Training
Casa de la India facilitates cooperation between cities in India and Spain, acting as a bridge between the two cultures and sharing best management practices in both countries. Noteworthy in this area is the Twinning Protocol between Valladolid and Ahmedabad, signed in July 2017 after numerous collaborations between the two cities in the fields of tourism and heritage management since 2008, when a Friendship Protocol was signed between the two cities to intensify and expand areas of collaboration.
Cultural Heritage and Management Venture Lab in Ahmedabad, India
One of the milestones in the cooperation between Valladolid and Ahmedabad was the project ‘Cultural Heritage and Management Venture Lab in Ahmedabad, India’, funded by the European Union through the EUROPAID office between 2013 and 2016. This project was led by Casa de la India and had four partners: the University of Ahmedabad (Heritage Management Centre), Ahmedabad City Council, the University of Valladolid and Valladolid City Council, in collaboration with several NGOs from Gujarat and Castile and León. This project included the presentation of a manual of best practices in historical heritage management, which compiles success stories in this field from both Valladolid and Ahmedabad.
Since 2017, cooperation between Valladolid and Ahmedabad has been organised within the framework of the Twinning Protocol through a Twinning Committee, of which the director of Casa de la India is a member. The committee proposes an annual agenda of actions covering, among others, the following areas:
- Management of Architectural Heritage and Assets of Cultural Interest.
- Advice on public lighting systems based on renewable energies, including heritage and tourist routes (Smart Lighting and Smart Heritage)
- Electric mobility planning in old town centres
- Facilitating the promotion of cities as tourist destinations
- Visits by business delegations and experts to twin cities
- Exchange of university and secondary school students
- Presentation of music and dance shows