Rourkela has been elevated to the final round among 50 champion cities in the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge, a worldwide innovation competition organised by the Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The steel city found the place as one of the finalists in India apart from Pune in 5 Asia-Pacific countries for urban innovations. The Bloomberg Philanthropies named Rourkela among top 50 cities for supporting solar-powered cold storage plus women entrepreneurship to reduce food waste.
This year’s programme focuses on identifying the unique innovations by residents of cities in response to global Covid-19 pandemic. The 50 cities from 29 countries were selected based on four criteria -- vision, potential from impact, feasibility and transferability.
The Mayors from 631 cities in 99 countries had submitted their most promising ideas for consideration and from those, a committee of global experts has selected the 50 most innovative urban solutions to emerge in the wake of Covid-19 to advance in the competition. The 50 champion cities, representing the boldest urban innovations of the past year, that will advance to the finalist stage of the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge, a worldwide innovation competition that encourages and spreads the cities’ most promising ideas, the Bloomberg Philanthropies said in a release. The ideas provide a powerful snapshot of the innovation priorities of the world’s cities. At the global level, innovations focusing on improving health and reducing unemployment were most common. Racial justice emerged as the area of highest priority for US cities while social inclusion topped the European submissions.
In Africa, where the world is experiencing its fastest rates of urbanisation, infrastructure was dominant. Nearly half of the submissions were generated in part through participatory processes with residents.
“These 50 finalists are showing the world that in the face of the pandemic’s enormous challenges, cities are rising to meet them with bold, innovative, and ambitious ideas,” the Bloomberg quoted Michael R Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City, as saying. “By helping these cities test their ideas over the coming months, we will have a chance to identify cutting-edge policies and programs that can allow cities to rebuild in ways that make them stronger and healthier, and more equal and more just,” he added.