| |
|
Civic Initiative
 |
The EuroIndia Centre launched the Civic Initiative in 2006 at the behest of the Prime Minister of India and founding President Emeritus of the Centre, Dr Manmohan Singh.
His government had launched in the same year the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to modernize the 63 largest cities of India, the first such programme since India s independence. He then wished that the Centre could play its part in this ambitious programme: "This challenging mission [the N.U.R.M.] would be greatly facilitated if our cities could imbibe the wealth of experience and the state-of-the-art and know-how that European cities have developed over decades of being confronted to similar social and economic pressures."
That led the Centre to organize its first EuroIndia Forum in Goa in February 2007, followed by a second Forum in April 2008 and two missions of Indian cities to Europe.
Encouraged by this success, the Centre has since unveiled an ambitious 2008-11 F.L.Y. A. Green K.I.T.E. strategy to build a unique institutional exchange platform at local level, covering Green Initiatives, Knowledge management, Investment and business, Tourism and culture and urban Excellence, to ensure sustainable win-win co-operations between Cities, Regions and States of Europe and India and their stakeholders: companies, academic and research institutes, NGO s, etc. and to open broad channels of communication between their civil societies.
This ambitious strategy led to the success of the first EuroIndia Summit in Europe in Valladolid on 4-6 October 2009 focusing on "Leveraging urban legacy for sustainable City development. Heritage tourism promotion: a key enabler".
It was followed by a an official civic and corporate mission by Indian Summit delegates to Madrid and Paris, where it was received respectively by the Municipality of Madrid and in Paris by the National Agency for Urban Renovation and the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea.
We also broke new ground with our first EuroIndia Conference on 16 June in Paris, followed by a business breakfast, with one of our illustrious founding members, Deepak Parekh, Chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation, as Guest Speaker
The 4th EuroIndia Summit, the second on European soil, held in Halle (Germany) on 10-12 October was a success. It focused on "City Vision: Reinventing Dynamic and Sustainable Cities". It was preceded by a strong Indian civic mission that visited the cities of Leuven & Brussels (Belgium), Lille & Paris (France). In Brussels, it took part in Open Days, a large yearly gathering of European regions and cities organized by the European Committee of the Regions and the European Commission. It was also hosted by the State of Saxony-Anhalt (Germany) and Business Europe. In Lille (France), their programme was organized by the Municipality and the French Agence Nationale de Rénovation de l Urbanisme. In Paris, the delegation was hosted by the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (M.E.E.D.D.M.).
At the Summit, the EuroIndia Environmentally Sustainable City Award (ESCA) was launched that purports to promote higher standards of sustainable development in cities located in Europe and India. The ESCA was announced at the 4th EuroIndia Summit held at Halle, Germany on 11-12 October, 2010. The ESCA will be awarded to one European city and one Indian city and their respective technical partner for the first time at the 5th EuroIndia Summit at Leuven and at every annual EuroIndia Summit thereafter.
A path-breaking Indian Mission on "Affordable housing" was subsequently organized in June 2010 that took a strong Indian delegation headed by Additional Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, to Spain (Barcelona, Madrid and Valladolid) and France (Val de Reuil, Paris) for field visits of housing schemes and face to face interaction with their executives in charge. Noteworthy was the presence of the Chief Secretary of the State of Maharashtra and housing Secretaries of various States. It enabled participants to familiarize themselves with European financial models, including Public-Private Partnership ones, as well as state-of-the-art building material and technologies.
Since, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation launched another massive social housing scheme called Rajiv Awas Yojna that calls for the eradication of all slums in India in five years.
This cannot but add to the fast growing wave of urban renewal in India and trigger India s urban revolution that offer the Centre and its members a fantastic window of opportunity to play a key role as honest broker between India and Europe at the local level and bridge the existing knowledge and physical gap between the two sides.
We therefore plan to organize more such events and missions in India and in Europe in years to come and consolidate our gains through an expansion of our presence in Europe and India. One such event was the 5th EuroIndia Summit in Leuven (Belgian Flanders) on "Smart, Sustainable and Innovative Cities" on 13-14 October 2011.
At the Summit, the first ESCA prize has been awarded to two Indian Cities, Mysore and Vijaywada, and to the former s technical partner: Arvee Associates, by Indian Minister for Urban Development, Mr. Kamal Nath. 29 Indian cities had sent applications, which were screened by a jury of 3 consisting of Prof. Dr. Ronnie Belmans, Professor, K.U. Leuven and Chairman of the European Smart Grids Platform; Kartikeya V. Sarabhai, Director, Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, and Dr. Harjit Singh Anand, Co-President of the Centre and Chairman of Glownet Knowledge Services.
The Summit was preceded by the European tour of an Indian civic, corporate and academic delegation from 5th to 14th October visiting Geneva (Switzerland), Grenoble & Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium) and Eindhoven (Netherlands). In Brussels, the delegation was invited to the opening plenary and workshops of Open Days and to a special programme on the Summit eve (12th October 2011) organized by the Committee of the Regions of the European Union and Business Europe.
Noteworthy was the presence of Indian Minister for Urban Development, Mr. Kamal Nath, who had been invited to address the 92th plenary session of the Committee before their 300-odd region members, by President Mrs. Mercedes Bresso, the first non-European to do so. They also both presided over the first-ever official lunch of Indian and European Mayors.
In order the keep up its growth momentum and be able to service the huge and fast growing constituency of Europeans and Indians of various walks of life wanting to cooperate at the local level of their Cities, Regions or States, the need was felt to scale up the Centre s reach and means by leveraging the power of the Web. The Centre will henceforth offer its Web portal to its members as a powerful 24/7 Internet platform for a vibrant and fruitful Euro-Indian dialogue, particular in the field of urban development and city cooperation. It has set already set-up a library and a profiling system that will facilitate Euro-Indian match-making. A discussion forum is also contemplated.
It is also intended that the next 6th EuroIndia Summit and Mission be organized in India, along with the award of the second ESCA.
European/Indian Cities wishing to engage with India/Europe are welcome to use the Centre to the hilt as an intermediary for their own sake, thus following the edifying examples of Halle, Leuven and Valladolid, which have jointly organized with the Centre home visits by Indian delegations and EuroIndia Summits.
In the case of Ahmedabad and Valladolid, their cooperation has reached a high level within a few years only after their first contact was brokered by the Centre at the 2nd Forum of Goa in April 2008 leading to their signature of a formal partnership. To read the Valladolid-Ahmedabad partnership case study in English, French or Spanish, with a pictorial account, please click here:
In hindsight, the key factors behind their remarkable achievements has been a strong political vision at the top of both cities of the need to have a long term engagement with Europe/India in their own interest, endorsed by the local polity at large to vouch for sufficient means and their trust in the capacity of the Centre to play the role of honest Euro-Indian broker and to deliver on their high expectations. At the start, their memorandum of understanding focused on a few specific technical topics. With affinities being created in the process of meeting and discussing, it quickly widened to incorporate a larger gamut of topics and stakeholders.
|
|
|
| |