Govt partners with Chicago Univ to improve air, water quality

The Delhi government with collaboration of University of Chicago Urban Labs on Tuesday launched a first-of-its-kind partnership to improve air and water quality in Delhi. As per the information, through this programme the AAP government will invite local organisations to propose programmes for improving air and water quality and award funds to the pilot project and test the most promising ideas.

The University of Chicago Urban Labs will provide up to $20 million above the $300,000 as funding and work with the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago’s India Office and the Delhi government to carry out and rigorously evaluate the winning projects that could then be scaled up across the region.

Ashish Khetan, DDC chairman thanked the University of Chicago saying: “Thank you University of Chicago for reaching out to us with this proposal. We hope this collaboration becomes more productive year on year and we continue to benefit from the best academic minds at the university.” 

Khetan added: “Testing the ideas in advance ensures not only that the policy is designed to work, but also that it can be effectively scaled up and implemented.” 

With this new collaboration, Delhi becomes the first international partner for the University of Chicago Urban Labs. Urban Labs uses Innovation Challenges like the upcoming Delhi challenge to crowd source urban policy innovation and harness the best ideas of practitioners and policymakers in cities around the world.