INDIA URBAN SPACE (IndiaUSP)

Land has been delineated into political, administrative and community units. The markings we make on our land are the tangible manifestation of our social structure, economic activity and political currents. Almost all decisions whether on the economy, environment, housing, water supply, transportation, poverty alleviation and so on, are directly or indirectly connected to land or space. Yet when urban masterplans and district structural plans are drawn up, there is no input from the multiple players engaged in these urban issues.

While Urban Forums across the world are engaged in lively debates about local and global issues, there are very few conferences that seek the spatial translation of urban issues.

IndiaUSP provides a platform for such debate, using the filter of space. Such a platform is especially important in India because:

1. The relentless pace of urbanization doesn't allow a sequential approach to addressing these urban challenges. Urbanizing players in the global marketplace do not have the luxury of following the pace of the past. An annual conference can result in articulating a more urgent and holistic action-oriented approach.

2. For meaningful concurrent approaches a framework is needed. If the urbanised countries are struggling with linking their inter-dependencies, the challenges are even more for the newly urbanising countries like India . IndiaUSP highlights the need for urgent, collaborative action.

3. Globalisation and marketplace economics are creating their own challenges in newly urbanising countries. In order to side step the danger of the “macdonaldisation” of our cities, we need to quickly find the soul of urban India . IndiaUSP will enrich the dialogue in defining what this soul means and how to keep it alive.

4. India faces huge administrative and political challenges. The myriad stakeholders of urbanizing India need a common indigenous platform for urban discussions. IndiaUSP provides a national platform for broadening local and regional capacity to connect learnings with successful outcomes.

5. India 's young democracy provides rich experimental ground for its government and citizenry to jointly define tools and processes of decision-making and action agendas. The effort is relevant for both urbanizing countries as well as democratizing countries. “How” our urban growth takes place is as important as the “development” itself. In East-Asian countries such as China and Singapore , development has been centralized and technocratic in nature. As the largest democracy in the world, India has a unique opportunity to urbanize in a manner where the “means” share centre-stage with the “ends”. IndiaUSP will facilitate a discussion on these processes.

India Urban Space Conference was launched in February of 2006 in Goa . It is a unique conference in India dealing with the impact of urban issues on the spatial aspect of cities. Whether it is urban poverty, economic growth, governance, infrastructure or environment, they are all related intimately to the issue of space in the city and its surroundings. IndiaUSP 2006 - the maiden annual conference - marked an important first step in acknowledging this importance of SPACE in planning our CITIES.

Following the success of IndiaUSP 2006, the scale and scope of the conference has grown. The approach includes a broader audience and to include a market orientation along with the development orientation.

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