New Delhi, Jan 31 (PTI) Ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget on Saturday, multiple stakeholders have demanded the government focus on improving provisions in view of the increasing urbanisation.

The Economic Survey 2024-25 talks about several initiatives to foster sustainable urban development and governance. It discusses how these efforts focus on enhancing climate resilience, promoting data-driven decision-making and improving infrastructure and citizen services across cities.

The initiatives include the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF), DataSmart Cities strategy, National Urban Innovation Stack and National Urban Learning Platform among others.

"Cities in India play a crucial role in national development. Occupying just 3.0 per cent of the nation's land, they contribute a massive 60 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP). However, Indian cities are also responsible for about 70 per cent of the country's total carbon emissions," says Karuna Gopal, an adviser with Airawat Research Foundation (Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Cities), Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

India is expected to house nearly 60 million urban dwellers, therefore, "their funding, planning, development and management are of utmost importance for India's growth as a global power. Hence, it is essential to provide for guided urban development in our national budgets," she said.

Prominent among the recommendations to the Finance Ministry after a recent pre-budget round table of stakeholders organised by AI Centre of Excellence was the development of a 'National Urban Transformation Blueprint' for inclusive and sustainable urban growth.

Apart from the blueprint, the key recommendations also mentioned establishing a dedicated Human Resource Capacity Enhancement Fund to attract skilled professionals with expertise in urban planning, governance and data analytics, addressing critical gaps in the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

It also highlighted the need for significant funding to upgrade, what it called, the First Mile Infrastructure -- bijli, paani, sadak (power, water and roads) services in tier 2 and tier 3 cities for making them sustainable urban centres.

In 2015, with sustainable development and climate actions becoming integral to urban investments, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) introduced a unique assessment framework for cities to evaluate climate-relevant parameters, aligned with international standards for green, sustainable and disaster-resilient urban habitats.

The habitat that the framework talks of also includes buildings, existing and future. Experts point out that with 40 per cent of India's buildings yet to be constructed over the next 20 years, decisive action by the building sector today can set the nation firmly on a net-zero trajectory.

The 'Building a Climate-Conscious India: Scalable Solutions for a Low-Carbon Built Environment' report at Conscious Collective 2024 released last week provides a comprehensive road map to decarbonise India's building sector, a critical contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.

"Decarbonising India's built environment hinges on collaboration among policy-makers, businesses and consumers to align on cost-efficient solutions, skills development and individual action. As time runs out, the emphasis must shift from isolated pilot successes to models that deliver impact at scale," says Dr Arunabha Ghosh, founder-CEO of Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

The CEEW, a think tank, had collaborated with Godrej Design Lab, part of the Godrej Enterprises Group, and Integrative Design Solutions (IDS) to bring out the report.

The market is showing readiness to embrace low-carbon interventions, Ghosh pointed out, and added, the next step is "to empower key actors and unlock the levers that will transform this opportunity into a win for both business and the climate".

The Economic Survey 2024-25 also mentions the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat (NMSH), launched in 2010, as one of the nine missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).

The NMSH seeks to promote low-carbon urban development and bolster resilience against climate change impacts through five key thematic areas -- waste management, water management, energy and green building, mobility and air quality, and urban planning, green cover and biodiversity.

These thematic areas help the ULBs to fight off their multiple challenges. Experts are hoping that like last year, Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman will support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Net Zero Economy by appropriate budget allocation, especially for the urban/city infrastructure sector. PTI NPK KSS KSS