Engaging dialogue on pressing urban issues

The COVID-19 induced pandemic was brutal. It was a lesson for the world economies to be best prepared for the worst. Most importantly, the pandemic highlighted how knowledge is power and for the betterment of the community, knowledge sharing is key for human existence to thrive. With this thought in mind, Urban Update undertook the initiative of organising a series of webinars for experts to share their learnings, experiences and promote dialogue amongst the key stakeholders.

As part of this, Urban Update collaborated with various organisations and put together a total of _ webinars as part of _ diverse series. These webinars indulged in conversations with experts, bureaucrats, representatives of urban local bodies, and social welfare activists that have been actively involved in improving the functionalities of the urban landscape.

E-dialogues

As part of AIILSG and Urban Update’s collaboration, this series of webinars was started. Under this series, the institute collaborated with UN-Habitat, United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Gwalior Smart City and Bilaspur Smart City etc. In the e-dialogues of 2021, the following topics were discussed – Digitalization in Waste Management; Addressing Urban Issues with Innovation; Empowering Women by Building Skills and Entrepreneurship Development; Accelerating Urban Action for a Carbon-free World.
E-dialogue’s journey in 2021, started with Dr Kulwant Singh moderating the session with a focus on how the 21st Century is about the incorporation of digitalisation in all sectors of the economy and human activities. Along with Dr Singh, Rohit Kakkar, Deputy Advisor (PHE), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India; and Praveena Sanjay, Director, World Institute of Sustainable Energy, Pune, were present. The panellists discussed how the COVID-19 induced pandemic reflected on the ultimate usage of digital technology.
The second e-dialogue event picked up the same notion on how digi-tech and innovation are key for the future. Innovation has been and continues to improve governance and quality of life of people in cities and how giving space to start-ups can give a new push to
cities to achieve sustainable development goals.
The session was organized in collaboration with Dream Hatcher Incubation Centre and was attended by Kakul Mishra, National Programme Head, National Institute of Urban Affairs and Deepti Raj, Senior Project Associate, World Resources Institute-India.
The third webinar discussed how women entrepreneurs around the world need to be recognised and integrated into the workplace. The panellist list comprised academic experts and NGOs striving towards making women-friendly working spaces. Several schemes such as PM Ujjwala, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Nirbhaya were discussed.
The final e-dialogue was hosted by Kushwant Singh, CEO, 3R Waste Foundation. The esteemed panel included Sanskriti Menon, Senior Programme Director, Centre for Environment Education; Rajeev Vijh, Founder and Director, Kriyanvit Consulting and Sunita Sanghi, Former Advisor, NITI Aayog.

CityNet

CityNet is the leading pioneer in providing network communications and technology solutions. AIILSG in collaboration with CITYNET, organised five webinars in a series ‘Localisation of SDGs’. These webinars ranged on discussions of urban planners worldwide pushing for urban local bodies to focus on equitable and sustainable urban expansion that does not harm the environment. They suggested the countries globally to undertake measures and policies to inch closer to achieving the SDGs, and how urban development at large cannot be successful without factoring in inclusivity. The COVID-19 pandemic is being considered by many as a lesson for policymakers and world leaders. The transmissibility of the disease has made it immensely clear that without ensuring universal access to basic civic services for all, no one can be considered safe. These primarily include water, sanitation and health services.
AIILSG conducted five webinars with CityNet to name a few, “Building Cities and Conserving Environment with Decentralised Initiatives”, “Imperatives of Building Inclusive Cities” and “Building local resilience in post-COVID world”. Jaya Dhindaw, Associate Director, World Resource institute (WRI); Raman VR, Head of Policy, Water Aid India; Prof Pascaline Gabroit, President, Pilot4Dev, were some of those who constituted the panel and discussed how cities can come together to build inclusive spaces to achieve the SDGs, prevent future pandemics, battle climate change and global warming.

NIDM

Further, workshops aided by NIDM, in association with AIILSG, Foundation EMDA Southasia and Urban Update, organised two editions of training workshops on “Building Municipalities and Citizen Awareness for Resilient India”. These workshops-based webinars, circled around how Disaster Risk Mitigation is a growing challenge in the present times with frequent incidents all over the country and has become a serious issue in this year of health pandemic. The conclusion of the workshop based on the discussions and presentations that took place during the different sessions was that only legislative solutions to the problems are not enough as everyone has to bear the responsibility to make the space around them, viable for living. Moreover, strengthening the local level bodies such as District Disaster Management Authority, and ULBs is the most important challenge which needs urgent attention. The panel comprised Mihir R Bhatt, Director, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute; Dr VS Prakash, Former Director, KSND Monitoring Centre.

WEBINARS ON CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Urban Update in collaboration with 3R Waste Foundation organised two webinars on this topic. First in the series was a webinar “3R and Circular Economy for Restoring Ecosystem and Achieving Clean Water, Land and Air” on June 5. Celebrating World Environment Day, the webinar was organised in collaboration with United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD). The webinar’s keynote address was given by Prof Asit K Biswas, University of Glasgow. It was a pre-event of UNCRD Japan’s 11th 3R and Circular Economy Forum 2021.
The second webinar on the issue was conducted on December 8. The topic was “Circular Economic Utilisation of Plastic Waste in India and the Asian Region”. The esteemed panel of the speakers at the webinar included Dr Mazumdar, Chairman, IAESPH, New Delhi; Dr Anupam Khajuria, Researcher, UNCRD Japan; and Dr Roshan Miranda, Co-Founder and Director, Waste Ventures. The webinars established that circular economy is at the base of restoring the planet. It also detailed how there is need for better policy framework with circular economy and SDGs at its heart in the fight against increasing air pollution in cities. Moreover, the key to achieving zero waste status in our cities is to simultaneously work on waste reduction, processing and recycling of solid waste.

ONE-ON-ONE

Urban Update conducted four editions as part of its one-on-one series. Urban Update interviewed Sanjay Kumar, Joint Secretary (DAY-NULM), MoHUA, Government of India. He was quoted saying that ‘the government is committed to improving the socio-economic status of street vendors through PM SVANidhi’. He said that one cannot imagine urban development in India without ensuring development and inclusion of street vendors in the urban spaces. Hitesh Vaidya, Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs, during his interview said that Indian cities have shown agility and innovation in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “India is one of the few countries which are on their way to achieve the SDGs, as planned.”
Urban Update interviewed Mahendra Singh Tanwar, Commissioner, Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation, on his vision of ‘GAZAB Ghaziabad’. He talked about how the city corporation is on its way to become a leading example of how a city can be transformed for good by clearing out black spots of the city, improving collection and management of electronic waste, and working steadfastly to tackle air pollution. Sanjay R Bhoosreddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Sugar Industry & Cane Development Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh, said that urban areas are over glamourised, and they will be aided through the development of rural areas. He talked about the introduction of technology has changed the whole politics of sugarcane industry, and that the issue of unavailability of cane slips for genuine farmers has dissolved.