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The Print
21-05-2025
- Health
- The Print
Only 1 of Mumbai's 24 wards gets round-the-clock water supply—Praja Foundation report
This was made known in non-profit Praja Foundation's 'Report on the Status of Civic Issues in Mumbai' unveiled at its annual meeting Tuesday at Mumbai Press Club. The meeting focused on water, sewerage, solid waste management, toilets and air quality in the city. While non-slum areas received 135 litres per capita per day (lpcd) of water, slum areas received only 45 lpcd through metered connections. Further, most slum populations rely on water tankers and other sources for water instead of metered water. This cost them more than Rs 700 per month compared to Rs 25 per month for non-slum households in 2024. Mumbai: Only one of 24 wards in Mumbai receives round-the-clock water supply, while average supply is just 5.37 hours per day despite a project launched in 2014 for uninterrupted water supply. Mumbai faced a 15 percent water shortage in 2024—the supply was 3,975 MLD, as against the total demand of 4,664 MLD. 'Mumbai's water supply struggles with significant disparities between the available water resources and how they are distributed throughout the city. Despite the guidelines prescribed by the ministry of housing and urban affairs of 135 lpcd of water, slum households depend on additional water sources for 90 lpcd,' Milind Mhaske, CEO of Praja Foundation, said. The report highlighted that water supply in Mumbai stands at 3,975 MLD, compared to its demand of 4,664 MLD, resulting in supply shortage of 689 MLD. The Praja Foundation report also underlined a spike in pollution levels in Mumbai's Mithi river. Biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels in the river stood at 210 mg/l in 2023, compared to 80 mg/l in 2022. BOD is a measure that states levels of water pollution. The higher the BOD level, more the pollution in the water. Between 2020 and 2024, complaints linked to waterborne diseases in the city rose by 52 percent. The report further found that the city's more affluent wards generated the highest per capita waste in 2024 compared to suburban wards. According to a response received under Right to Information (RTI) by Praja Foundation, waste collected from all wards stood at 24,37,420 metric tonnes last year. Speaking at the event, Shreyas Chorgi, Manager, Research and Analysis, Praja Foundation, said waste management complaints in the city have surged by 380 percent since 2015, while Mhaske pointed out that the Bombay High Court had directed civic officials to look for a dumping ground other than Kanjurmarg, where most of the waste is dumped. The report noted that the Mumbai civic body can save Rs 1,485 crore annually with a decentralised solid waste management system, focusing on localising waste processing through community-based waste management facilities. Such a system handles segregation, composting, and recycling of waste at the source. Mhaske also said data from the Environment Status Report (ESR) released annually by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was at odds with the civic data they had got via RTI. 'ESR is an important tool that needs to be used for the betterment of civic issues in the city, and in the absence of elected representatives, administrators need to be more vigilant about these concerns,' he said. Also Read: Rs 17,000 cr revamp for Mumbai's British-era BDD chawls: Residents hopeful, planners have doubts Status of public toilets The status of public toilets in the city also painted a dire picture. For every four public toilet seats in 2024, only one was for women, according to RTI data accessed by Praja. Of the 6,800 public toilets in the Mumbai Metropolitan Area, only 2,973 are functional, while 3,827 lack electricity and water. As many as 69 percent of community toilet blocks lack water connections, and 60 percent lack electricity connections. In 2023, against the Swachh Bharat Mission norm of one community toilet seat for every 35 male users and 25 female users, one seat was available for 86 men and one for 81 women. According to Chorgi, 1.15 lakh complaints were received on Mumbai's Centralised Complaint Registration System (CCRS) last year relating to water, waste, sewage, pollution and toilets. This was an increase of 70 percent from 2015. The CCRS helps in tracking and complaint resolution by the BMC. 'To strengthen service delivery, BMC must improve CCRS by ensuring timely complaint redressal, and introduce a citizen feedback system for greater accountability for democratic empowerment as per the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act,' Mhaske said. Pooja Bhatia is an intern with ThePrint. (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: Mumbai homes are making a giant mess. Over 2,000 buildings being torn down, built back up
Business Upturn
19-05-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
