Date: July 17-18, 2023
17th–18th July 2023, New Delhi: WRI India proudly hosted Connect Karo 2023, its annual flagship event that united stakeholders from across India and beyond to exchange knowledge, share experiences, and collaborate on addressing critical environmental and sustainability challenges.
Session Highlight: Thriving Eco City-Regions
This pivotal session at Connect Karo 2023 brought together national and state-level decision-makers, urban practitioners, and sectoral experts to explore strategies for advancing an
#EcoCityRegions approach for Indian city-regions.
We were honored to have esteemed speakers, including:
- Ms. D Thara (Additional Secretary, MoHUA)
- Mr. Sameer Shisodia (Rainmatter Foundation)
- Mr. Amitabh Kundu (Senior Fellow, WRI India)
- Ms. Champaka Rajagopal (Azim Premji University)
- Ms. Chandrani Bandopadhyay (School of Planning and Architecture)
- Ms. Olga Chepelianskaia (UNICITI)
- Ms. Manushi Ashok Jain (Sponge Collaborative)
The session, moderated by Rejeet Mathews (Director – Integrated Urban Development, WRI India) and Samrat Basak (Director – Water Resilience, WRI India), emphasized regenerative pathways for urban growth. It addressed the complexities of balancing economic growth, well-being, natural resources, and ecology.
Key Takeaways:
- Understanding Impact Areas: Cities’ growth and sustenance are intricately tied to surrounding regions, often extending beyond administrative boundaries.
- Ecological Templates: Projects should be aligned with regional blue-green infrastructure, emphasizing ecological carrying capacity and long-term sustainability.
- Collaboration and Co-Creation: Both vertical synergies across scales and horizontal coordination between administrative bodies and ministries are critical.
- Incentivizing Mechanisms: Creative frameworks are needed to encourage collaboration between urban, peri-urban, and rural municipalities.
- Data Transparency: Stronger protocols for data sharing and analytics can drive more effective, problem-specific solutions.
- Capacity Building and Awareness: Large-scale knowledge sharing and stakeholder sensitization—including engaging students and contractors—are vital to fostering ecological awareness.