AIILSG launches Urban75 Initiative

All India Institute of Local Self-Government, in association with Foundation EMDA South Asia, has started a series of dialogues to celebrate 75 Years of India’s urban transformation, where the focus will be on several pressing urban issues to present feasible solutions to cities. The inaugural Dialogue of the series was organised on October 21 at the India International Centre. Additionally, AIILSG is working on a Coffee Table Book “Urban 75” to commemorate the completion of 75 years of Independence, and it is expected to be released in August 2022.
Indian cities are currently witnessing a massive transformation in governance, operational mechanism, capacity building, and adapting to sustainable development practices. Over the years, governments have tried many experiments to make urban spaces efficient, inclusive, and livable. Moreover, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced policymakers and leaders to rethink the development paradigm of future cities. It is the opportunity to lay a new path for cities in the post-pandemic world.
Leveraging on the learning from these experiments, from these policies and programs, AIILSG decided on this series. The inaugural event of Urban75 witnessed an array of experts and people holding key positions in urban sector. Key points of discussion in the event included major learning in India’s urban journey through its 75 years of independence; case studies for efficient municipal governance; future roadmap of urban development and governance, etc.
Dr Jairaj Phatak, IAS (Retd), Director General, AIILSG, opened the event with his address to the panelists and attendees. He said, “I now find that challenges in the coming decade will be shortage of water supply, sanitation, air pollution, water inadequacy.” Ravi Ranjan Guru, Deputy Director General, AIILSG, addressed the audience next and talked about AIILSG and how one of its strongest verticals is capacity building programmes. Ravi said that the organisation thought about bringing out a publication/book where various experts/officers will share their experiences in the sector of urban development. He mentioned how this publication is being introduced in light of creating an exclusive platform for leaders and experts to thoroughly discuss and present ideas related to urban development.
Sanjay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, was the Chief Guest of the event. In his address, he said that there are over 3000 cities in our country, but we rarely consider them all when we talk about urban areas. He said the focus should be on developing those young cities sustainably from the very beginning. He emphasized on building capacity of nations’ local government bodies. Talking about how cities create plans for their development and act on them, thereby forgetting to adapt to the changing environment, demands, technology, and innovations, he said, “The entire game lies in seeking exception from rigid plans of cities.” He was of the opinion that India has not been leveraging the technology enough, which is a must for growth.
Hitesh Vaidya, Director, NIUA, was one of the esteemed panelists at the event. He traced three big learnings from COVID-19 pandemic which need to be adopted to improve the scenario of Indian urban spaces: (i) Cities were called engines of economy, when instead there are two engines – inclusivity and sustainability; (ii) More is needed in terms of the investment in human capital; and (iii) It is essential to develop a different business approach from scratch. Ravi Kant Sharma, Mayor, Chandigarh, said that the important aspect of growth of a city is to address all aspects of a city simultaneously, instead of working on different aspects one after another in a series. Taking his own city as an example, Ravi Kant talked about financial sustainability of a city. Under a campaign named ‘Corporation aapke Dwaar’, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has been collecting revenues as small as `0.5 from each citizen of the city to generate funds to work for the development of the city. Additionally, Chandigarh has introduced a mobile application, ‘One City One App’ for people to have better access to services of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. Sharma said that he has found the nationwide assessment of cities by the Government of India as extremely useful. He said that it helps them reflect where they stand in terms of their progress and work, which can guide them to work accordingly. For example, he mentioned that Chandigarh started door-to-door collection of waste after noting their ranking in Swachh Saurvekshan.
Dr PG Dhar Chakraborty, Former Secretary, Government of India, said that India has travelled far, from a relative neglect of this urban sector during independence to some seriousness of its development during the 21st century. Impact is visible, and that is something to celebrate. However, he added that right now, it is more important to look at the challenges. With Urban 75, Urban 100 can be envisioned, and for that numerous prominent challenges need to be adequately addressed. He said that the experts from the panel have rightly mentioned the need to focus on the challenge of resources in urban spaces. He said that India’s work to achieve SDGs needs to go hand in hand with developing liveable and inclusive urban spaces. He also mentioned the Chandigarh Mayor’s address to reiterate the importance of making local government bodies financially sustainable and innovative.
Abhilash Khandekar, Senior Journalist, said in his address that the environment is currently a major issue with respect to urban development, that most of the engineers and urban planners are refusing to talk about. He said that Indian cities need to be visionary and hence act in ways that can help them avoid running out of their resources in future. Increasing air pollution, water inadequacy, waste management, etc., are some of the prominent challenges that need to be addressed effectively as soon as possible by urban planners and decision makers.
Laurent le Danois, Team Leader (Corporation Sector), Delegation of the European Union to India and Bhutan, brought a global perception to the panel discussion. He said that as important as it is to have a vision for the cities, acting now is essential. He said that waiting for even a single day will translate to issues in the long run and create new problems. Acting now has the potential to prevent birth of new problems in the urban scenario in future. He talked about an important aspect of urban development which cities and local bodies mostly forget in their run to achieve a target. Every city has its own DNA, its own identity, some features that are unique to each city. He said that it is extremely important for cities to keep that substance alive in them through all that growth and development.
After the panel discussion, a question-answer round was conducted. In response to a question on effective planning and vision of cities for development, Pravin Bharadwaj, Consultant, NIUA, said that there is a dichotomy present in the planning part of our urban local government bodies. He said that planners here take inspiration from successful plans and structures of other cities and then adopt it as such. They forget to take only inspiration and develop plans specific to the demography and needs of that particular city.