In the northern niche of Haryana in the foothills of the Himalaya, a new hub of business, technology and education is emerging. Students from the Berkeley Group for Architecture and Planning are working on ideas for infrastructure, transportation, road networks and communication networks for “NanoCity.” The main intent is to create a livable, dense, sustainable, eco-friendly environment that can serve as a model for other developments in the region.
The pioneer behind NanoCity is Sabeer Bhatia, the “lifelong entrepreneur” best known for co-founding Hotmail. He seeks to revolutionize the way people interact on a daily basis, not only with each other, but with their immediate environment and future generations. Bhatia envisions NanoCity as an avant-garde Indian metropolis with potential to become the world’s “intellectual-property capital.”
In the early fall of 2006, the Haryana state government approved the NanoCity project and entered into a private-public partnership with Bhatia’s Nanoworks Developers (P) Ltd. An 11,000-acre site, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas and within close proximity to the city of Chandigarh, was earmarked for private development. In the future, NanoCity will transition into public governance by means of India’s long-established traditions of democracy.
Website: http://nanocity.in/
Stacey Meinzen has a broad range of experience in climate change policy. From her work with ICLEI doing a municipal greenhouse gas inventory to her news coverage of climate change for Flex Your Power's e-Newswire, to her research on climate change policy for Green For All, she has absorbed a range of views and interests about the best way to deal with this complex issue. Her primary interest is in local solutions that can be executed with sound policy to support them. She founded ClimateActionPlans.com to highlight key green projects and the programs and policies that allow them to happen.