Pune: Centre For Sustainable Development Launched At Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics To Tackle Climate Crisis
Shivajinagar, 1st January 2023: A new Centre for Sustainable Development was launched on New Year’s Day 2023 at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE). Located in the heart of Pune, the Institute which is a deemed University, is a 93-year-old renowned institution engaged in research, teaching, policy advocacy and outreach activity. It is known for landmark contributions by its faculty in diverse areas such as agriculture, employment, poverty estimation and demography.
The Institute has been a pioneer in empirical fieldwork based research which has informed its classroom teaching. It was founded by Servants of India Society in 1930. The newly launched Centre will focus on all aspects of sustainable development, from the perspective of theory, practice and policy. Sustainable development is that which leaves adequate environmental and resource space for future generations without hurting the present one. It requires sophisticated strategy, which encompasses notions like sustainable and renewable energy, sustainable consumption, circular economy and waste reuse and management, sustainable agriculture which is climate resilient, sustainable urbanization and livelihoods. It represents both new economic opportunities and creative responses to formidable challenges.
The Centre will contribute via its research and advocacy, to the goal of meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Its activities will include developing insights based on research and field-work, mainstreaming sustainable development ideas into the teaching curriculum, and engaging in policy advocacy that is aligned with sustainable and inclusive economic development goals of India. The approach will be necessarily interdisciplinary, futuristic and collaborative. The Centre will also have a strong focus on outreach activities with a view to build social awareness about sustainable development.
The Centre has received generous support from Dr Ravi Pandit, founder of KPIT Technologies, and Dr Pramod Chaudhari, founder and Chairperson of Praj Industries. Their support signifies the criticality of industry-academia partnership and collaboration, to chart out the solutions to a sustainable development path for the nation. Partnerships between industry and academia are also key to advancing research and knowledge and creating a skilled workforce in emerging sectors such as ESG, circular economy and sustainable energy.
Speaking at the launch event held on the GIPE campus under the iconic banyan tree, Dr Pandit said, “Sustainable Development is the key to the growth and prosperity of our future generations. While there is a growing recognition of this, we believe that much work needs to be done to develop country-specific policies and solutions which can address the challenges faced by us in this country. Our solutions have to be not only environmentally sensitive and socially acceptable but also economically viable to truly make them sustainable in the long term. We are passionate about the environment and a sustainable future. I am pleased to see that Gokhale Institute is launching the Centre for Sustainable Development which will focus on this effort. It is a delight to be a partner in this truly valuable effort.”
In his remarks, Dr Pramod Chaudhari said, “We are delighted to collaborate with the renowned Gokhale Institute to establish the Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD). Our interest and focus is on sustainable mobility and the circular economy. Technologies are key aspects of the circular bioeconomy, and toward a lower carbon footprint. Bio-mobilityTM also plays an important role in decarbonization of the transportation sector across all modes of mobility namely road, air and marine. It acts as socio-economic-environment enabler to facilitate India’s sustainable development objectives and energy self-reliance in particular. We look forward to supporting the Centre through a variety of its research projects and initiatives, workshops, seminars, conferences etc. I am confident that the Centre will leverage synergies between all stakeholders and serve the interest of society and nation as a whole.”
The Chief Guest at the launch function, Dr Raghunath Mashelkar said, “Sustainability is not just an imperative, it is the only way for humanity to move forward. India can be a global leader in this transition to use of completely renewable energy, and also providing innovative solutions at mass scale. Effective innovation calls for both affordability and sustainability, captured in the slogan – more for less, for more, i.e. producing more with less resources to serve vastly more population. Gokhale Institute will play a stellar role in contributing intellectually to this sustainability journey.”
Dr Ajit Ranade, Vice Chancellor of Gokhale Institute said that the launching of CSD was an important milestone in the Institute’s journey of excellence. During the function, MOU’s were signed with the two industry leaders for supporting the Centre over the next five years. The program was attended by several eminent personalities working in this field. Prof. Madhav Gadgil, Dr. Ashish Lele, Director NCL, Girish Sohoni, former President of BAIF, Vivek Sawant, former MD of MKCL, Pradeep Bhargava, former MD of Cummins, defence scientist Amitav Mallik, Milind Deshmukh, Secretary and Trustee of Servants of India Society, and others.
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