Court Easy AI Makes History: First AI System to Pass All India Bar Exam with Full Legal Reasoning
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India: Court Easy AI today announced a breakthrough achievement in legal technology at a press conference held at the Mumbai Press Club: it has successfully passed the All India Bar Exam (AIBE), providing not only correct answers but also accurate legal reasoning with relevant statutory citations. This milestone represents the first documented case of an artificial intelligence (AI) system qualifying for a professional legal examination with transparent and verifiable reasoning capabilities. The AIBE is the mandatory gateway examination for practicing law in India. Court Easy AI's success demonstrates the potential of Domain Aligned AI technology, developed by Nugen Intelligence, to create reliable AI systems for specialized professional domains where precision is paramount. The achievement was verified by legal and technology experts, with Court Easy AI successfully passing two consecutive editions of the AIBE, 18th and 19th from years 2023 and 2024 respectively, at performance levels substantially exceeding the qualification thresholds established by the Bar Council of India. Detailed evaluation revealed that Court Easy AI achieved 87% correct responses on AIBE-18 and 73.1% on AIBE-19, significantly outperforming the qualification thresholds of around 45% for general in each exam. Advertisement 'This achievement demonstrates that reliable AI can be built for domains where precision and trust are critical,' said Dr. Aakash Patil, CEO of Nugen Intelligence, a deep-tech AI research startup founded by AI experts from Stanford University and IIT Madras. 'Our fundamental innovation in Domain Aligned AI technology enables AI systems to maintain reliability within strict professional boundaries, something that has been a significant challenge for AI in specialized fields.' When compared with leading general-purpose AI models, Court Easy AI demonstrated superior precision in legal reasoning along with citation. 'While these results are impressive, we are committed to further improving these performance metrics in the coming months as we refine our technology,' Dr. Patil added. Mrunmayee Shende, COO & CMO of Nugen Intelligence, emphasized the collaborative nature of their approach: 'We see Court Easy AI as both a demonstration of our Domain Aligned AI technology and a valuable tool for legal professionals. Hundreds of legal professionals are already using the platform, confirming that reliable AI assistance significantly enhances their productivity and accuracy in high-stakes legal work.' Nugen Intelligence is actively partnering with legal-tech organizations and technology-forward law firms to help them adopt Domain Aligned AI technology for their specific organizational needs. Rather than competing with existing legal-tech companies, Nugen is focused on providing the foundational AI technology that enables reliable applications across the legal ecosystem. 'We believe that reliability is a foundational challenge for all organizations working with AI in critical domains,' added Dr. Patil. 'Nugen's research in Domain Aligned AI technology is aimed at solving these reliability challenges at the deep learning architecture level, empowering organizations to build AI solutions with predictable performance across legal, finance, healthcare, and other high-stakes environments where errors are unacceptable and trust is non-negotiable. We welcome collaboration with all organizations that share our commitment to building reliable AI systems.' This focus on collaboration rather than competition highlights Nugen's position as an AI research company developing foundational technology that can benefit the entire technology ecosystem in accelerating confident AI adoption. The team that achieved this milestone includes researchers with Ph.D. backgrounds, senior machine learning engineers, and legal-tech experts who worked to ensure that Court Easy AI could provide reliable legal reasoning across the breadth of Indian laws. 'We are inviting the entire legal and AI community to scrutinize our results because transparency is essential for building trust,' said Mrunmayee. 'We believe all companies developing AI for critical applications should follow similar practices of verification and transparency.' Complete supplementary materials, including the detailed evaluation report and raw question-by-question responses, are available on Court Easy AI website at for independent verification and review. This achievement represents a significant milestone in reliable AI technology that could elevate the quality and efficiency of work across multiple professional domains, beginning with India's legal ecosystem as it continues to evolve in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with Business Wire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same.
