Global Thinking
Smart Cities Need Smart Education
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of 100 smart cities
has been upheld by several emissaries at the conference.
Several proposals to strengthen the plan and the
challenges involved were discussed by noteworthy
personalities such as Dr Suhas Pednekar, Principal of Ruia
College, Shri Vivekananda Pai, National Secretary of
Vijnan Bharati and run Nanda, Chairman, Mahindra
Lifespaces Developers Ltd to name a few.
Director of WeSchool, Dr. Uday Salunkhe defined the role
of educational institutions in the contribution towards
National Agenda. He stressed on the importance of
education in fulfilling the objectives of the agenda.
‘Smart education will lead to smart citizens leading to
sustainable smart cities,’ added Dr. Uday Salunkhe.
“As collaborators with creative mindsets, our role is
beyond degrees and getting placements for our students,”
Uday Salunkhe further quoted.
Instead of confining students to local paradigms, they
should be equipped with global mindset and develop an
ecosystem for consistent learning.
At WeSchool, the students are prepared in several aspects
such as the importance of design, design thinking and
innovation in shaping products, services, customer
experiences, business models and society.
“We are a social transformational lab and are happy to
join hands with you in taking the national agenda
forward,” Dr. Uday Salunkhe stated.
A two day conference at WeSchool aimed at promoting
economic growth, achieve human development goals and
attain environmental sustainability to enable cities.
Along with environmental sustainability, physical and
social infrastructure; technology and governance also
formed the core subject of the workshop.
‘Inspirational Symposium on Energy Innovations’ at WeSchool with Dr. Uday Salunkhe
Introduction
WeSchool hosted the ‘Inspirational Symposium on Energy Innovations’ in April 2014 along with Mälardalen University, Sweden. WeSchool has been working with the university for the past 7 years and has signed an MoU to encourage collaborative learning and research.
The relationship between India and Sweden has been driven by economic interest with bilateral trade accounting to over US$2.8 billion in 2011-2012. Environmental technology is one of the many areas recognized for co-operation. This symposium was the beginning of a new journey for a successful Indo-Swedish collaboration for energy innovation.
Collaboration
India and Sweden share a common objective of the need for innovation, to build domestic competitiveness, as well as to respond to the growing demands in an energy-constrained world.
The symposium was part of the India-Sweden Innovations´ Accelerator (ISIA) supported by Swedish Energy Agency which is a bilateral program that contributes to facilitating technology transfer and market entrance in India for Swedish innovative companies, focusing on scaling and adapting their technologies to the local context. This initiative is supported by Business Sweden, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) – Green Business Centre, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy as well as Bureau of Energy Efficiency (Govt of India).
Economic growth
The keynote address of the event was delivered by Ms. Fredrika Ornbrant, Consul General, Consulate General of Sweden followed by Mr. Srikant Illuri, Executive Director, Business Sweden who outlined the various challenges world over due to excessive energy consumption. They focused on the need for a shift in global thinking as well as technology that will drive change. With Sweden having the largest per capita consumption of energy, it has successfully reduced carbon emissions and its green house effect has also gone down by 20% while the economy has grown by 60%.
Dr Uday Salunkhe’s speech: -
Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said on the occasion, “The recent UN report on climate change is indeed alarming with severe environmental changes making the planet vulnerable. WeSchool therefore tries to bring all the stakeholders together for a larger goal of societal good. For us the triple bottom line - profit, people and planet is very important and focus on protection of environment, issues of sustainability and carbon credits are uppermost on our mind.”
Turning towards students of WeSchool Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said “This will be a great chance for WeSchool students to gain practical experience by working with Swedish companies and helping them develop real-life business models and marketing strategies suitable for the Indian subcontinent” he added.
Conclusion
This initiative will create a platform for innovative Swedish companies to connect with their respective Indian counterparts to explore the possibility of creating sustainable energy systems suitable for Indian markets. This will also be an opportunity for strengthening the bi-lateral trade relation between India and Sweden by bringing innovative solutions from Swedish companies to the Indian market and taking Indian grass root solutions to the Swedish market.
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