Urban Transformative Missions of India- Mainstreaming Innovations into Practices for Sustainable, Inclusive & Stronger Cities

India is one among the largest urban systems in the world, with about 377 million people residing in urban areas, comprising about 31.16% of the total population, as per Census 2011. This has been increased to the estimated around 412 million today and expected to touch 600 million by 2030. India will have 68 million plus cities by 2030 compared to 53 million today. Cities will be central to India’s economic future and likely to account for nearly 70% of India’s GDP by 2030.
In order to manage the growing urbanisation with related challenges and to transform the urban landscape to make cities sustainable, inclusive and stronger, the Government of India has undertaken several Urban Transformative Missions such as ‘Swachh Bharat Mission - Clean India Mission’ (SBM-Urban 2.0) towards a vision of ‘garbage-free’ cities through scientific waste management; 100 Smart Cities Mission (SCM) through use of smart technology & data; Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT 2.0) to make cities ‘water secure’ & strengthen basic civic amenities; Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-Urban) to provide all-weather ‘Housing for All’ with use of innovative construction technologies, etc. Further, through Missions such as PM-SVANidhi (Prime Minister Street Vendor AtmaNirbhar Nidhi) and DAY-NULM (National Urban Livelihood Mission), India is making concerted efforts to facilitate economic and livelihood opportunities for millions of vulnerable and marginalized urban citizens. All these Missions mainstream innovations into practices for making Cities sustainable, inclusive & stronger so as to transform into world class urban spaces that further ease of living.
It is in this context that the Networking event of All India Housing Development Association (AIHDA) at WUF12 tends to focus on instruments and mechanism used in India’s Urban Transformative Missions for mainstreaming innovations into Practices for Sustainable, Inclusive & Stronger Cities. The AIHDA event brings together the innovations applied among Indian cities and municipalities and elsewhere in the domain of housing and infrastructure. These include `emerging technologies for construction as well as converting waste to wealth’, `waste to energy’ approaches, Innovative financing mechanisms including localized financing, community resources, Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for housing and infrastructure projects, etc. Specific case studies shall be deliberated to draw a consensus on a transformative reform agenda for creating sustainable, inclusive & stronger cities.