Shyam Khandekar

He is the founder of DAIDA FOUNDATION and Chairman of its Board of Trustees.

Shyam is also the Co-founder, Director and Editorial Director of the global knowledge platform – MyLiveableCity (MLC), which publishes magazines, digital content, books and also organises conferences, knowledge tours, expert training, short-term academic courses and customised workshops. MLC has published three books under his guidance: Affordable Housing, Inclusive Cities, Designing For Sustainability Through Upcycling and the latest release Streets For All : 50 Ideas for Shaping Resilient Cities, published in 2022, has been edited by him.

He is an urban designer, city planner and architect with four decades of design experience and leading multi-disciplinary design teams in major urban and landscape projects in Europe and India. He was the founder and director of the award-winning Dutch design practice, Khandekar Urban Design and Landscape, that continued under the name of BDP Khandekar. He has lectured and published extensively on different aspects of Liveable Cities at universities and conferences across the world.

Shyam believes cities can only be called successful and sustainable if they can be made truly liveable for all.

Liesl Vivier

Architect Urban Planner, Zimbabwe & The Netherlands, DAIDA Foundation Board Member. She is the director of Studio BDP in the Netherlands. She works as an urbanist on large-scale projects of urban regeneration.

Claudio Acioly Jr

An architect and urban planner, a development practitioner with nearly 40 years of experience in more than 30 countries working as a practicing expert, program manager, resident technical and policy advisor or short-term consultant to governments, bilateral and multilateral organizations, academic institutions, civil society organizations and community-based organizations.

Acioly specialized in housing and slum upgrading. Throughout the years he worked intensively in the nexus housing and land policies-city development strategies, combining it with capacity building, programme development and policy implementation.

Ashim Manna

Advisor to Jury : Ashim Manna is an urban designer and spatial planner with a decade of experience in smart cities, public-realm infrastructure, spatial analysis, and master planning. He has worked with international firms like AECOM and Building Design Partnership, as well as on collaborative projects across India. Currently pursuing doctoral research at KU Leuven's International Centre of Urbanism, Ashim's work focuses on global warming, infrastructure, and settlement transformation in the Indian Himalayas. He holds a Master in Urbanism and Spatial Planning from KU Leuven, Urban Design from CEPT University, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Ashim also manages Research & Outreach for My Liveable City.