G. Seetharaman, Officer on Special Duty for Auroville Foundation and members of the Auroville Working Committee addressing a press conference at Auroville on Friday.
| Photo Credit: KUMAR SS
Auroville is exploring tie-ups with other States in a range of areas such as sustainability, architecture, waste management and probiotics on the lines of the recently-established collaboration with the Gujarat government.
Addressing a press briefing, G. Seetharaman, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for Auroville Foundation and members of the Auroville Working Committee (WCom), said seven MoUs had been inked with various universities in Gujarat in the wake of an Auroville delegation’s visit to Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Gandhinagar earlier this month.
Auroville Foundation Secretary Jayanti Ravi, representatives from the governing board, various Auroville committees and domain experts had participated in the session on ‘Good Practices at Auroville’ held under the auspices of the Ahmedabad Management Association in Ahmedabad. Solar energy, garbology, probiotics and education research were among the areas that sparked interest for collaborative ventures.
Anuradha Majumdar, WCom member, said alongside triggering educational exchanges and enrolling more volunteers from other States and internationally through the Auroville Calling online outreach, the collaboration with other States also aimed to attract green technology and other environment-friendly enterprises to the township.
According to the representatives, the Mother, who founded Auroville based on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, and formulated a Charter to manifest the international township, had envisaged a global community of 50,000 people in order to reach a critical mass of spiritual collectivity with adequate social and economic stability. From its very inception Auroville’s plan envisaged an Industrial Zone meant to create a thriving economy for its collectivity, thereby eliminating pressures of material sustenance and enabling the freedom to pursue an ardent inner life.
One of the possibilities discussed during the Gujarat visit was for Auroville to integrate the holistic learning framework it has evolved into the preparations for the 2036 Olympics, should India’s bid to host the event in the city of Ahmedabad succeed, representatives said.
Auroville is also scaling up its infrastructure to meet an anticipated uptick in its population, which over the decades since the founding in 1968 has only grown to about 3,300 inhabitants dispersed over an estimated 3,000 acres.
In addition to the Crown Road and 12 radial roads, Auroville had undertaken a 500-bedded housing capacity expansion. The governing board has also approved a project to establish a University to cater to the educational needs of youth in surrounding villages and to facilitate rural start-up initiatives.
Auroville is seeking to attain self sufficiency in water needs through the development of Matrimandir lake with an alternative design led by Michael Bonke, as well as the establishment of a desalination plant, Sindhuja Jagadeesh said.
Responding to ecological concerns over the ongoing projects that have been raised by some Aurovillians, representatives stated that wherever trees needed to be cut to facilitate development, compensatory afforestation guidelines, and all other norms, were being adhered to, and that Auroville would be realised as the “greenest city on the planet”.
Published – January 17, 2025 09:55 pm IST
