The Urban Age India conference held from 2-3 November in Mumbai attracted over 350 delegates from India and across the world. Mayors, governors and chief ministers from Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai joined academics, urbanists, business and city leaders from Bogota, Singapore, Johannesburg, Washington DC, London and Sao Paulo to discuss the future of cities and their responses to the challenges of climate change, urban inequality and democratic engagement.

With over 50 presentations from experts in urban planning, design, transport, economics and governance, the Urban Age India conference provided a platform for a dynamic and, at times, controversial debate of how a city like Greater Mumbai, with its 17.8 million residents, should deal with housing the urban poor in areas like Dharavi where major redevelopment plans are being proposed to transform one of the world's largest slums.

The threat of rising sea water and increased risk of flooding, resulting from global warming and the erosion of snow in the nearby Himalayas, became the subject of focussed debate on how Indian cities, with over 300 million urban dwellers, should mitigate the risks of climate change in the next decade by reducing carbon emissions and adopting new strategies of sustainable development such as Delhi’s pioneering use of gas for its massive fleet of auto-rickshaws and public buses.

At the heart of the debate a clear consensus emerged that a directly elected mayor, accountable to its residents, was critical to delivery a clear vision for Mumbai which is currently governed by a Chief Minister responsible for the 105 million State of Maharashtra. Mumbai’s exceptional levels of residential density – with peaks of over 100, 000 people per square kilometre (more than central Hong Kong or Manhattan) – provoked a discussion on how to plan new neighbourhoods that maintain the complexity, vitality and efficiency of the existing city, as new forms of urban infrastructure, flyovers, road links and sewers are planned to modernise this ‘Maximum City’.
Speakers called for greater creativity in setting political and architectural visions that generate a multi-centred and rich 21st urban experience, rather than a slavish adoption of outdated two-dimensional planning models, and argued that a city like Mumbai should make the most of its potential to accommodate both the informal and formal sectors as it benefits from its increasingly global economy.
Participants of the conference discussion were (among others):  Architect Charles Correa, the Minister for the Olympics and London Tessa Jowell, the Director General of  the Maharashtra State Police PS Pasricha, Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit, and Governor of the State of Sao Paulo José Serra.