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Urban Mobility Berlin and India (UMBI) is an AsiaBerlin partner project that connects German and Indian actors in climate-friendly urban mobility space to develop solutions for identified challenges jointly and to set impulses for improved mobility in India.  

The Urban Mobility Berlin India (UMBI) project aimed to connect German and Indian actors in addressing the challenges of climate-friendly urban mobility in India. The program brought together founders of innovative companies, public-sector organizations, and private-sector corporate actors to develop steps towards long-term collaborations that bridge resource gaps and pushes forward the urban mobility sector across Berlin and India, with a specific focus on Karnataka. 

The program sought solutions across three distinct challenges: 

  • Obtain data on freight movement
  • Make public transport more gender-inclusive
  • Push forward research on the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles

To address the challenges, the program invited an open call for applications to join a week-long, fully-funded innovation sprint in India, with the intention of using the time to connect with stakeholders, explore the challenges from different perspectives, and develop proposals for collaborative solutions that could be implemented and scaled locally. 

Following the application process, ten founders were selected across Germany and India to take part due to their expertise in the challenges. 

  1. David Wulff, truemetrics.io, helping companies through motion AI, saving costs, time, and carbon emissions
  2. Tribhuvan Sharma, Nota AI, empowering intelligent transportation systems, facial recognition, and security
  3. Vanchhit Johri, with expertise in Travel Tech, E-commerce and Sustainability
  4. Akshata Kari, Pixuate ( Cocoslabs Innovative Solutions Private Limited), offering face, license plate, and thermal analytics for security and surveillance
  5. Kiran Murthy S, KMS, providing sustainable technical and design interventions in infrastructure and city planning
  6. Deepak Gopala Rao, Pivotchain Solutions, offering AI driven real time video surveillance and analytics platform
  7. Sonal Shah, The Urban Catalysts , providing research, technical, and implementation support for sustainable transportation
  8. Sharath S.R, B.PAC – Bangalore Political Action Committee, part of a non-partisan citizen’s group striving to improve governance in Bengaluru
  9. Sonali Vyas, Safetipin, using tech and data to make public spaces safer and more inclusive for women
  10. Vineet Dravid, oorja.energy, enabling automotive OEMs to make informed decisions to optimize battery packs

The sprint, which took place between the 8th and the 15th of May, included multiple coaching sessions, dedicated mentor hours, visits to public sector organizations and corporate partners, and a pitch competition before industry experts and potential partners/customers. 

Here are a few highlights from the sprint, which was led by Sprint Master Suyog Sunil Risbud from Futuring Now studio: 

  • Welcome by the  Honorable Consul General of Germany to Bengaluru, Achim Burkart
  • Discussions and sessions with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Entoo, and NSRCEL. 
  • Insights and feedback from Anjula Gurtoo, a distinguished professor and Principal Investigator in the ‘Institutionalizing Gender SMART and Gender Astute Mobility’ project and Abhijit Lokre, Founder and Partner at The Urban Lab

Three ideas were selected as a result of the pitch competition, awarded for best business idea, highest potential impact and best presentation respectively. Congratulations to: Pivotchain Solutions, Safetipin and Pixuate! 

For the next steps, the founders will continue to build on the connections made during the program and the accelerated progress in the solution development to continue to work on implementing their solutions in cooperation with different stakeholders. 

To learn more about the project, the challenges it tackled, and the project partners, please visit the official project website page here.

Urban Mobility Berlin India (UMBI) project connects German and Indian actors in climate-friendly urban mobility space, to jointly develop solutions for identified challenges and to set impulses for improved mobility in India.  

The UMBI project was established in 2022 by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the Bund-Länder-Programm (BLP), and is implemented by enpact e.V. as an integral part of the startup platform AsiaBerlin. 

It is cooperating in India with the bilateral program “Promoting India’s transformation to sustainable and climate-friendly e-Mobility”, commissioned by BMZ and implemented by GIZ and  the develoPPP programme ‘Green Urban Mobility Innovation Living Lab’ with the partner Bosch Limited in Bangalore, India.  ‘Green Urban Mobility Innovation Living Lab’ is a joint venture of Bosch Limited and GIZ India, the Living Lab aims to develop sustainable, inclusive and smart mobility solutions through an industry-led multi-stakeholder platform for innovation, collaboration and prototyping. The project is part of the Green Urban Mobility Partnership (GUMP) between India and Germany. 

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