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In order to analyze the economic and environmental effects of the COVID 19 pandemic-induced reverse migration on the urban-rural continuum, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee is working with Japan's Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and Keio University to implement a bilateral project. The study, titled "Ecosystem-centred rural revitalization: Bridging the urban-rural dichotomy toward post-COVID resilient recovery," is financed by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and India's Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) (JSPS).

The research will focus on two chosen study areas, including Haridwar in India and Kanagawa prefecture in Japan, according to a release from IIT Roorkee. Today, June 27, 2022, at IIT Roorkee, a project workshop was held to address the subject with experts and stakeholders in relation to the collaborative research.

"Urban and rural areas are intricately linked, and failing to recognize these connections could compromise the viability of the rural food, energy, and water nexus. According to Bijon Kr Mitra, IGES Japan, "the proposed research would highlight the policies adopted in India and Japan to support important economic sectors, making them robust to catastrophes.

"The project will show how to revitalize rural communities with an emphasis on the eco-system by diversifying their economies and fostering decentralized growth in the post-COVID-19 era. Finding answers to complex challenges doesn't require inventing the wheel; instead, it requires using cross-disciplinary and cross-national learning to generate sustainable growth methods "explained IIT Roorkee director Ajit K. Chaturvedi.