US-based Rockefeller Foundation-backed 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) has chosen four cities from India -- Japiur, Surat, Pune and Chennai -- to help them deal with social and economic challenges like waste management, availability of water, floods etc, facing them.
Under the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) initiative, 100 cities have been selected from all over the world. The initiative is aimed at helping these cities become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century, said Amit Prothi, Head of India National Strategy 100RC.
The cities on the list include Kyoto of Japan, Barcelona of Spain, Belfast of the UK and so on. From India, there are Chennai, Pune, Surat and Jaipur, he said.
Explaining the plan, Director of National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) Jagan Shah said, "Every city is facing or has already faced some or the other issue. Like Jaipur faces issue of high temperature. Chennai has seen floods. There are many places where population is an issue and at some places, infrastructure is an issue."
The NIUA does inter-disciplinary research, capacity building, knowledge management and policy making on issues relevant to cities across India.
The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) has also become part of the initiative to help addressing these issues, Shah said.
No place in the world is perfect. From time to time some or the other problem is faced by every city no matter how developed it is, he added.
A list of over 50 problems that various cities are facing has been made. Some are facing population issue, some ageing infrastructure, some drought, some are prone to earthquake, unemployment, corruption etc, Prothi said.
"We will take the help of local bodies of the cities and governments and academicians and whosoever who wants to contribute. Funding will come...of course the government is there. We will not invest from our side. We are just in the advisory role. We will provide the expertise required to face these challenges," he said.
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