Centre for Studies in Science Policy
Jawaharlal Nehru University
CSSP Wednesday Lecture Series
Invites you to a Lecture on
Mitigating India's Urban Challenges through Design, Technology and Innovation
By
Dr. Mihir Bholey
(National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar)
Venue: Room No. 227, 2nd Floor, CSSP, SSS-1 Building, JNU
Date: Wednesday, 23rd October 2019 | Time: 11:00 am
Abstract: India's urban challenges are not just confined to the demographic changes and expansion of urban boundaries. They also lay in bridging the development deficit, changing the urban growth trajectory and make the cities future ready. Socio-economic and environmental sustainability are at the core of urban transformation. To achieve that it requires concurrent change in policies, design, technology and innovation at a time. Traditionally India has always been referred to as a 'country of villages' and one whose soul rests in villages. Hence, the need of urban transformation didn't receive the kind of attention it deserved at various levels while rural migration continued and cities' resources and infrastructure were stretched to their limit. Some eminent urban scholars have called this syndrome 'reluctant urbanization' and pointed out that the political economy of development in India has remained dominantly concerned with the development of rural areas assuming that urban areas can take care of themselves. Many believe this 'reluctant urbanization' to be the reason behind India's urban crisis.
Today, India's rising urbanization is defying several myths. Indian cities are not just growing demographically and numerically but have become the growth engine of the economy too. Urban growth and the growth in GDP are going hand in hand in this so called 'country of villages'. While close to 69 percent of Indian population and 72 percent of workforce still live in villages, it is the 31 percent of the urban population which is generating 63 percent of country's GDP. Not only that, it's also estimated that by 2050 when India will attain 50 percent urbanization, 80 percent of its GDP will be generated by the cities. Data reveals that there're 597,608 inhabited villages in India as against 9,391 cities and urban agglomeration. Out of this, there're nearly 496 cities which have population in excess of 100,000 while 82,151 villages have a population size of less than 200. That makes Indian cities far more densely populated and therefore demanding in terms of infrastructure needs. Though there is no need to create urban-rural binary or any unintended divide, but the necessity of urban transformation cannot be overlooked. It's in this backdrop that now the government of India has launched the mission to build 100 smart cities. It's an effort to initiate process of urban transformation and rejuvenation under the Smart City Mission. Retrofitting, Redevelopment, Green Field development and Pan-city development are the current strategic components of India's smart city mission. However, eventually, they will have to be aligned to the global vision of smart cities which is to build an eco-system of Smart Economy, Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, Smart People, Smart Living and Smart Governance. The contemporary smart city solutions are largely driven by ICT and other technologies in which digitalization, big data creation, data analytics among other play a major role. Several blueprints have been prepared by technology giants viz. Siemens, Cisco, Ericsson, Hitachi, Microsoft for creating digitally networked cities and technology solutions for urban transformation. However, considering technology as a means not an end to achieve urban transformation a more human and inclusive approach will be required. Sustainable urbanism will require elements of empathy, human-centricity, social innovation, sustainable solutions among other for which design and innovation will have to work in tandem with technology and ICT. The proposed talk/seminar would discuss India's urban challenges in general and the role of leveraging design, technology and innovation to bring urban transformation in particular.
About the Speaker: Dr. Mihir Bholey is a senior Faculty of Interdisciplinary Design Studies and the Discipline Lead of PG Science and Liberal Arts at National Institute of Design, PG Campus, Gandhinagar. He has over 25 years of corporate and academic experience. He holds his Master's degree in English Literature from Patna University and PhD in Social Science (Political Sociology) from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Dr. Bholey is an author and columnist whose research papers and articles are regularly published in various research journals and in popular media. He has also three books to his credit namely: Caste Conflict and Social Justice: The Discourse and Design, Young Designers, and Design Samvad. He is widely travelled and has taught, delivered seminar/lectures at several national and international institutions of acclaim. His area of interest and research is Public Policy and Design under which he studies aspects of urbanization, healthcare, education and other policy issues. Dr. Bholey is presently working on his book on public policy and design.
All are welcome to attend the Lecture.
Coordinator, CSSP Lecture Series
