Sustainable Development

For over 60 years, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been working jointly with partners in India for sustainable economic, ecological, and social development. Currently, GIZ has over 340 employees in India, of whom 70 per cent are national personnel.

India is fast emerging as an economic and industrial power. It is a member of the ‘Group of Twenty’ (G20) as well as one of the five major emerging national economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). Despite the country’s rapidly growing economy, poverty and other socio-economic issues remain a challenge. The burgeoning population and accelerated urbanisation in the country have resulted in an environment at risk and greenhouse gas emissions that continue to spiral upwards.

The focal areas of Indo-German cooperation currently are:

The DWIH conference on "CityScapes" was held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi from 29th September 2016 to 1st October 2016. The concept of CityScapes Conference was to address the various harmonious solutions to tackle the global challenges of migration and sustainable urbanization. The keynote speech of the Conference was delivered by University of Cologne Professor, Prof. Dr Frauke Kraas, Department of Geography. Amongst the other panel sessions, University of Cologne participated in the following panels: SESSION 2: Smart Energy & Construction Prof. Dr Amitabh Banerji, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Didactics, University of Cologne SESSION 3: IMPACT OF URBANISATION ON ENVIRONMENT Prof. Dr Shamita Kumar, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune SESSION 5: FOR A FUTURE SUSTAINABLE PERI-URBAN INDIA Prof. Dr N.

Heidelberg Centre South Asia, South Asia Institute, Indian Institute for Tropical Meteorology, Indian Chest Foundation, both in Pune, and the Health and Demographic Research Center in Vadu, in collaboration with Friedrich Naumann Foundation, organized a workshop on ‘Urbanisation, Climate Change and Health’, part of HCSA series of initiatives and events on Smart Cities. The workshop took place at the German House for Research and Innovation, on October 26. The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Stephan Lanzinger, Head Science and Technology, the German Embassy. The technical sessions covered a wide range of subjects, such as Air Quality of Indian Mega Cities and Prediction System (Dr. Gufran Beig, Project Director SAFAR, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune),  Climate Change and Health - Ongoing efforts at PHFI (Dr.