Events of ADRI (Patna - Ranchi)
The Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) is organising a two-day conference on Urban Challenges: Focus on India and Patna, on August 22–23, 2024 at Hotel Maurya, Patna.
National level Environmentalists, Policymakers, Urban Planners, Academicians, Environmental Scientists and Government Officials will be participating. In addition to standalone papers, the conference will have four round table discussions. The topics of the round table discussions are (a) Transforming Patna into a green city: What is required? (b) Revamping urban transport to check congestion and pollution and increase economic efficiency, (c) Moving from a linear to a circular economy: What we need in terms of outreach, institutions and policies? and (d) Burning urban design issues in India and their pragmatic resolution. The detailed programme is attached to this mail.
Dr. Prem Kumar, Hon’ble Minister, Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of Bihar, will be the Chief Guest of the inaugural session.
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86220901117?pwd=ooaNCfBcwDkcbciZanE8zIGxkYktnP.1
Meeting ID: 862 2090 1117
Passcode: 167902
Patna, August 22. A two-day conference on “Urban Challenges: Focus on India and Patna” organized by the Center for Studies on Environment and Climate (CSEC) at the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) got off to a start today. In the event’s inaugural session, Dr. Prem Kumar, the Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in the government of Bihar addressed the audience.
The Honorable Minister stated that urbanization is important for development although it came late to Bihar. This development should be made to last for a long time but it is facing hurdles like air pollution, heat stress, water shortages, etc. Government of Bihar is determined to solve this problem of environmental degradation in the state. He said that one of the steps it has taken is to plant trees on a large scale. As a result, the forest cover in Bihar has gone up to 15 percent now compared to just 7 percent in 2000. The government is trying to turn the hilly areas green in southern Bihar by planting trees. Also, buildings are coming up in many parts of the city of Patna without heeding to this issue of lack of greenery. The government has instructed these builders to follow the bye-laws that have been laid down to ensure environmentally-sound construction. The government has been preparing a green budget every year since 2020-21. He hoped that the conclusions made at the conference would help the government make good policies with respect to the environment.
Speaking in a Round Table discussion on the occasion, Professor Anil Kumar Roy of the Centre for Environment Planning & Technology University, Ahmedabad recommended that Patna needs another 20 sq. kms. of greenery and more open spaces to attain the coveted ideal of a green city. It should also prepare a plan to address heat stress conditions that has plagued it in the recent past. He pointed out that Bihar has committed about 25 percent of its budget for erecting green buildings and for creating blue infrastructure. Mr. Akash Hingorani of Oasis Designs, Inc. in New Delhi advised that the way to manage storm water in Patna is to get it to flow to green areas within the city and then let it soak into the ground. Patna gets flooded because the run-off after rains does not have any place to go. Anuj Malhotra, Member of the High-Level Committee on Urban Planning, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India spoke out about the need to expand the pedestrian areas in the cities as 60 percent of the open spaces in Indian cities have been taken over by roads. This discussion was moderated by Prof. Siddhartha Mitra of Jadavpur University.
Other discussants at the conference included Dr. Prodipto Ghosh of the Energy and Resources Institute; Prof. Shreekant Gupta of the Delhi School of Economics, Prof. Mahalaya Chatterjee of the University of Calcutta, and Prof. Sanjay Srivastava of SOAS, University of London; Dr. Dipankar Bhattacharjee of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, Dr. Joy Karmakar of Serampore College in Kolkata, and Ms. Sarika Chakravarty of NIUA.
Earlier, Professor Ajit Sinha, Director, ADRI welcomed all the guests. He held out for the need to plan ahead in order to deal successfully with future problems rather than trying to find solutions only when we come up against a problem. Urban issues, he said, are going to become even more important because of issues like global warming and we need to work out a plan about where we want to go. Dr. Ashmita Gupta, Member-Secretary, ADRI; Dr. Sunita Lall of ADRI, Dr. Ushashi Gupta and Nandini Mehta were also present on the occasion. Numerous international and national scholars attended this conference virtually and in-person.
Patna, August 23. The second day of the conference on “Urban Challenges: Focus on India and Patna” organized by the Center for Studies on Environment and Climate (CSEC) at the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) witnessed a number of important contributions by economists, urban designers, architects and urban planners.
In the morning, there was a roundtable on the much needed movement from a linear economy to a circular economy. A linear economy is one where products are disposed off at the end of their life; in a circular economy, there are incentives to reuse the materials in such products. Professor Partha Sen, former Director, Delhi School of Economics however, pointed out some problems in moving from a linear to a circular economy – for example, health hazards in handling e-waste. Professor Sudakshina Gupta of University of Calcutta listed the various responsibilities of consumers in promoting a circular economy, such as sorting waste or buying recycled products.
This session was followed by a lecture by Prof. E. Somanathan of ISI, New Delhi which highlighted how high temperatures lead to a significant decline in hours worked and earnings of informal sector workers. His lecture assumes significance, given that climate change is causing tangible increases in temperature in the summer months.
In the afternoon, there was a very important roundtable on burning issues in urban design in India. Participating were architect Partha Ranjan Das, Kanak Tiwari of National Institute of Urban Affairs, among others. There was a recommendation to incorporate the riverfront as an important element of the urban plans of cities and to marry the refurbishing of individual buildings, parking areas and roads with the Master Plan.