Emerging paradigm for land records in India

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to establish the importance of land records for urban development. The study focuses on how traditionally land records were managed and presently what are the important parameters impacting the land record management systems in India.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework adopted for the study was as follows: 1) literature study: aim to study the historical issues, to study global systems across the globe, various government reforms. 2) Present system of land management: to study the administrative, legal, economic issues, problems and potential in the present system. 3) Technology interventions: to study how technology can help to make the system more robust and trustworthy. 4) Conclusion: to study how the recommended technological measures will work and how to implement it in the system. Several pilot interviews were carried out to understand how the present system of land record management works in India, and important parameters were established through the pilot interviews of various stakeholders in the system.

Findings

The study brings out certain striking facts about the inefficiencies in the system since centuries, which are still being carried forward. Any reforms by the authorities have not been able to solve the issues and reduce the number of litigations because digitisation was only a step forward to replicate the wrong entries of records in digitised format. Thus, a paradigm shift in technology is required to bring a considerable change in the present management system.

Originality/value

Various studies worldwide have been done in several countries regarding land records, but all the studies are in piecemeal basis. Very less literature is available on the study that how land records effect large scale urban development projects. This study is an attempt to study impact of land records on urban development and to bring back transparency in the system to reduce the number of litigations on the most important ingredient of built environment, which is land.