NEW DELHI: Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing & Urban Affairs addressed the inaugural session of Project Managers Global Summit 2018 on September 25, 2018. The Summit was on “Powering India’s Breakthrough Growth: New Dimensions in Project Management”. While addressing the summit, he said that an efficient project management is needed to translate vision into reality.
He said that urban areas in India have faced challenges in many aspects such as a complex ecosystem in ensuring housing for all, technology-based solutions to enhance service delivery, better mobility and greener transport, smart governance and in doing more with less. For meeting these challenges an efficient project management is needed. He stated that professionalism not populism is essential in project management. The processes must be carried out in a transparent manner through competitive bidding.
The Minister informed that India has undertaken the “most comprehensive” planned urbanization program in the world. He stressed that India yet have to build 70 per cent of the new urban infrastructure (which is green and resilient) is required by 2030.
At present, over 30 per cent of India’s population, on a base of 1.2 billion, lives in urban centres. At the time of India’s independence in 1947, 17 per cent of the population was living in urban areas. The flagship programs that were implemented by the Indian government are progressing to ensure that India succeeds in the 2030 Agenda. Minister said, a reform of the “enabling environment” is required for improvement in urban space. The reform includes governance frameworks, policy protocols, capacities of urban local bodies, and the nature of citizen-government engagement
NBCC and DMRC were given awards for excellence on this occasion.