DWIH Indo-German Conference "CityScapes"

© DWIH New Delhi

The German House for Research and Innovation New Delhi (DWIH New Delhi) organized an Indo-German Conference on “CityScapes” from 29th September to 1st October at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The conference brought together Indian and German academicians and scientists from the fields of energy, environment, cyber security and smart cities, to discuss the global challenges of sustainable urbanization. In addition, high-level stakeholders and senior leaders from the industry also addressed the conference.

The conference was inaugurated by German Ambassador to India, Dr Martin Ney. He highlighted in his inaugural address that, “Cities are much more than the hardware of roads, houses and infrastructure. Cities are the home for people with all their dreams and aspirations. Their development and design must be made with their best interests at heart.” Referring to India’s Smart Cities Mission and Germany’s interest in the development of Smart Cities in India he added, “Germany brings to the table not only decades of expertise and experience with city planning, but also the technological solutions that German companies have to offer in the area of energy, water, waste treatment, and traffic solutions.”

The keynote addresses of the conference were delivered by Prof. Dr Frauke Kraas from University of Cologne on ‘The Transformative Power of Cities: Challenges and Opportunities for India’ and Prof. Dr AbdouMaliq Simone from Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Goettingen on ‘Popular Urbanism in the Global South: On the Make+Shift’. These were followed by a Public Lecture on ‘Privacy and Security in Online Social Media’ by Dr Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, IIT Delhi.

During the following two days, German and Indian experts threw a light on several aspects of urban development, reaching from energy supply to the industry perspective, governance aspects to sociological impacts of migration. Each of the eight sessions dedicated to a different topic pertaining to cities was well received by the audience which was evident from the stirring interactions during the Q&A sessions that followed the panel discussions and lectures. Besides the manifold academic input the participants made extensive use of the many opportunities for personal interaction during the breaks.

The inaugural session of CityScapes also saw two award ceremonies: Ms Poonam Bir Kasturi was felicitated for having won the first prize in “City of the future”, a campaign run by the German Ministry for Science and Research; and Dr. Arindam Biswas, IIT Roorkee and Ms Ritwika Basu, Indian Institute of Human Settlement Bangalore were declared the winners of the DWIH Poster Competition organised ahead of the conference.

Date: Thursday, September 29, 2016 to Saturday, October 01, 2016

Venue: Silver Oak Hall, India Habitat Centre