The Government of India is working to address the challenges of rapid urbanization through several urban programmes which aim to make cities sustainable, smart and inclusive.
The Project Urban Living Lab in Panaji, Goa contributes to this transformation in cities. This joint initiative between India and Denmark is implemented under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Royal Danish Embassy and the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL). The project is financed by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Royal Danish Embassy, New Delhi for a period of two years.
Urban living labs are spaces that bring together policymakers, city governments, residents, and research institutions to collaboratively address urban problems such as traffic congestion, flooding, or the need for more green cover. They can serve as spaces to review, rethink, and revise urban policy. This is especially important given that many urban schemes are often designed and implemented without consideration of local contexts or the complicated governance landscapes in Indian cities.
The PULL is India’s first urban living lab. It is a collaborative space for incubating and co-creating solutions to complex urban challenges.
The objectives of the PULL are to:
➠ work towards helping cities address sustainability and liveability by integrating global and local solutions
➠ bring global solutions to Indian cities using the sandbox approach
➠ enable the smooth implementation of the Smart Cities Mission
Its core functions are:
➠ learning by using multi-disciplinary approaches to learn and create knowledge about urban problems
➠ engaging with governments, private actors and policy knowledge institutions to review, select, design, test and fine tune relevant global solutions to their needs
➠ co-creating collaborative spaces for residents to participate in urban planning processes
➠ experimenting to test local and global solutions, knowledge and approaches through a sandbox
liveable smart cities in India that integrate global sustainable solutions to address complex urban challenges
the smooth delivery of Smart City projects by providing learnings from innovative experiments in Panaji
knowledge on global practices for sustainable cities’ interventions in India