A Slum in Bombay
This challenge track will carry forward from the Smarter Cities breakout session at the third Design Public Conclave, and develop actionable solutions towards specific urban planning problems. It will focus on ensuring smoother traffic flows, regular power supply and the tracking of crime, especially exploring the use of cloud-based information systems that will enable real-time coordination between residents, city planners and systems executors.
This track will be led by several experts in urban design and planning. These include Lina Sonne, who is currently managing research on urban poverty and inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship at Intellecap in Bombay. Jesse van de Zand works at Enviu, a Dutch agency that works to develop and new launch new startups with a focus on social and ecological issues. Madhav Pai is the Director of Embarq India, a non-profit that works together with local transport authorities to reduce pollution, improve public health, and create safe, accessible and attractive urban public spaces. Namrata Mehta, Director of Innovation at CKS, is fascinated by urban design and will bring in a user-centered perspective to the discussion.
The discussion will center around the question of cross-sector collaboration towards urban planning initiatives and ways to design cities, extending beyond technology and cloud-based information systems, and delving into the needs of different inhabitants of cities. It will ask questions of how design and innovation can help solve the challenges of rapid urbanization in India, and what kinds of new collaborations and partnerships we must envision in order to make this possible. It will seek to develop actionable solutions to these questions and develop a plan or vision for the steps that must be taken to achieve these outcomes.
