San-Kranti - A Youth Platform To Make Our Cities A Better Place To Live In

Online, July 19, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Did you know...?

• India will add more than 300 million new people to its cities in the next 30 years.
• The urban population could then make up nearly half of our 1.5 billion citizens.
• Currently, more than 60% of India's GDP comes from her cities and is expected to increase.

san-kranti - transform urban India, is a youth platform to actively engage with urbanisation-related issues. True to its name, it calls for a transformation in the way that we engage with our most pressing contemporary challenges and start taking ownership of our cities. san-kranti offers opportunities to students for collaboration, peer-learning and mentorship by some of the country's leading urbanists.

From migration and pollution to traffic congestion, we tend to look at urban problems from a limited, uni-dimensional perspective. san-kranti challenges the youth to seek viable systemic alternatives. An initiative of Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), in partnership with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD) and South Asian Studies Council, Yale the san-kranti student challenge will lead up to the India Urban Conference 2011.

san-kranti challenges students to take a hard look at some of our most pressing urban problems and explore their multi-dimensional impact on our economy, society, environment and politics. The challenge is only open to teams of up to 5 participants from multiple disciplines who will suggest viable solutions to these problems for their city or town.

It culminates in the best teams participating in the much-awaited India Urban Conference (www.iuc2011.in) at Mysore in November 2011.

Commenting on the launch of the platform, IIHS Director, Aromar Revi said "san-kranti is part of a nation-wide youth effort to take ownership of shaping India's settlements and her future. It is a unique opportunity for today's youth to understand the transformatory potential of balanced urbanisation to improve human development, end poverty, improve quality of life, enhance sustainability, equity and inclusion".

The san-kranti Student Challenge will be open to:

Post graduates and PhDs who are currently studying and graduates, post graduates and PhDs who have completed their degrees over the last calendar year. Students from all disciplines can apply in groups up to 5.

Every team will receive feedback for their entries.

An eminent jury comprising senior academics, practitioners and policy-makers will select 20 teams from entries received across the country based on a scoring system that rewards relevance of identified problem, analytical clarity on the solution proposed and team diversity.

The shortlisted 20 teams will be mentored by a distinguished set of experts who will help the teams further develop their solution to address the problem in a more comprehensive manner. The teams will be scored during their mentorship period and the top 5 teams at the end of this mentorship process will get to present at the India Urban Conference in Mysore. The top 3 teams will win a cash prize. All 20 teams will be invited to participate in the India Urban Conference where they will get to interact with eminent academics, practitioners and policy makers around the world.

To know more about san-kranti and apply, visit www.transformurbanindia.com
Connect on www.facebook.com/pages/San-kranti-Transform-Urban-India/133897540019509
Follow san-kranti on http://twitter.com/#!/San_kranti

About IUC

The India Urban Conference 2011 (IUC) is a series of events designed to raise the salience of India's urbanisation challenges and opportunities within the ongoing debate on the country' development. The IUC seeks to create an open-frame 'space' for a multi-level dialogue that informs policy, practice and civil society action.

About IIHS

The IIHS (www.iihs.co.in) is a national educational institution committed to the equitable, sustainable and efficient transformation of Indian settlements. It is a prospective National University for Innovation focused on the multiple challenges and opportunities of India's urbanisation.

The proposed IIHS University aims to be a globally ranked, practice and innovation-oriented knowledge institution that will seek to bridge the excellence, scale and inclusion divide. Organised around five interdisciplinary schools, it will host multiple programmes of campus-based education and research, practical training for working professionals, distance and blended learning as well as advisory services. It will have a strong interdisciplinary orientation, incorporating both theory and practice.

About JCCD
Janaagraha (www.janaagraha.org) is a not-for-profit institution started in December 2001. From a movement to include people's participation in public governance, it has now evolved into a robust institution for Citizenship and Democracy. Janaagraha works with citizens and governments to offer comprehensive systemic solutions to the problems faced by India's cities and towns.

About South Asian Studies Council, Yale

South Asian Studies Council, Yale (http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/southasia) is committed to promoting a comprehensive understanding of historical and contemporary South Asia, encompassing Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. As part of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, the Council seeks to foster lively intellectual exchange from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives by integrating teaching and research on traditional South Asia with contemporary study of the region. The Council provides a forum for student and faculty interaction, both social and intellectual, and promotes South Asian cultural events.

For information on san-kranti, contact:
Richa Dubey, IIHS: [email protected]; +91 98100 41891