Mr. Divay Gupta is a leading Heritage Conservation and Management expert with more than twenty-five years of professional and academic experience. An Alumni of ICCROM, University of Birmingham, and School of Planning and Architecture, he has been part of several prestigious projects in UK, USA, India, Afghanistan, Nepal and Cambodia. He has led several heritage projects and initiatives at building and urban level at INTACH, New Delhi. His restoration projects in Ladakh have won the South Asian UNESCO awards of Merit and Excellence. He is a member of the UNESCO International Conservation Committee on Preah Vihear, Government of Cambodia and has served as an expert member on National Culture Fund and Advisory committee on World Heritage matters to ASI, Government of India. He was also a visiting faculty and a member on the board of studies of the Department of Architecture Conservation at SPA, New Delhi. He has several publications on conservation and has been invited to keynote lectures at various national and international conferences. Based on his diverse expertise, he provides thought leadership in using cultural lead value-based integrated approach in heritage conservation by developing sustainable models in tourism, urban development and economic regeneration to create cultural assets and vibrant historic cities.
During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Gupta is developing his argument of positioning historic cities as ‘smart cities’, looking beyond concepts of ICT, where reviving and harnessing the unique heritage assets of these cities helps in achieving the SDGs, making them vibrant ‘smarter cities’.