 2024 06:00 PM IST
Maharashtra votes 2024: How urbanisation hinders the idea of a sustainable city
Slums are the strongest symbol of the failure of urban development plans and policies, and Maharashtra has the largest number of tenements in India
Updated on Apr 29, 2024 11:06 AM IST
Maharashtra votes 2024: Why do the powerful Marathas want to be tagged backward?
The last few years of pro-reservation agitations by the Maratha community have taken people within and outside Maharashtra by surprise
Published on Apr 27, 2024 11:16 AM IST
Maharashtra votes 2024: Why unemployment dogs governments past and present
The focus on urban jobs will not help ease the situation in the state because 60 percent of all those employed continue to work in rural areas
Updated on Apr 26, 2024 11:51 AM IST
Maharashtra votes 2024: Farmers across state plough through pain of bleak future
The past three years have witnessed worst-ever droughts and floods in the state, one following the other that point to a vital shift in the monsoon pattern
Updated on Apr 26, 2024 09:43 AM IST
Epidemic of fear and panic about CoVID-19
Whether a city manages to ride out an epidemic with minimum loss depends partly on its good fortunes, partly on its administrators who manage information and health networks, and partly on its citizens
Updated on Mar 11, 2020 11:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar, Mumbai
Mumbai’s story: Vicious riot and elusive justice
In Delhi, policemen were either mute spectators or predators as mobs wreaked havoc and violence on innocent citizens.
Updated on Mar 05, 2020 01:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
The malice in making protests and protesters invisible
The city police attempted this with Mumbai Bagh too in a way citing traffic impediments and bringing pressure to bear on the women sitting-in, slapping notices and FIRs on them and volunteers, profiling protesters and visitors.
Updated on Feb 20, 2020 01:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar, Mumbai
How to redefine nightlife in a city that never sleeps
Mumbai, at its heart, is a commercial city; its rhythms do not cease at night and never will.
Updated on Jan 23, 2020 12:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
2020 brings hope that Indians will reclaim a composite nation
It’s a year that carries hope and aspirations of millions – hope for a gentler and more just future, aspiration to be any kind of an Indian that one wishes to be with freedom and joy.
Updated on Jan 02, 2020 12:04 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
2019: When city streets became protest sites
The urban space turned into a site of spontaneous and electrifying protests against governments.
Published on Dec 26, 2019 12:29 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
De-citizenisation by CAA-NRC drills through India’s soul
The purpose of CAA-NRC is ostensibly to weed out illegal immigrants from three neighbouring countries but implicitly threatens Indian Muslims as well as all Indians who do not possess documents of their ancestry here.
Updated on Dec 19, 2019 07:24 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
Gender equality: Global concern, Mumbai’s ignominy
Despite anecdotal signals of women breaching barriers and breaking ceilings in several domains, the bias exists.
Updated on Dec 12, 2019 12:41 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
Why Mumbai can’t honestly say ‘Let’s move on’
In the new-normal Mumbai, religion has come to play a greater part than it did in civic and personal matters
Updated on Nov 13, 2019 11:13 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
Mumbai Story: From sea unto sea?
The city’s geography and future is being threatened by rising sea levels as an outcome of global warming
Updated on Nov 07, 2019 12:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar
Why Mumbai’s voter disinterest is a disgrace
Mumbai did not acquit itself with honour this Assembly election; south Mumbai even less so. The average voter turnout in the city this Monday was a dull 50.5% – about 10.6% lower than Maharashtra’s average and about 1.5% lower than the city’s turnout five years ago.
Updated on Oct 24, 2019 12:08 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Smruti Koppikar