India is a vast country with an overcrowded population, amazing social diversities and negative social and economic discriminations. India is a growing consumer economy and will one day have amongst the largest group of consumers in the world. However, the population of India must be seen beyond that of potential consumers for international markets. The Indian population must play an important role in protecting the environment. It is therefore increasingly important that work is done to create environmental awareness with the common people of India. We need to explore the people, groups and organizations working for environmental issues on the real ground if we are serious about protecting the environment. We need to run exclusive awareness and participatory dialogue programs for the common people, promoting decentralized methods of protecting the environment. Currently in India there is little public dialogue or community awareness with the common people about local and global issues facing the environment. What is the environment? What are the problems it faces? And what are roles people can play to protect the environment? In answering these questions, it is our view that environmental issues cannot be resolved only by funded academic research, or through grants and programs supported by government agencies. Environmental problems need to be resolved between individuals, including common people, corporate sector, academics, NGOs and government. All sectors and all individuals need to consider their role in protecting the environment and work together towards a common goal. The activity described here in this brochure, is a chain of environment conferences. Of most importance to the chain of environment conferences proposed, is a dialogue with common people about the environment, problems and solutions. If common people will understand how environmental issues are related to them and their future generations, then they can start to work for the environment sincerely, including advocating to government and private sector. to make better policies for the environment that promote its sustainability.

CRRID, Chandigarh proposes to organize an International Conference on “Mountain Cities, Climate Change and Urban Sustainability” and 1st Chandigarh Climate Meet from November 6-8, 2017 and a two days Pre Conference Workshop on “Towards Achieving Green Growth, Eco-Efficiency & SDGs for Urban Sustainability” from November 4-5, 2017 in collaboration with the Asia Climate Change Education Center (ACCEC), Jeju, South Korea; the Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh and the Centre for Study of Administration of Relief (CSAR), New Delhi. The Working Group 05 of International Sociological Association (ISA) on Famine and Society; the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh; The Climate Reality Project India, New Delhi; the Centre for Urban Green Spaces (CUGS), New Delhi and the Association of Professional Social Workers and Development Practitioners (APSWDP), Chandigarh are also likely to support the organization of events in various capacities. The call for abstracts of the papers and applications for the pre-conference workshop are invited before September 10, 2017. The organisers will confirm the acceptance within a week of submission. Some grants will be available for the selected delegates who submit the full papers. There is a plan to bring out a publication after the conference and also publish some selected papers in the special issue of our quarterly Journal Man & Development.

This case study report describes the Enhanced Task Force Green initiative as a source of employment for those persons with low literacy levels.

OPENING SESSION Prof. Emeritus Ryoichi Yamamoto of the University of Tokyo, expressed that with the world population reaching 7 billion, it is very important to achieve a circular, low-carbon, and green economy. He also noted that since the theme of next year’s Rio+20 is the green economy, and the OECD is putting emphasis on green growth, the four themes of this conference are in line with both. Furthermore, the three countries in attendance all excel in green procurement and environmental management. Therefore, he stated that it is desirable to spread the best practices in these three countries to the ASEAN and Asia-Pacific regions.