A webinar to launch ‘A New Imagination for Indian Cities’, a compilation of essays by leading urban thinkers, including Dr. Alain Bertaud, Dr. Bimal Patel, Dr. O P Agarwal, Shashi Verma, Amrita Agarwal, and Pritika Hingorani. The panel was moderated by Shivani Singh, Editor, Urban Affairs, at the Hindustan Times.
The discussion was based on the ideas in our recent report.
The discussion highlighted the critical need to reform restrictive land-use regulations to enhance entrepreneurship and productivity in Indian cities. Experts emphasized that streamlining regulations and removing unjustified constraints could unlock economic potential and drive urban growth. The discussion underscored the importance of recognizing cities as key economic engines and the need for consultative approaches to identify their growth drivers. Capacity building in smaller cities, particularly those outside central schemes, was identified as a crucial area for intervention. The conversation also highlighted how transformative urban change often stems from proactive local leadership, with civil society playing a supportive role. A key takeaway was the role of governments as facilitators, ensuring urban policies and planning frameworks are dynamic, responsive, and geared toward fostering sustainable development.
Speaker Profiles
Dr. Alain Bertaud is the author of the influential book “Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities”. He served as the principal urban planner at the World Bank for nearly two decades and before that worked as a resident urban planner in cities such as Bangkok, San Salvador, New York, and Chandigarh, where he collaborated with Le Corbusier as a draftsman.
Dr. Bimal Patel is a Distinguished Fellow at Artha Global and the Chairman and Managing Director of HCP Design, Planning and Management. An architect, urban designer, urban planner and academic, he has led diverse projects spanning residential, commercial, institutional, industrial, urban design, and urban planning across India and internationally. He received the Padma Shri Award for his contributions in the fields of Architecture and Planning in 2019.
Dr. O P Agarwal is a Distinguished Fellow at Artha Global and NITI Aayog, and a Professor of Practice at the Indian School of Public Policy and IIT Roorkee. A former IAS officer (1979–2007), he served as CEO of the World Resources Institute (2017–2022) and was the principal author of India’s National Urban Transport Policy (2006).
Shashi Verma is the Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London (TfL), where he oversees technology, strategy, planning, and funding for transport systems. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Company and served as an instructor in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Amrita Agarwal is an independent advisor and former Head of Strategy at Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services. She previously led the health system design portfolio at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has also worked with Bain & Company in India, providing advisory services across sectors including health, technology, financial services, infrastructure, and private equity.
Dr. Reuben Abraham is the CEO of Artha Global. Before this, he founded and led the IDFC Institute, a Mumbai-based think/do tank. He is a Senior Fellow at NYU’s Marron Institute, an Asia Fellow at the Milken Institute, and serves on the International Advisory Board for the New Economy of the Government of the UAE. He also advises global organisations such as Swiss Re and the New Zealand Asia Foundation.
Pritika Hingorani is the CEO (India) at Artha Global, where she also leads the organisation’s work on cities. With over 20 years of experience in the development sector, she was previously Director and Research Fellow at the IDFC Institute, where she played a key role in building and scaling the organisation over a decade. She co-founded the Urban Expansion Observatory, a geospatial lab in collaboration with NYU and Pillai College.
Shivani Singh is Editor of Urban Affairs at Hindustan Times. A journalist for 28 years, she writes regularly about cities and urban concerns. She hosts #MetroMatters, a weekly show that discusses the quality of life in Delhi, issues that matter to its residents, and takes their concerns to experts and policymakers.
Artha Global Conversations aim to foster cutting-edge and innovative thinking on key development issues through informed, candid, and substantive conversation. Artha Global is a policy organisation that supports global partners to design, implement, and institutionalise practices that promote prosperity and resilience, with a primary focus on the developing world.