Events

The Government of India’s concept note on the Smart Cities promotes a low energy path, which leads to sustainable development. Smart Urban Model is based on principles that allow for incremental growth and modification. It introduces key principles deducted from intensive research and broad international experience of UN-Habitat. The principles of sustainable development of cities are the availability of high quality streets and public spaces, properly designed density, limited land-use specialization, better connectivity, energy and resource efficiency, urban resilience and practically enforceable norms and rules. The UN-Habitat has been promoting the same in the past years, using latest principles for sustainable urban development and new technologies to improve the quality of living. A smart city will be a compact structure that lays emphasis on sustainable urban development in the form of density and land use. It promotes economic viability, livability, and environmental quality and reduces over exploitation of natural resources.

The development of a smart city is dependent on principles that benefit the economic agglomeration, reduce mobility demand and strengthen social interactions. It requires a pragmatic approach to work actively towards the development of cities using an innovative technique. The use of ICTs will ensure the sustainable development in all dimensions.

Kulwant Singh (MA, PhD) is the Asia Regional Advisor of UN-Habitat since 2004. Prior to that he was Executive Director, Human Settlements Management Institute, New Delhi for 12 years. An urban economist, he was part of the Indian Economic Service from 1971-1992. He has published widely on the topics of urban management and provision of urban basic services.  Some of his earlier jointly edited works include: Integrated Urban Infrastructure Development in Asia, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt.  Ltd; Urban India in Crisis, New Age  International (P) Ltd; Financing and Pricing of Urban Infrastructure, New Age  International (P) Ltd. His recent research work related to “Mapping Poverty to Reach the Urban Poor” published in SCH 44-4, December 2014 and an Issue Paper on Smart Cities for HABITAT-III.  He has been a visiting faculty at UNESCO-IHE Delft, IHS, Rotterdam, the Netherlands from 2004-2011. Currently he is a member of the international jury for Dr Sarphati Sanitation Award & is the Chair Steering Committee: 2015 Asia Pacific Housing Forum 5.

This is the sixty-seventh in a series of Urban Workshops planned by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi and Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues relating to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society and politics. For further information, please contact: Rémi de Bercegol at remi.debercegol@gmail.com, Partha Mukhopadhyay at partha@cprindia.org or Marie-Hélène Zerah at marie-helene.zerah@ird.fr