The private players can indeed play a major role in institutionalising the framework for inclusive urbanisation, said the minister of state for urban development, Deepa Dasmunshi. While addressing the Euro India Summit to discuss the importance of “greening cities”  at Hyderabad on Monday, Dasmunshi said that the role of private sector can be critical in the structural transformation of Indian economy and in sustaining high rates of economic growth. Emphasising on entrusting more responsibilities to the local bodies, she said that that urban development is a state subject and thus there is a need to focus on building local expertise to improve service delivery. The rapid urban expansion taking place across the world makes ‘greening of cities’ imperative for all policy makers for growth of cities in a sustainable manner. The conference, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Euro India Centre and European Business & Technology Centre in partnership with government of Andhra Pradesh focussed on the need to improve the quality of life and economic competitiveness to make cities more resource-efficient and environmentally friendly. It also stressed on issues of smart and inclusive cities, waste management, sustainable urban mobility, energy efficiency and security and human resource and capacity building. Arun Maira, member of Planning Commission highlighted various dimensions of architectural governance as a solution to the challenges towards building greener cities. He said, “Solutions developed locally are more contextual and more appropriate to pursue sustainable development in respective cities.” He further said that there is a need to build lateral networks to improve capability and reform the role of the center. Also, local bodies should be enabled to produce better results. “If we were to build urban transport system, learning and implementation has to be simultaneous so that we don’t wait for years together to learn capacity building,” he said. M Maheedhar Reddy, minister for municipal administration and urban development, government of Andhra Pradesh, threw light upon the key initiatives take up by the state government. He said the percentage of urban population in AP has increased to 33.49 percent in 2011 from 27.3 percent in 2001. He also said that the state government has taken many initiatives like city sanitation plans, service level benchmarking of urban services, Jawarharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, Hyderabad metropolitan development authority master plan, integrated township policy and Hyderabad metro rail project which will make the city more resource efficient and environment friendly. Sharing his perspective on global approach towards sustainable urbanisation, H E Joao Cravinho, ambassador of the delegation of the EU said, “Local concerns and global concerns are two faces of the same coin which needs to be combated.” He also said that cities, which are constantly under pressure of economic growth, should be equipped to provide healthy mobility of people and business.