New Delhi, India – Infocomm India, in collaboration with the All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG), organized a webinar, “Transformation of Indian Cities: Sustainable Strategies for Inclusive Urban Development,” on August 25. A host of experts gathered to discuss critical strategies for building sustainable and inclusive urban spaces. The event aimed to shed light on the path forward for making India’s urban centers greener, smarter, and more inclusive.
Ravi Ranjan Guru, Deputy Director General of AIILSG, delivered the keynote address and set the stage for the discussions. He emphasized the importance of sustainable development in India’s cities as they continue to grow and evolve. He added that AIILSG has been working with urban local bodies in India, providing them technical support in various areas such as waste management, climate finance, GISbased property tax systems, greywater management, etc. He also highlighted AIILSG’s role as Networking and Governance Coordinator, South Asia, in the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.
The panel discussion that followed, moderated by Abhishek Pandey, Editor of Urban Update, featured a lineup of distinguished experts in the field. The panelists included Dr. Sudhir Krishna, Former Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India; Abhishek Saxena, a Public Policy Professional and Expert on Sustainable Transport and Climate Change, formerly associated with NITI Aayog; and Rumi Aijaz, a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.
The discussion delved into critical issues such as sustainable infrastructure, affordable housing, transportation, and climate resilience. Experts exchanged ideas on how to address these challenges while ensuring inclusivity in urban planning.
Dr Sudhir Krishna, Chair of the Committee on Standards for Smart Cities of the Bureau of Indian Standards, owing to his experience in bureaucracy, talked a great deal about the need for government reforms. He said, “We have one of the lowest urbanization percentages in the world… We need to understand the trend of urbanization. Nowadays, people don’t want to migrate to big cities; people are migrating more towards mediumsized towns… We need regional planning, along with local area planning,” so that people can live in villages and travel to cities for work. A failure to do this will lead to the proliferation of slums. Another issue he talked about was the city does not know its father.” Is it the municipality, the water board, or the numerous other authorities in charge of different aspects of welfare in cities? The lack of a singular authority leads to the fragmentation of power and accountability.
Similarly, Rumi Aijaz talked about how urban areas proliferated at this rate and widened the equality gap. “Social inequality in cities needs to be dealt with.” On similar lines, Abhishek Saxena talked about “skewed urbanization.” At tier II, the population is half of the population in metro cities. The definition of urbanization needs to be revisited. A particularly enlightening part of the seminar was the case study presented by Ashish Verma, Country Coordinator for the Global Covenant of Mayors. He shared the “Story of Transformation: Partnerships for Sustainable Urbanization” in Leh city, Ladakh. This case study demonstrated how collaboration and innovation can lead to transformative changes in cities. The event also allowed time for audience engagement during the Q&A session, where participants had the opportunity to ask questions and seek further insights from the panellists.
The seminar concluded by summarizing the key takeaways and emphasizing the importance of continued efforts to make Indian cities sustainable, inclusive, and resilient. The webinar served as a valuable platform for experts to share their insights and strategies on how to transform Indian cities into more sustainable and inclusive urban spaces. The event was a precursor to the main Infocomm event that is being organized in Mumbai from October 25 at the Jio Convention Centre on the side-lines of the Infocomm Exhibition. Since its inception in 2013, InfoComm India is well-known amongst the business community as a platform where they can discover the Pro-AV solutions they need.