Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS)

A diagnostic tool that evaluates the quality of governance in cities

India’s city-systems – the complex, mostly-invisible factors such as laws, policies, institutions, institutional processes underpin urban governance and strongly influence the quality of life in India’s cities. Our flagship advocacy initiative – the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS), is a tool that comprehensively diagnoses the state of these city systems.

ASICS is a health diagnostic of our cities. The better a city scores, the better it stands to provide its citizens good quality of life in the medium to long term. Moreover, it indicates the degree and direction of systemic reforms undertaken by governments in the urban context.

Framework

Our city-systems framework provides a comprehensive systems approach to diagnose and address governance and institutional reforms. Our framework evaluates the quality of governance in cities and consists of the following four components.

How do we use ASICS?

ASICS aims to provide a common frame of reference for political and administrative leaders, business and academia, media and civil society, in different cities to converge on their agenda for transformative reforms.
We take a collaborative approach, using Janaagraha's expertise in governance reforms combined with city partners with local knowledge and relationships.
This collaborative potential is used to effectively engage political and administrative decision makers using ASICS findings, and advocate and implement reform agendas to improve urban governance, and thereby the ability of our cities to deliver good quality of life.