Land footprinting generally means quantifying land area that is directly or indirectly required to support a particular human activity, sector, or consumption pattern. It’s an important sustainability tool, similar to energy, carbon or water footprinting. Land footprinting cuts across all end uses including agriculture ,forestry ,housing ,infrastructure ,manufacturing ,energy ,transport etc .However there has been virtually no consideration or discussion around this vital aspect that has led to many distortions . Land is treated as an investment instrument leading to overestimation of demand ,hoarding ,speculation and unwarranted inflation .Myth of land shortage is also mainly due to false narrative that deprives people and enterprises at large access and availability of land for essential use. Rigidity in rules for changing the purpose of use reduces availability of land further aggravating problems further . Due to lack of data ,actual and fair demand of land is not assessed in planning ,acquisition and use stages. Land use efficiency is completely absent. Being a finite resource ,this aspect demands urgent research ,study and action under an entity like “Land use efficiency bureau “.
About the session speakers
Mr S B Dangayach
Founder and Trustee, Innovative Thought Forum
Panelist
Mr. SB Dangayarch, an esteemed IIMA alumnus, boasts 45 years of corporate leadership. Currently, he is the Founder Trustee of Innovative Thought Forum, an India-centric "think act" tank, and serves as National Vice President of Arogya Bharati. As an independent director on various boards, including GMDC, GIPCL, and GACL, his influence extends to IIM Udaipur and Auro University, Surat. An avid supporter of Homoeopathy, ho is a patron member of GHF. Mr. Dangayach advocates integrating health sciences and promoting AYUSH, He passionately advocates green, clean, and sustainable development, emphasizing renewable energy integration. He empowers micro-enterprises with innovative initiatives like VyaparSutra and recently compiled "Pragmatic ways for Atmanirbhar Bharat featuring articles from 75 India-centric thought leaders.
Prof Shivanand Swamy
Director Emeritus, Center of Excellence in Urban Transport (CoE-UT), CEPT University
Panelist
Prof Shivanand is an economist and urban and regional planner with deep experience in transport systems, integrated landuse-transport planning and development management. He has been teaching at CEPT University since 1986 and has served as a policy and systems advisor to National, State and Local Governments on public transport and planning initiatives across the country. He has been instrumental in spearheading the planning and operationalization of Janmarg, Ahmedabad, the first dedicated Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) in India. He has also supported the planning and development of BRT systems in Surat, Bhubaneswar, Hubbali–Dharwad and Vadodara. Shivanand is an advisor to the MoUD, Government of India on evolving planning and design guidelines for BRTS and scaling up of bus-based services in Indian cities. He is currently involved in facilitating technology adoption, operations, financing and capacity building for transitioning to electric public mobility in India.
Shivanand is an active member of the Developing Countries Committee of the Transport Research Board and an Advisor to Land Transport Academy, Singapore.
Mr N K Patel
CEO, Sun Builders group
Panelist
NA
Dr I P Gautam
Chairman, Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL) and Chairman, Governing Council for the Sabarmati Ashram redevelopment project
Panelist
NA
Prof R Parthasarathy
Visiting Professor, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration
Moderator
Dr. R. Parthasarathy was till May 2025, a full-time Visiting Professor at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. He has a PhD in Economics from the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. Till January 2023, he was the Director and Professor at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad. He was earlier a Professor at the Faculty of Planning, and Dean Faculty of Rural Planning at the CEPT University, Ahmedabad where he taught Natural Resource Management and Environmental Economics to Postgraduate and Graduate students, besides guiding Masters and PhD dissertations. His research interests are natural resource management, environmental economics and urban planning. He has undertaken many studies relating to large-scale irrigation, river basins, water management, fisheries, mangroves, and the coastal cities. He has been focusing on the social distributions of power, leadership, economic development and the impacts of policy and development organizations in these sectors with special focus on the interventions by governments and NGOs both at policy and at the level of implementation. He was leading the MEGA Centre at GIDR as MEGA Chair Professor that worked closely with the Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation in the setting up of Metro Rail in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. He has coordinated a network of researchers and organizations involved in the process research on participatory irrigation management programs in various states in India and Nepal for over five years. He was also actively involved in the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA). His collaborative work includes both Indian and overseas universities and institutions like IWMI. Besides serving as a consultant to ADB, DFID, London and the Centre for Development Studies, University of Wales, U.K, he has also served as a member in a number of Governmental committees. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley with a World Bank aided post-doctoral research fellowship in Environmental Economics. As a Shastri Faculty Research Fellow, he has collaborated with the Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway, Institute of Philippine Culture, Manila and IWMI, Colombo. He has co-authored and co-edited books and has published research papers extensively.