Pre/Post/Special Conference Sessions

What should a contemporary, trustworthy land administration system in India look like? This is the central question this session seeks to discuss. India has inherited a land administration system from previous colonial and pre-colonial governments, with differences around the country evolving from socio-cultural practices as well as respective policies and practices implemented by state governments in post-independent India.

Today, India is rapidly urbanising and industrialising, with informal settlements becoming a prolific urban form; yet two-thirds of the country is still agricultural, and rural and peri-urban land is increasingly fragmented. People’s experience of land administration is often at the village level, but urban and rural land administration practices are often administered by different institutions and at different levels. Additionally, various responsibilities for land administration are prescribed under State, Union, and Concurrent Lists.

Sustainable development demands reconfiguring land resources and greater coordination especially since the integrity of land administration in India is often cast in doubt. Land acquisition, land pooling and land compensation practices are known to experience serious issues. This is compounded by a longstanding legacy of chronically erroneous, missing or fraudulent land tenure information, which subverts the effective implementation of land policy reforms and dispute resolution frameworks. Despite significant initiatives like the national Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme, trustworthy land administration seems an intractable problem.

How can India transition beyond these legacy practices and systems that have been shown to be limiting and limited in accommodating and administering a diverse array of property rights and in dealing with rapid economic transformation? How can India move towards institutionalising a contemporary land administration system that is trustworthy, inclusive, just, innovative and future-ready?

This session calls for practice-oriented, multidisciplinary research/enquiry that explores the themes of transition, inclusion, integrity/trustworthiness and innovation in Indian land administration. We invite papers/presentations from practitioners, policy makers and researchers that ideally aim to address one or more of the following themes:

• Analyse existing challenges to provide an evidence base for making policy recommendations.
• Investigate new innovative practices that are disrupting traditional land administration, leading to improved social and service outcomes.
• Explore new modes of collaboration for delivering land administration that better meets the needs of Indian society.