As part of a three-year research project undertaken by ORF and PRIO to study and analyse urban governance, urban security and environment related trends and concerns in selected regions of India, an international conference was organised on "Emerging Challenges in an Urbanising India: Governance, Security and Climate Change".
An international conference on “Emerging Challenges in an Urbanising India: Governance, Security and Climate Change” was jointly organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Delhi and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) on 18-19 November 2014 in New Delhi. This event was part of a three-year research project undertaken by the two institutions beginning March 2013 to study and analyse urban governance, urban security and environment related trends and concerns in selected regions of India. The project members think that with passing time, and as India urbanises, it will become increasingly difficult to manage the state of affairs in Indian cities. Accordingly, through this collaborative project and the conference, an attempt is being made to offer a superior understanding of the issues at hand and to suggest practical reform measures for building a strong nation. Three broad themes were covered by the speakers in this conference, namely:
• Managing Urbanisation and Unplanned Urban Sprawl
• Ensuring Sustained Socio-Economic Inclusion and Security in Urban Centres
• Preparing for Environmental Changes and Associated Food Security Threats
The two-day conference comprised an inaugural session, six thematic sessions and a valedictory session. Each thematic session was chaired by a distinguished subject expert and comprised three presentations by scholars based in India and abroad. The presentations in each session were followed by comments by subject specialists who were invited to the conference as discussants. General invitees shared their opinions and gave comments on the presentations during the discussion round.
The conference was inaugurated by Mr. Jayant M. Mauskar, former Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, and an Advisor to Observer Research Foundation. In his inaugural address, Mr. Mauskar shared his observations about urbanisation in India. He agreed with the view that in today’s urban agglomerations, there is efficient production and income generation, lessening of caste divisions, but the costs are high in terms of traffic congestion, vehicular pollution, and crime. He described numerous contrasting scenarios such as the emergence of gated communities and slums, malls and crowded markets, power cuts and use of polluting and noisy generator sets, deteriorating water quantity and quality.
On environment, Mr. Mauskar said that mankind’s view of ’nature’ has changed over the years. In ancient times, nature was seen as a deity to be feared. Later, it was something to be conquered, and now we fear the revenge of nature, as observed from the recent climate change negotiations. According to him, steps such as construction of multi-purpose dams and disruption of river flows, encroachment of river beds, discharge of untreated sewage in rivers, concretisation and the consequent urban heat island impact, have disturbed the environment and human life.
The current measures to addresses emerging climate change related problems in India were explained, including launch of missions, preparation of IPCC 5th report (2014) on climate change, the 2nd report (2013) of national communication (NATCOM), and the 4 by 4 (4 regions, 4 sectors) assessment report (2012) which explains what will happen by 2030, i.e., rising day and night temperatures, severe summers, milder winters, increasing rainfall intensity and its variability, changing cycles of floods and droughts, increasing floods and rising sea levels, increasing intensity and number of tropical cyclones and storm surges, temporal and spatial increase in vector borne diseases, increasing water stress, energy needs and costs, transportation costs, environmental threats to coastal cities, etc. In conclusion, Mr. Mauskar stated that flexibility, dynamism and modularity are key components needed in our approach.
Earlier, giving the opening remarks, Mr. Sunjoy Joshi, ORF Director, said that the pace of India’s urban transition is going to be unprecedented, and being a democratic nation, the nature of contests and conflicts around urbanisation will have huge implications. It was pointed out that if the current pattern of uncontrolled growth is allowed to continue, it can overtake any modicum of urban order across the entire spectrum of urban sectors. Some areas requiring immediate attention according to Mr. Joshi are improving mobility, ensuring low carbon growth, and overall sustainability; need to decrease pressure on urban spaces, resources and on the environment. He said that the very dynamics of this quest of so-called growth mandates that planning and policy can never be de-politicised, and therefore the unpredictable dynamics of demography can disrupt the best laid plans, schemes. Contradictions and conflicts will be an inevitable part of this process in his view, but the conflicts can be strong or weak, manageable or disruptive depending on the governance structures and response systems that we manage to put in place.
Prof. Halvard Buhaug, Research Professor at PRIO, Norway, in the inaugural session, gave an overview of his institution and mentioned that it is one of the oldest engaged in peace and conflict research. He described the scope of the on-going ORF-PRIO joint research project and said that it deals with a set of emerging challenges which are not specific or unique but they are particularly important to India. Some of these provide opportunities and we need to be aware of the potentials and negative aspects of these trends, he said. How these trends interlink and what could be the possible insecurity challenges are important aspects which will be covered in the joint study, said Prof. Buhaug.
The first conference session was chaired by Dr. M. Ramachandran, former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. He said that in India, urban development and management is left to the States, but the country should have a clear urbanisation strategy that addresses issues such as vertical versus horizontal, new townships, smart cities which are inclusive, rehabilitation of slum dwellers, land acquisition for building affordable housing units, urban migrants, etc. In this session there were presentations on: ’Urbanisation, Growth and Equity: Patterns and Challenges’, by Darshini Mahadevia, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad; ’Planning, Privatisation, and Governance in the New Urban India’ by Kristian Hoelscher, Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Norway; and ’Removing the Mask of Implementation Failure: Land Use Planning and Violations in Bangalore, India’, by Jayaraj Sundaresan, Researcher, London School of Economics and Political Science, London. Discussants in this session were Prof. Jamal Ansari, Formerly Professor and Director, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi; Dr. P. Jayapal, Senior Executive Director (O), Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited, Delhi.
Prof. Ansari commented on the misconception of migration as the single most important component of urban population growth. It was clarified that natural increase accounts for the largest share. However, in recent times, he said fertility rates in urban areas have declined, perhaps due to female foeticide. Concern was also expressed over preparation of sectoral plans without the basis of spatial plans which results in a lot of wasted expenditure.
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