16 Oct 2019
Resource Person: Dr. A Ravindra Rd. chief secretary, Govt. of Karnataka.
“Dr. Ravindra holds a Ph.D. degree in Development studies. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1965 and served in various capacities in government and retired as chief secretary to the Government of Karnataka at the end of 2002. He was responsible for introducing several governance reforms such as rationalizing property tax system through the self-Assessment scheme which came to be regarded as people friendly. He played a pioneering role in promoting civic awareness among citizens through swabhimana, a platform of resident welfare associations, NGO’s and civic agencies in Bengaluru. After retirement, Dr. Ravindra has served as deputy chairman, Karnataka state planning Board and Sr. Visiting fellow at IIM, Bengaluru currently, he heads the center for sustainable development, a non-profit organization, working on sustainability issues. He is also chairman of the Institute for social and Economic change (ISEC), a leading research institution in social sciences.
Dr. Ravindra has passion for cities and has setup the Smart Cities India Foundation with dream to engage citizens to make cities more livable and he has published several papers and articles on urban and public policy issues. His books include Metropolitan Management: A management perspective, Urban land policy, dance of democracy and a coffee table book on Bangalore”.
The School of CIVIL Engineering in association with UIIC, REVA University and Green Skill Academy, had organized Skill Development programme on Smart Cities - Concepts of Implementation for 5th semester A, B, C, D, E& F section students of civil Engineering, REVA University from 16th,17th & 18th October 2019 between 08:30 AM to 4:30 PM. It is a current trending approach in civil industry used for efficient construction management. Around 120 students of 5th semester Civil Engineering were benefited from technical Talk by Dr. A Ravindra, Rd. chief secretary, Govt. of Karnataka.
Cities are the main poles of human and economic activity. They hold the potential to create synergies allowing great development opportunities to their inhabitants. However, they also generate a wide range of problems that can be difficult to tackle as they grow in size and complexity. Cities are also the places where inequalities are stronger and, if they are not properly managed, their negative effects can surpass the positive ones.
Urban areas need to manage their development, supporting economic competitiveness, while enhancing social cohesion, environmental sustainability and an increased quality of life of their citizens.
With the development of new technological innovations -mainly ICTs- the concept of the “Smart City” emerges as a means to achieve more efficient and sustainable cities.
Since its conception, the Smart City notion has evolved from the execution of specific projects to the implementation of global strategies to tackle wider city challenges. Thus, it is necessary to get a comprehensive overview of the available possibilities and relate them to the specific city challenges.
