The Housing & Urban Development Corporation Ltd. (HUDCO), a Government of India enterprise, has selected the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad (UoH) to establish a HUDCO Chair Programme in the area of Land, Housing, Urban and Transport Economics for a period of three years during 2015-18. The special focus of the programme will be on financing issues of Urban Development. HUDCO, a techno – financing institution through its HUDCO Chair Programme envisages establishing of HUDCO Chairs in reputed government/ state recognized / state sponsored research, training and academic institutions including Central and State sponsored Universities.
The total budget sanctioned for this programme is Rs: 60 lakhs with a maximum of Rs. 20 lakhs per year with ceiling of Rs. 10 lakhs for one activity. The purpose of HUDCO Chairs is to strengthen research and capacity building activities in the field of Habitat development i.e. research, documentation and capacity building. The other objectives are to take up awareness, orientation and skill development to build capacities of urban and housing sector stakeholders, to build capacities of urban sector functionaries pertaining to infrastructure development and management, policy and programme implementation, monitoring, evaluation and documentation.
The benefits from the HUDCO Chair will help (i) to bridge the current divide between Research, Policy-making and Training; (ii) assist in the Implementation of Reforms in the context of National Missions like Mission for 100 Smart Cities, Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation for 500 cities and Housing for All by 2022; (iii) lead to training of teachers, teaching Land, Housing, Transport and Urban Economics across the Country and of policy-makers; (iv) present a Model as to how a National University can teach and undertake policy-relevant courses/research and contribute to policy-making and programme implementation in the field; and (v) assist students in dissertation on national urban issues and get PhD.
Dr. Alok Kumar Mishra, School of Economics, UoH will be the programme coordinator.