As India moves to embrace urbanisation with open arms, there are multiple challenges before the country to ensure that this urban growth is sustainable with minimal impact on environment and resources to ensure quality life in urbanised spaces.
Today, India is grappling with rising population, accelerated rate of economic activities, industrialisation and changing lifestyles which, in turn, are responsible for producing tonnes of waste. Therefore, managing waste has emerged as a major concern in our cities and towns, threatening the very idea of sustainability intricately attached to the urbanisation process.
To highlight the threat being posed by heaps of waste generated in our urban centres, our cover story — ‘India Waging a War Against Waste’ — in this issue of eGov delves deeply into the subject to find answers to one of the most complex challenges facing the country.
This special issue, being launched during National Waste Management Summit in Hyderabad, also contains the perspective of Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information & Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu, who speaks about how India’s urban growth is witnessing a shift in its approach towards urbanisation “with citizen participation, incentivising reforms and ranking of cities” on the basis of their performance to develop quality life in urban centres.
It also carries interviews of Naveen Mittal, Secretary, Department of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Government of Telangana; Adwait Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC); and Zonal Commissioners of GHMC, who provide useful insights into how Telangana is gradually transforming itself to emerge on the country’s urban landscape as a precursor of change.
Elets, in association with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation organised the National Urban Development Summit in Hyderabad, in February to bring forth the important issues concerning development of Smart Cities in India.
The summit not only brought together all stakeholders to speak in one voice on the various challenges of urban India but also came up with solutions in the form of best and next practices in dealing with water shortage, waste management and sanitation in fast growing cities and towns.
This issue of eGov also carries a conference report of the summit, highlighting the outcomes of this unique conclave. We hope this issue will bring to our readers the information they seek to understand the paradigm shift happening in urban India to make the most of the existing and future opportunities.
Looking forward to our readers’ invaluable feedback.