Institution: Indian Institute for Human Settlements

Aromar Revi is the Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), “India’s first prospective National University for Research and Innovation to address challenges of urbanisation through an integrated programme of education, research, consulting and advisory services.” He has been a senior advisor to various ministries of the Government of India, consulted with a wide range of UN, multilateral, bilateral development and private sector institutions and works on economic, environmental and social change at global, regional and urban scales. Aromar has led over a hundred major research, consulting and implementation assignments in India and abroad; helped structure, design and review development investments in excess of $4 billion; worked on three of the worlds ten largest cities, with communities across twenty-five of India’s twenty-eight states apart from multiple international projects in half a dozen countries. He is also one of South Asia’s leading disaster mitigation and management experts and has led emergency teams to assess, plan and execute recovery and rehabilitation programmes for ten major earthquake, cyclone, surge and flood events affecting over five million people. Aromar is considered a leading expert on Global Environmental Change especially on Climate Change adaptation and mitigation. He is one of the Coordinating Lead Authors for the Urban Areas section of the IPCC 5th Assessment report (2014). He also serves as a member of the Global Advisory Board for the Global Assessment of Risk report (2011). He also works on the dynamics of macro-governance and on long-range futures for India and South Asia. He is currently involved in developing India 2050, a dynamic long-range national economy-resource-demographic model for India.

Gautam Bhan works on the politics of poverty, inequality and development in Indian cities with a focus on housing, social security, governance and urban and planning theory. He co-anchors on-going research at IIHS on Reframing Urban Inclusion. Most recently, he co-authored Swept off the Map: Surviving Eviction and Resettlement in Delhi as well as several journal articles. Gautam has extensive experience in advising public institutions including providing inputs to the Rajiv Awas Yojana and the New Delhi Municipal Act. He is an active part of urban social movements as well as a frequent columnist and writer in diverse media.