published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

Economic globalisation is enabling India to reinvent itself as a development crucible, providing previously unrealised opportunities for economic transformation. One crucial transformation of economic success is the rapidly growing middle class. Whilst the growth in the middle classes indicates improvement in the quality of life of many, the rate of consumption has also been increasing exponentially. If they, the middle classes consume resources at the same rate as the British and Americans, India will become the world’s number one producer of carbon emissions. The attitudes and aspirations of the growing middle classes are a major factor in the increased, and perhaps impulsive consumption patterns. It is therefore the aim of this research to consider the bottom-up approach, which validates this thesis by examining middle class homeowners’ preferences in Mysore, a south Indian city. Mysore used to be recognised as having socially cohesive and inclusive housing typologies that were climate responsive and calibrated to local, social and economic needs. Changes in social conditions, cultural practices and lifestyle can be seen in the way homeowners use their homes to demonstrate affluence and status. A key challenge is to research ways in which sustainable housing in an Indian context can both mitigate carbon emissions and at the same time address the material aspirations and desires of a fast-growing middle class. Baseline characteristics and homeowners’ attitudes are established by means of literature research and fieldwork. The output of this stage is triangulated with further research to narrow the focus towards boundary conditions and transition spaces for an in-depth study of relevant factors contributing towards consumption, aspiration and sustainability. The second stage points to the importance of the external boundary of the site and the edge of buildings in terms of aligning meaningful, sustainable design strategies with the concerns and aspirations of the emergent middle-class. This thesis argues that, in the domain of sustainable housing, both a qualitative approach and quantitative strategies are essential to the understanding of social and cultural dynamics as well as to measure and benchmark performance. Because of the nature of this multi-threaded approach, mixed method research practices have been followed using triangulation methodologies and grounded theory. This has resulted in the revisiting and refining of the research focus and objectives throughout the research. During the research process, spatial scenarios for housing were developed to harmonise preferences and different sustainability agendas. The research focused on identifying and testing the critical building characteristics of the boundary location. Homeowners’ preferences were qualified by a multi-sorting task analysis and study model performance tested by sophisticated environmental simulation. This was triangulated with fieldwork studies to help propose sustainable housing strategies. The methodology adopted has been critical to supporting the architectural response to the cultural and economic condition on one hand (social methods) and the climate responsive, traditional design and simulation models (environmental design methods) on the other. Different sets of fieldwork were conducted at two stages that involved archival searches and detailed interaction with architects, builders, users, academics and government agencies. In total, 240 respondents answered a questionnaire survey and 146 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The outcome of this research demonstrates how, in the absence of any counterbalancing regulations, social perception and economic aspirations limit the acceptability of sustainable design and construction strategies. In India, middle class demographics and value systems are complex; where safety and security, and display of wealth have to go hand in hand. In this context, this research provides new insight into the way sustainability can be understood in the Indian context with qualitative values that are complemented by quantitative measurements. Finally, this research suggests ways of introducing sustainable practices through a negotiated understanding that balances aspirations with more responsive design. India has identified housing as one of the eight national missions to reduce carbon emissions as part of its commitment to reduce people’s vulnerability to the impact of climate change. In a geo-climatically, regionally and culturally diverse country like India, the top-down national policy can only be successfully implemented with an understanding of the local context. A bottom-up approach to identify sustainable strategies that acknowledge homeowners needs and aspirations should be a useful contribution to achieving carbon reduction and sustainable housing in Mysore. With minor adjustments, the methodology and research process could be adopted in other Indian cities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 300-324). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

L’objet de ce travail est l’étude de la peinture au Karnataka depuis l’école de Vijayanāgar jusqu’à celle de Mysore, du XVIème au XIXème siècle. Nous avons tenté de réunir le corpus le plus large possible afin d’avoir une vision globale de l’art du Karnataka à travers ses peintures murales, ses manuscrits illustrés et ses images mobiles.Notre objectif était de mieux comprendre l’évolution de la peinture au Karnataka durant les trois cents ans qui séparent l’école de Vijayanāgar de celle de Mysore. Les seuls vestiges de l’école de peinture de Vijayanāgar se trouvent dans les peintures murales des temples Vīrabhadra de Lēpākṣī et celles du temple Virūpākṣa de Hampi. Nous présentons ces deux sanctuaires avant d’aborder l’école de peinture de Mysore et son iconographie, qui doit son rayonnement au roi Kṛṣṇarāja Woḍeyar III. A la même époque naissait aussi l’école de Surpur, inconnue jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Deux collections non publiées de miniatures provenant de Mysore et de Surpur nous ont permis de mieux comprendre l’évolution de ces écoles. La thèse prend aussi en compte d’autres développements spécifiques de l’art du Karnataka. Nous présentons en particulier les peintures murales du palais d’été de Tipu Sultan, qui se démarquent nettement des autres réalisations contemporaines, et des manuscrits d’un type original, nommés Uddharane, destinés à l’instruction des dévots adeptes du courant vīraśaiva. / The aim of this work is to study the paintings of Karnataka from the school of Vijayanagar to that of Mysore. It covers the period from the XVIth to the XIXth century. Our goal was to better understand the evolution of painting in Karnataka during the three hundred years that separate both schools. The only remains of the Vijayanāgar School of Painting can be found in the murals of the Vīrabhadra Temples of Lēpākṣī and those of the Virūpākṣa Temple in Hampi. We discuss these two temples before evoking the school of painting of Mysore through its murals, manuscripts and miniatures. This school is closely connected to King Kṛṣṇarāja Woḍeyar III. Contemporarily to the school of Mysore appeared the school of Surpur, unknown until now. Two unpublished collections of miniatures from Mysore and Surpur have allowed us to better understand the evolution of these schools. Other pictorial achievements present specific developments in the art of Karnataka. We present the mural paintings of Tipu Sultan's summer palace, which stands out clearly from the previous era, as well as the Uddharane manuscript intended for the teaching of the devotees.We have tried to bring together in this work the widest possible corpus of murals, manuscripts and miniatures in order to have a global vision of painting in Karnataka.

