International Workshop on Smart City: Sustainable Urbanisation

The Takshashila Institution, under the joint umbrella of the Research & Innovation Sector, Delegation of the European Union to India and the German House for Research and Innovation (DWIH), Heidelberg Centre South Asia (HCSA), BayIND (Bavarian-Indian Centre), Observer Research Foundation and the School of Planning and Architecture, in collaboration with the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, CNRS, GIZ conducted the international workshop on ‘Smart City: Sustainable Urbanisation” in Bangalore, between October 13 -14.

The concept of smart cities has been well received in both research and policy practice. While it actually encompasses a variety of approaches, the common overarching theme is to look at urban challenges from an integral perspective, to foster sustainability and to explore the opportunities that communication technology offers. It is viewed as a solution for cities to better cope with key societal challenges like energy transition, mobility and social innovation through extensive and effective use of big data and IT. This, in turn, calls for new modes of ‘smart’ planning, design and governance, with the active involvement of a wide diversity of public, private and citizens’ organizations. In India, the Smart Cities Mission represents an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government with a mission to develop 100 cities all over the country making them citizen-friendly and sustainable. The idea of ‘smart cities’ cannot be realized without inter-disciplinary inputs and collective ideation.

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