The San-kranti Student Challenge concerns all of us. India’s rapid urbanisation has resulted in significant challenges as well as a set of valuable opportunities – there are few certain answers before any of us. Our urban growth could help us alleviate poverty and move towards a more sustainable and equitable future. It could also overwhelm our cities and exacerbate inequality. We stand at the cross-roads.
San-kranti: Transform Urban India is a nation-wide student challenge aiming to not just actively engage Indian youth with their cities but to also document their perceptions of urbanisation and encourage emerging leaders to actively shape its course. The challenge is a component of the India Urban Conference 2011, a series of events convened by the IIHS, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy and Yale University.
In Stage 1 of the challenge, you must form interdisciplinary teams (of 3-5 students each) to identify a pressing local urbanisation related challenge; clearly formulate a challenge statement and a possible solution See guidelines for details. In Stage 2 of the challenge, from a long list of teams, 20 will be short listed from across India. Each team will be required to analyse the situation, identify and describe an implementable solution to the challenge you have outlined in greater detail.
To assist in this process, each team will be mentored by leading practitioners, academics and a special media lab at an intensive workshop to be held in September 2011. Selected presentations will be made at the India Urban Conference, India’s largest urban conference to be held on the Infosys campus in Mysore in November 2011. These presentations will be reviewed by a Grand Jury made up of leading global and national urbanist practitioners, academics, policy makers and civil society leaders.
Last date to apply: September 15, 2011
Click here for application form and more details