Young Minds To Help Country Prepare its Cities for the Future
New Delhi, India, 19 May, 2006: The Government of India, Ministry of Science & Technology and Bentley Systems, Inc, today launched a forward-looking design competition for college and high school students called “Future Cities India 2020.” The programme, a partnership among government, universities, and the business community, encourages students to use their design skills – along with Bentley’s software for the world’s infrastructure – to help prepare India’s cities for the year 2020.
“India has earned a reputation for developing a highly skilled workforce to support its technical outsourcing industry,” said the Honourable Minister for Science & Technology and Ocean Development, Shri. Kapil Sibal. “It is now time for us to direct our many talents inward, and address projects at home that will help secure India’s future. The Future Cities India 2020 programme will engage some of India’s finest young minds in designing world-class infrastructure for economic growth and improved quality of life in our cities.”
Students in the Future Cities India 2020 competition will confer with the Ministry of Science & Technology and the public to solve pressing real-world problems. They will design their infrastructure projects using advanced software provided by Bentley at no charge to the academic institutions enrolled in the programme.
Commenting on Future Cities India 2020, Bhupinder Singh, managing director, Bentley South Asia, said, “What makes this programme so special is that it gets everyone in the Indian community involved, working together to prepare for India’s future infrastructure needs. Project ideas will come from not only the Ministry of Science and Technology, but also local businesses and the general public. Students will select the best of these and create real-world infrastructure designs that address real-world challenges.”
India’s economic performance in recent years has been among the best in the world, with much of the growth taking place in its urban areas. Upto 70 percent of its gross domestic product is contributed by its cities, creating mounting demands for infrastructure improvements. These demands will only increase as more people are attracted to these hubs of economic activity.
Less than 30 percent of the more than one billion people in India currently live in urban areas. It is estimated that by 2020, India’s cities will be home to 75 percent of its citizens, and a relatively small number of megacities will absorb the bulk of this population boom.
To keep these megacities efficient, comfortable places for people to live and work in, major infrastructure improvements will be needed, including in the areas of:
• Modern housing, office buildings, and industrial plants
• Reliable, affordable mass transportation systems
• Energy-efficient utilities and associated distribution systems
• Fast, secure communication networks
• Expanded roads and highway systems
As the programme unfolds in the weeks to come, information on how the public can provide input will be made available.
Future Cities India 2020 is inspired by the highly successful National Engineers Week Future City Competition for middle school students in the United States. Said U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez about this competition after recently seeing a team presentation at Bentley’s corporate headquarters, “I was just blown away by the success of the Future City Competition. Engineers are sent into schools to serve as mentors to students. They use software to design a city. By doing this they use problem-solving math skills, engineering, and science.” More than 1000 middle schools are currently involved in the programme.
About the Ministry of Science & Technology
The Department of Science & Technology (DST) was established in May 1971, with the objective of promoting new areas of Science & Technology (S&T) and to play the role of a nodal department for organising, coordinating and promoting S&T activities in the country. The DST has major responsibilities for specific projects and programmes as listed below: formulation of policy statements and guidelines on science and technology and coordination of areas of science and technology, in which a number of institutions and departments have interests and capabilities; support of basic and applied research in national institutions throughout the country and provision of minimum infrastructural facilities for testing and instrumentation; support of critical technology programmes; support of autonomous research institutions, whose specialisation ranges from advanced medical research materials to astronomy; fostering international cooperation and establishment of special joint centres/projects; support socially oriented S&T interventions in rural areas for weaker sections; support knowledge-based and innovation-driven entrepreneurship development to create self-employment opportunities; popularisation of science and technology; providing scientific services in terms of surveying and maps for defence, external affairs, state governments and several other developmental agencies through Survey of India (SOI) and National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO); providing meteorological services for agriculture, water resources management, disaster warning, and civil aviation, as well as providing seismicity data through India Meteorological Department (IMD); Management of Information Systems for Science and Technology and Natural Resources Data Management Systems (NRDMS). The present programme was initiated by NRDMS, which has a mandate of developing spatial infrastructure, GIS, and natural resources data collection for social and economic development. NRDMS, in its initiative to harness young minds’ creative skills to address local issues by way of design, interaction, communication and spreading awareness, developed the Future Cities India 2020 programme in India in collaboration with Bentley.
About Bentley
Bentley Systems, Incorporated provides software for the lifecycle of the world’s infrastructure. The company’s comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial verticals spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2005 revenues of $336 million and more than 2,000 colleagues around the world, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Design 500 and major owner-operators. To receive Bentley press releases as they are issued, visit www.bentley.com/bentleywire. For more information, visit www.bentley.com/india. To view a copy of Bentley’s June 2005 Annual Report online, go to www.bentley.com/june2005annualreport.
About National Engineers Week/Future City Competition
Future Cities India 2020 is not affiliated with the National Engineers Week/Future City Competition. The mission of the National Engineers Week/Future City Competition is to provide a fun and exciting educational engineering programme for seventh- and eighth-grade students that combines a stimulating engineering challenge with a "hands-on" application to present their vision of a city of the future. For more information, visit: www.futurecity.org.