Indian cities rely predominantly on buses for public transport. The issues of performance measurement and efficiency analyses for the bus company have been gaining significance due to severe operating conditions and financial constraints in which these bus companies provide the service. Performance is defined as the levels of success of the service with respect to different parameters such as quality of service, cost effectiveness and safety. Performance is measured in terms of operational efficiency and financial efficiency. Operational Efficiency of an organization is the ability to utilize its available resources to the maximum extent. Financial Efficiency is a measure of the organization’s ability to translate its financial resources into revenue. Public bus transportation plays a pivotal role in India in bringing about greater mobility both within and between urban and rural areas. Through increased mobility, road transport also contributes immensely to social and economic development of different regions of the country. Public transport is provided by surface road transport using buses by the State Road Transport Undertakings (SRTUs) and by private operators. In this thesis, scientific analysis of the performance of SRTUs is carried out at different levels considering physical and financial parameters through multivariate techniques, non-parametric techniques and qualitative techniques. A comprehensive study on all the SRTUs of Karnataka at depot, division level are done and determined which quantitative method is suited for depot level and division level studies. From quantitative and qualitative studies of SRTUs strategies are developed and recommendations are made to improve the performance of SRTUs. Further, in addition to Bangalore metropolitan transport corporation (BMTC) performance analyses, the routes are analyzed to reduce the dead kilometer. Major contributions from this work: 1. Both inter and intra city operations of the public transport corporation in the state of Karnataka have been exhaustively analysed using operational and financial parameters. 2. Large amount of data over a long period has been collated from State road transport units and a standard format has been developed for collecting both operational and financial parameters for SRTU’s. 3. A generic framework and plan for performance evaluation of SRTU’s has been developed using ratio and benchmarking analysis, and, non-parametric and multivariate techniques like DEA (constant return to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS)), DEA-principal component analysis (PCA), DEA- bootstrapping. These analyses have been carried out at different levels, like transport corporations level (KSRTC NEKRTC, NWKRTC, BMTC), division level (33 divisions), and Depot level (193 depots). 4. Non parametric and multivariate Models have been developed and validated using DEAP and GAMS software before embarking on the above detailed analyses. 5. Analytical hierarchy approach (AHP), which is multi criteria structured technique, has been adopted to evaluate and analyze performance of the SRTU’s, divisions and depots based on qualitative and quantitative data. 6. User and operator perception studies of different SRTU’s of Karnataka have been done to evaluate the performance of these corporations from qualitative techniques. 7. From these comprehensive non parametric techniques, the efficiency of the SRTU’s have been evaluated and found that KSRTC has been the best operating unit among the SRTU’s considered for the study. The same has been observed from the AHP as well as perception surveys carried out as part of this thesis. 8. Operation and financial performance including profitability studies of Mysore urban transportation (Mysore city transport division) has been carried out before and after implementation of intelligent transport system (ITS). 9. The dead kilometer minimization model was formulated, which is a mixed integer programming problem, to get the optimal solution considering the capacity of the depot and time period of operation for the chosen network. An optimization technique has been developed for solving the dead kilometer problem in the operations of BMTC buses for the Volvo division (division operates 794 schedules). The alternative depot locations have been identified to reduce the dead kilometer, leading to large amount of savings for the corporation. 10. From the detailed analyses using non parametric techniques, multivariate and multi-criteria techniques along with perception surveys, strategies and recommendations have been arrived at to improve performance of the public transport corporations. This thesis consists of nine chapters and they are as below; Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction of public bus transport systems in India, their problems and need for performance evaluation of SRTUs. The impacts study of Mysore ITS, dead kilometer minimization problem for BMTC along with evaluating the performance of SRTUs by quantitative and qualitative data. This chapter provides the objective of the work and scope of the work. The main objectives of this research are 1. To develop a generic framework and plan for evaluation by identifying the performance indicators and data sources for evaluation.

This dissertation explores the intellectual and cultural history of natural knowledge at the eighteenth-century court of Tipu Sultan of Mysore (r.1782-1799), and the ways in which this knowledge was both a product of Mysore’s local context and its wider global connections. It argues that more attention to Mysore’s sources and perspective is needed in the history of science given the power and productivity of the court before it was conquered by the British East India Company (BEIC) in 1799. After 1799, the BEIC dispersed the Mysore’s court’s library and artifacts, and obscured the court’s contributions to knowledge-making. This dissertation demonstrates that Mysore’s library and gardens were sites of natural science collection, experimentation, and production worthy of study. The extant collection of Tipu Sultan’s manuscripts remains understudied, especially those related to science. This dissertation outlines the surviving library texts related to natural knowledge and provides case studies of particular manuscripts that showcase Tipu Sultan’s interest in collecting, organizing, and producing encyclopedic knowledge of nature and natural processes. It further emphasizes that many (often unnamed) hands and labors enabled the natural sciences to be produced and disseminated in the eighteenth century, through close readings of Persian, French, and English texts and diplomatic records related to Tipu Sultan’s court. It thus seeks to recover both the elite contributions of Tipu Sultan and his courtiers engaged in natural knowledge production as well as the more obscure, but no less vital contributions of unnamed actors.