How to make Indian cities future-ready for citizens

The answers cannot be limited to just providing more of everything: more roads, more buses, and more trains. Making cities future-ready requires anticipating growing citizen needs and their aspirations.

Indian cities future-ready for citizens, Indian cities, infrastructure, public transport system, Indian express news, current affairs

The seminar will feature a keynote address by Rajeev Gowda, Vice Chairperson of the State Institute For The Transformation of Karnataka (SITK).

India’s urban population is set to double over the next 25-30 years. That means an urban population of anywhere between 850 million to 900 million. As things stand, Indian cities account for 60 per cent of the country’s GDP while using up just 3 per cent of the nation’s land. Are Indian cities equipped to handle the population strain, especially when several cities struggle with adequate infrastructure be it roads or public transport. But how can Indian cities get a significant upgrade in their infrastructure?

The answers cannot be limited to just providing more of everything: more roads, more buses, and more trains. Making cities future-ready requires anticipating growing citizen needs and their aspirations.

How can Indian cities become truly smart? What needs to be done to improve all-round infrastructure? How do we bring together technology, policy and planning to fulfil the growing needs of its citizens.

These will be some key questions discussed in the second edition of The Indian Express’s THINC: CITIES seminar series, presented by Omidyar Network India, to be organised in Bengaluru on Friday.

The seminar will feature a keynote address by Rajeev Gowda, Vice Chairperson of the State Institute For The Transformation of Karnataka (SITK). It will be followed by a panel discussion among experts from policymaking, academia, civil society and the private sector. The panel discussion will feature: Jaya Dhindaw (Executive Program Director, Sustainable Cities And Director, WRI India Ross Center), Vivek Mittal (Executive Director, Strategy & Business Design, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP), Nithya Ramesh (Director, Urban Design, Jana Urban Space Foundation), Naresh V Narasimhan (Managing Partner, Venkataramanan Associates) and M N Anucheth – Joint CP, Traffic, Bengaluru. The conversation will be moderated by Udit Misra, Associate Editor, The Indian Express.

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