Rourkela Makes It Into Bloomberg Philanthropies 2021 Global Fifty Champion Cities

Rourkela: Smart City Rourkela has made it to the top fifty Champion Cities selected today as finalists in the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge, a global innovation competition that identifies and accelerates the most ambitious ideas developed by cities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These 50 urban innovations rose to the top of a competitive pool of more than 630 applications from 99 countries, in the first-ever Global Mayors Challenge by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

As a Mayors Challenge finalist, Rourkela city now advances to the four-month Champion Phase of the competition. From June through October, the 50 finalist cities will refine their ideas with technical assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies and its network of leading innovation experts. Fifteen of the 50 cities will ultimately win the grand prize, with each receiving $1 million and robust multi-year technical assistance to implement and scale their ideas. Grand Prize Winners will be announced in early 2022.

“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,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City. “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.”

Rourkela proposes to address the challenges faced by small vegetables and fruits vendors and farmers and proposes to establish solar cold storage solution at various city locations, managed and operated by women federations. The project has options to distribute and deliver fresh fruits and vegetables at door step of citizens through electric vehicles. Mr Sudhanshu Ku Bhoi and Mr Prasanta Kumar Nayak is the senior mayoral aide and project manager for the project respectively. The team is led by Mr Asutosh Nayak, CEO Koel Fresh Pvt Ltd, with research Team constituting alumni and students of NIT Rourkela. The Research team member includes Shreetam Dash , Suryanshu Kumar, Komaravolu Vinay, Seema Priyanka, Arunav Sharma, Vinit Malik, Satyam Soni, Md Shakil Kahan, Sayed Fahim Ali, YASH Yadav, Sresta Sahu.

Mr Dibyajyoti Parida, IAS , Commissioner , Rourkela Municipal Corporation stated “The decade 2021 to 2030 is the period for implementation of activities towards sustainable development goals 2030 of United Nations and also greatly emphasize on integrating innovative solutions for restoring urban living conditions in post COVID scenario”. The period is quite crucial and important for all the key stakeholders as it would decide the future of our planet. The fate of our coming generation lies in our hands and we have to give our best shot.

The City Council at Rourkela, India understands the importance of the hour and has initiated various activities relevant to climate change mitigation and also towards providing clean energy, clean air and clean food to the city population. I am excited and thankful to the team of Bloomberg Philanthropies managing the Global Mayors’ Challenge for entrusting us as one of the 50 champion cities in the world to implement sustainable development solutions. Presently, our solutions include promoting solar energy systems, electric vehicle systems and engaging women collectives to provide the best services to the city population. With Koel Fresh (an Agri-tech and clean energy solution start-up) as our external partner for this project, we are pumped up for the next level of challenge. We are committed to working in collaboration to put our ideas into implementation and we are confident that such a platform will help us showcase our model which can be a template for many cities of developing countries in future.”

The 50 Champion Cities submitted ideas addressing four of the most significant challenges borne of the pandemic: Economic Recovery & Inclusive Growth; Health & Wellbeing; Climate & Environment; and Good Governance & Equality. A prestigious selection committee co-chaired by Bloomberg Philanthropies board member Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO & President, Ariel Investments, and David Miliband, President & CEO, International Rescue Committee, assessed the applications to determine the Champion City finalists.

This is always an especially exciting phase of the Mayors Challenge, helping mayors push their innovations to even greater heights,” said James Anderson, head of Government Innovation at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “While 15 cities will ultimately take home grand prizes, all 50 cities receive world class coaching and support to improve their ideas and their potential to improve lives.”