India's first global mobility summit MOVE opens tomorrow

India is all set to host its first ever global mobility summit ‘MOVE’ on September 6 -7, 2018 in New Delhi.  The government’s premiere policy think-think tank NITI Aayog’s vice chairman, Dr Rajiv Kumar, and Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, held a curtain-raiser press conference today.

The secretaries of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology were among the dignitaries who attended the press conference.

NITI Aayog says the Global Mobility Summit is the first-of-its-kind, and will see participation from over 2,200 individuals from across the world including leaders from the government, industry, research organisations, academia, think tanks and civil society.  The components of the summit include: the core conclave, digital exhibition, mobility week with featured events and a variety of stakeholder consultations.

State and Regional Consultations
In the months leading up the conclave, consultations were held across states, with visiting teams from NITI Aayog in state task forces. The state-specific issues are also to be discussed with an aim to evolve a shared, connected, zero emission and inclusive mobility agenda for the future. A compendium of state strategies, a summary compendium and a compendium of global best practices will all be released on September 7, which will outline the results of this consultative process.

As part of the run-up to the summit 15 webinars were held between July 30,2018 and August 3, 2018, which saw participation from around the world. MoveHack, the global hackathon saw around 35,000 registrations from around the globe for coding solutions to mobility problems. The think-tank body says all this put together will help drive the government’s goals for vehicle electrification,  renewable energy integration and creating jobs, additionally it will also speed up India’s transition to a clean energy economy.

Mobility Week
The Mobility Week reached a total number of 18 featured events organised in partnership with over 25 organisations and a collective reach of 20,000 people. The winners from Pitch to Move and Move Hack are to be felicitated at the Inaugural Ceremony by the prime minister.

Digital Exhibition: Movementum 2018
The mobility summit along with partners including Mahindra Electric, Hero Cycles, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Ola, Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Toyota, Bosch, Sun Mobility and more, will see a digital exhibition to showcase installations including models, screens, vehicles and more that are equipped with the cutting edge of mobility technology. It will also include a 360-degree immersive experience, highlighting the quantum mobility jump that India is poised for.

Sessions and Speakers
The Summit will be inaugurated by the prime minister of India. The Inaugural session will include remarks by 11 global CEOs, and 12 key CEOs in a panel discussions. The ministers speaking at various sessions include, Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation; Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Coal, government of India; Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology; Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship; Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation; chief minister of Maharashtra; Devendra Fadnavis is expected to speak on Day 2, along with Lt. Governor, N.C.T of Delhi, Anil Baijal.

Thematic sessions

Maximising Asset Utilisation
The Asset Utilisation and Services session will focus on the use of shared mobility, service provision and innovation in the mobility sector to dramatically increase the utilisation of the infrastructure and vehicle assets to carry passengers and cargo.

Comprehensive Electrification and Alternative Fuels
The session will take forward the existing public discourse on comprehensive electrification agenda and energy security. It will discuss changing dynamics of energy needs for transport and will explore viability of electric and other new energy solutions, taking an ecosystem view, including supply chain, mining and manufacturing, timeline, research priorities, emissions mandates, and policy opportunities. 

Reinventing Public Transport
The session on Reinventing Public Transport will focus on emerging concepts and technology applications that can create cost and context appropriate solutions for public transit. This will include transit planning, intermodal connectivity and lessons learned from private sector innovations.

Goods Transport and Logistics
The session will see discussion on enhancing the efficiency of transporting goods that will also lower the costs of doing business for agriculture and rural economies. With the expansion of commerce, goods movement is ripe for transformation – from optimised trucking, inter-modal transfer, concurrent passenger/freight traffic, to business model innovations like freight/driver swaps, and technology opportunities such as autonomous trucks, delivery robots, and drone delivery models. It will also look at the footprint of freight, including pollution patterns, urban entry patterns, multi-use vehicles and other aspects to maximise efficiency of goods movement.

Data Analytics and Mobility
The vast amount of data generated in mobility, pertaining to public transit use, mobile phone usage, navigation systems, connected devices, autonomous vehicles, among others, reflects an unprecedented potential for improving decision-making and fostering innovation. The rising volume of data also raises new questions about information ownership, data sharing and cyber-security. This session will look at the generation, use and potential for data and related innovations to facilitate improved outcomes for innovators, users and other stakeholders.

NITI Aayog says the mobility summit will see participation from around more than 30 global CEOs, over 100 state officials, more than 100 foreign delegates and over 200 Indian CEOs. The international representation from embassies and the private sector will include United States of America, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, New Zealand, Austria, Germany and Brazil among others.