“By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.”
― Socrates
The Students Association of Xavier Centre for Urban Management and Governance, Xavier University Bhubaneswar (XUB) conducted their Business conclave,
Samavesh 2018, on the theme “Complex cities - Managing Urban Challenges”. So, one can imagine what a delight it was to interview the coordinator of
HabituX (The functional committee of the Urban Management and Governance department), Ms. Manisha Choraria, who steered the event from its inception and saw through the entirety of its execution. Here are some of the insights shared by her regarding the theme of the event.
What was the theme of the conclave and how pertinent was it for everyone pursuing the Urban Management and Governance course?
The theme of the conclave was “Complex Cities - Managing Urban Challenges". It basically revolved around the different issues and the challenges that are faced in an urban city just like waste management, sanitation problems, hygiene, transportation, housing etc. Keeping in mind these particular sectors, there were speakers discussed these challenges and how to tackle them and what all schemes are there related to these sectors in the country which are ongoing in a process and aims at making India economically developed and liveable so that these problems are not faced by people. The valuable insights presented throughout the conclave by the speakers from all the three sessions, helped the students of Urban Management and Governance course to understand why managing the challenges that come as a part of urban development are in dire need of being addressed. Some solutions to tackle the same were also discussed.
What new insights did you gain from the talk that were not included in your curriculum?
The students were enlightened on the non-metro cities and the challenges faced by it. Also, the expertise on the emerging professional needs for the urban domain was presented. I am not saying that the theme was something out of our curriculum for the syllabus that we follow in our school is very extensive and covers almost all the aspects that go in the governance world, but the interactions that took place between the students and the speakers really made it unique and interesting for that gave us new insights and real-time ways of approaching the existing problems.
From the perspective of someone outside the domain of your branch, any new ideas that even they can understand and make use of in their lives?
There are no different ideas but then people, in general, can understand about the various schemes and policies initiated by the government that is going on, for example, Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana, Atal Mission For Rejuvenation And Urban Transformation etc. These are really important initiatives taken up by our government and everyone should know about it. So, these many missions are taking place in tandem with each other and people should know about the development status and the adversities faced by the schemes as well as the procedures for selecting the cities in which these policies can be instigated, so that they can be aware of the criteria for the selection process of these cities, the application and the different cities under which these policies are happening. We aimed at the absorption of these ideas by our audience from the veterans involved in the planning process themselves, who cited certain examples to make us understand how these schemes can help the city in smart governance and in becoming more efficient in PPP mode.
How laborious was the preparation process of this conclave and what did the people involved, were able to learn from it?
This particular conclave was a joint effort of the Career Advisory Services Team Of Urban Management and Governance department and HabituX, the functional committee of UMG. So, the HabituX team was involved from the very scratch in the preparation process from calling up the speakers, taking their appointments, as well as making different arrangements for them including hospitality, event management etc. We coordinated with the faculties and our Dean’s office so that everything goes smoothly, and got to learn a lot from them too. We also worked very hard in promoting the event through various media houses as well as through social media channels. Also, the CAS team, worked for hand in hand with us and made the conclave a success. Sure, we made some mistakes, but those taught us many things on so many levels that would definitely help us in managing any future events with celebrity in the whole process. The people involved in the preparation process were able to learn a lot like meeting the deadlines, diligence, coordination and communication with the other teams, inclusion in decision making, etc.
What were the speakers’ comments on the session?
The speakers were quite impressed with how the session unfolded before them and how well managed and planned the conclave was. They were delighted to see each one of us handling the sessions with such passion and improvising with what we had at the moment in case of any glitches. Well, the speakers did notice those glitches but they overlooked them because of the level of tenacity that we showed in preparing for the conclave and it was a very good platform for them as well because they got to meet the other speakers as well from different industries. Also, they were very impressed with the batch’s curiosity and enthusiasm as the session was very interactive and they could see a lot of potential in our school becoming one of the foremost Urban Planning departments in the country.