A number of SHLC colleagues were able to present and contribute to a seminar held at Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) in Delhi on 6 December 2018. The seminar, which was co-organised by the Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with PRIA, included a number of university and public sector partners from across India. The event was held as part of the project, The role of universities in developing skills for Smart Cities, funded by the Scottish Funding Council from its contribution to the University of Glasgow’s efforts to develop activities concerned with the Global Challenges Research Fund. It followed a similar event held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 3 December.

The seminar was opened by Professor Rajesh Tandon, President of PRIA, and a member of the India Advisory Group for SHLC. Professor Michael Osborne, Co-I in the centre was a speaker, presenting both an overview of SHLC, and an international perspective on the disjunction between smart and learning cities.

Research Assistants in SHLC from the National Institute of Urban Affairs in Delhi, Arvind Pandey and Baishali Lahiri were in attendance, both making excellent interventions. Given the very high profile of smart city development in India with the established of some 100 such cities in the country, the insight into these developments from this project will be valuable to the work of SHLC.

More details will be made available from CR&DALL in due course.