The roundtable on “Sustainability and the Future of Urban India” preceded the Urban Habitats Forum Symposium on “Cities and Climate Change” on the 23 February 09. A varied set of stakeholders participated in the closed-door multidisciplinary roundtable discussion.

The discussion was chaired by Arthur I Segel (Professor of Management Practice & Head of the Real Estate Faculty, Harvard Business School); participants included Deepak Gupta (Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy); Amit Kapoor (Professor, Management Development Institute); Arun Kumar (Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University); Raj Liberhan (Director India Habitat Centre); Sam Miller (Journalist and Author of Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity); Abhay Kumar Mishra (Chief Executive-Special Projects, EmaarMGF); Nayan Raheja (Director, Raheja Developers Pvt. Ltd.); K Yatish Rajawat (Editor-in-Chief, Business Bhaskar); Manit Rastogi (Founder & Director, Morphogenesis Aromar Revi (Director, TARU); Phillip Rode (Executive Director, Urban Age Sanjeev Sanyal (Founder & Managing Trustee, The Sustainable Planet Institute Chetan Vaidya, (Director of National Institute of Urban Affairs); Ravi Singh (Director, WWF-India); Govind Singh (Founder, Delhi Greens); S Sridhar (Chairman, National Housing Bank); Sid Yog (Managing Partner, The Xander Group INC) ; and Anupam Yog (Managing Director, Mirabilis Advisory).

The roundtable discussion was vibrant and touched upon a number of concerns and challenges regarding sustainable urbanisation. During the hour-long discussion the participants questioned current paradigms of planning, the efficacy of government programmes such as the JNNURM, the viability of micro economies within the city, and key drivers of urban growth.

Apart from deliberating on issues related to urbanisation, the participants were also invited to comment on the content of the Urban Habitat Summit, which is scheduled to take place from 24 - 26 September, 2009.

The roundtable concluded with a presentation by Sanjeev Sanyal on the recently-launched The Sustainable Planet Institute (SPI)

From L to R:
K Yatish Rajawat, Editor-in-Chief, Business Bhaskar;
Amit Kapoor, Professor, Management Development Institute;
Anupam Yog, Managing Director, Mirabilis Advisory;
Sanjeev Sanyal, Founder & Managing Trustee; Sustainable Planet Institute;
Arthur I Segel, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School;
Raj Liberhan, Director India Habitat Centre;
Arun Kumar, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University;
Abhay Kumar Mishra, Chief Executive-Special Projects, EmaarMGF;
Nayan Raheja, Director, Raheja Developers;
Ravi Singh, Director of WWF-India