A Sustainable Vision For Urban India

After 61 years of the Independence, India still has about onefifth of its population, a mammoth 250 million, below the sustenance level or poverty line. It raises the question of the relevance of the planning process. It is necessary to have a hard look at the ongoing perceptions, process, plans and programmes., , The urban and environmental challenges of Indian cities prompts a reconsideration of the values, goals, and means of achieving them. There is a need of abandoning the prevalent reactive tendencies of urban form which follows fiction, finance, fear, and fragmentation. There is an urgent need to evolve the concepts and innovations in shaping the urban Environment by shifting the paradigm toward urban integration, which seeks to evolve :, 1. A new model for the contemporary city, 2. design with nature, 3. local Character with global forces, 4. the professionals and the people of different cultures, incomes, ages, and abilities., , In place of fastpaced economy oriented development mentality, it is necessary to adopt the beauty of simplicity, spirituality, sincerity, and sustainability together with learning from the inherent WISDOM of nature and cities of the past, and infusing it with contemporary sensibilities. India, while moving towards urbanization is passing through a rare historic moment in aligning urban growth and development with political, economic, and social trends. What is required is to actively engage and draw Inspiration from actual social and physical conditions with an ethics of care, respect, and honesty. A city is like a healthy organisms, always growing and evolving and self adjusting according to new needs that arise. Such a city should have the following characteristics :, 1. Networks not boundaries, 2. Relationships and connections, 3. Interdependence, 4. Natural and social communities, 5. Transparency, 6. Permeability not walls, 7. Catalysts, armatures and frameworks, 8. Sustainability (rather than pollution abatement), 9. A strategy based on community Empowerment together with an effective decentralisation, devolution and deregulation of planning process, 10. A propoor, peoplecentered approach towards selfrule, selfreliance and selfbuild, 11. Local, lowcost and simple solutions based on a comprehensive understanding of the issues and processes., , As a tribute to India’s 60 years of the Independence this Book is dedicated towards the goal of sustainable urban India.