BERKELEY — The need to make congested and polluted cities in India more livable and sustainable has prompted 14 University of California, Berkeley, faculty members to join Indian government, think tank and business leaders at a conference in New Delhi next week. 

The March 23-25 conference, "The 21st Century Indian City," will explore collaborative research and policy solutions. The event is predicated on forecasts for continued staggering growth in already sprawling urban centers across the country, including New Delhi (population 12.6 million), Mumbai (13.8 million) and Bangalore (5.4 million). And as Indian cities grow, conference organizers said, so do their surrounding suburbs and slums. Approximately 15 new cities are now on the drawing board, and more are expected to be added.

While many Indian cities are choking at the seams, conference organizers agreed it is not too late to help

"On one hand, we're looking at tremendous potential for economic prosperity, consolidation of middle-class lifestyles and expansion of civil society and local democracy," said Raka Ray, chair of UC Berkeley's Center for South Asia Studies, the Sarah Kailath Chair of Indian Studies and a professor of sociology and South and Southeast Asian Studies.

"On the other hand," she said, "cities are where all the problems you can imagine are centralized. And in many Indian cities, we're seeing an unsettling increase in poverty, inequality, pollution and other environmental degradation as cities' often outmoded infrastructure strains to keep up with increasing demands."

Conference organizers said they hope UC Berkeley and India experts will help India develop a new repertoire of analytic concepts, research methodologies and policy solutions aimed at improving life in its cities. Conference themes include India's globalization, economic growth, infrastructure, politics, land markets, governance and civil society, as well the social fabric of its cities.

Sponsors of the invitation-only event include the Silicon Valley-based Kanwal and Ann Rekhi Foundation; UC Berkeley's Center for South Asia Studies, Global Metropolitan Studies, and Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business; as well as a leading Indian think tank, the Centre for Policy Research.

The UC Berkeley experts heading overseas are from disciplines critical to understanding, maintaining and improving cities. Their expertise ranges from transportation, water, ecology, city and regional planning and architecture to municipal finance, housing, geography, political economies and government, energy resources, real estate and anthropology.

Joining them in India will be heads of the National Housing Bank, National Institute of Urban Affairs, the Center for Policy Research, and the Delhi Urban Arts Commission, scholars from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Tata Institute for Social Science, leaders from non-profit groups and others.

"The urgent question at hand in Indian cities is whether or not one of the world's emergent economic powerhouses can foster an urban economy and polity that is also socially inclusive," said Ananya Roy, a UC Berkeley professor of city and regional planning whose research focuses on comparative urban development and international development studies. One of the conference organizers and co-director of UC Berkeley's Center for Global Metropolitan Studies, Roy will participate in the event.

"From China to Brazil, this is, in fact, a global question: In the world's megacities, will millions be shut out of enclaves of prosperity, or can urban growth create the basis for a more hopeful human condition?" Roy said. The conference, she added, is organized on "the premise that it is indeed possible to envision hopeful and equitable urban futures, in India and elsewhere."

"Indian cities are by and large a mess because of pell-mell growth," said Kanwal Rekhi, an Indian-American engineer, businessman, philanthropist and a conference sponsor. "It is extremely gratifying to see UC Berkeley bringing together experts from across disciplines to work with Indian planners on how to make cities more livable and productive."

More details about the conference are online at http://indiancities.berkeley.edu/.

See http://southasia.berkeley.edu/ for additional information about the Center for South Asia Studies.

Fifty years ago, UC Berkeley city planning professors led a conference in India that focused on cities on the subcontinent. The scope of the "21st Century Indian City" conference and varied background of its participants vastly expands on that earlier exploration of cities, organizers said.

They also said that the latest lessons learned in India undoubtedly will have applications for urban centers in other parts of the globe.