WRI India Presents Prime Minister Narendra Modi With Report on Shared Mobility at MOVE Summit

NEW DELHI (September 8, 2018) — At the inaugural session of the MOVE Summit, Dr. OP  Agarwal, CEO of WRI India, presented a report on the future of shared mobility in India to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.

The MOVE Summit, organized by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, took place on 7-8 September 2018 in New Delhi, India. WRI India played the key role of knowledge partner for this global mobility summit, and hosted several engagements leading up to the main event.

“Mobility is a key driver of the economy,” said Modi. “Better mobility reduces the burden of travel and transportation and can boost economic growth. It is already a major employer and create the next generation of jobs.”

Mobility is a key driver of the economy.

Better mobility reduces the burden of travel and transportation, and can boost economic growth.

It is already a major employer and can create the next generation of jobs: PM

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) September 7, 2018

The prime minister outlined a vision for the future of mobility in India based on seven C’s: common, connected, convenient, congestion-free, charged, clean and cutting-edge.

My thoughts on the future of mobility in India. pic.twitter.com/Zv78s55Nat

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 7, 2018

Modi’s speech was followed by responses from multiple industry leaders, including chairmen of the board and CEOs from Mahindra, Suzuki, Bosch, Toyota, ABB, Nissan, Tata, Ford, Hero, Ola Cabs, Hyundai, Isuzu, Volkswagen, Bajaj and Honda as well as ministers from Singapore, Russia, South Africa and multiple sectors in India (roads and transport, industry, urban development, housing and urban affairs, and energy). The program also included chief ministers and secretaries from several Indian states.   

Transport Minister of India Nitin Gadkari chaired a session on reinventing public transport, which featured Agarwal, who presented on background, and Dario Hidalgo, director of integrated transport at WRI Ross Center, who spoke about the Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities.

WRI India set the stage for MOVE with a pre-cursor event and a four-part webinar series that included high-profile participants from various state and city governments, bureaucrats, international scholars, businesses and think tanks.

During the pre-MOVE summit event organized by WRI, Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, delivered the keynote address for “A Policy Dialogue for Future Mobility in Indian Cities,” highlighting that cities should evolve on the back of public transport systems.

The webinars designed by WRI focused on “India's Strategy for Transforming Mobility - Challenges and Opportunities,” bringing out four facets of sustainable transport in India today: accelerating shared mobility, facilitating enterprise-led innovations, the potential of two- and three-wheelers in developing the electric vehicle market, and the need for building slow, safe and forgiving streets for pedestrians as well as vehicles in the future.

“India is challenging top automakers to move in the direction of electric and shared mobility and is counting on local ingenuity and entrepreneurship,” said Hidalgo. “There will be hard choices ahead, but the signal from the top is very strong about the need for clean, safe, equitable transport.”

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About WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities helps create accessible, equitable, healthy and resilient urban areas for people, businesses and the environment to thrive. Together with partners, it enables more connected, compact and coordinated cities. The Center expands the transport and urban development expertise of the EMBARQ network to catalyze innovative solutions in other sectors, including water, buildings, land use and energy. It combines the research excellence of WRI with 15 years of on-the-ground impact through a network of more than 250 experts working from Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Mexico and Turkey to make cities around the world better places to live. More information at www.wrirosscities.org.