What is smart city India concept? All you need to know in 5 points

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What is smart city concept in India? The concept behind the mammoth Smart City project (the NDA government on Thursday announced the name of 20 smart cities and among them are Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Visakhapatnam, Solapur, Bhuvanagiri, Indore, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belgaum, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana and Bhopal as well as Delhi's NDMC), is that a Smart City is an engine of growth for the economy. Nearly 31% of India’s current population lives in urban areas and contributes 63% of India’s GDP (Census 2011). With increasing urbanization, urban areas are expected to house 40% of India’s population and contribute 75% of India’s GDP by 2030. This requires comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure. All are important in improving the quality of life and attracting people and investments to the city, setting in motion a virtuous cycle of growth and development. Development of Smart Cities is a step in that direction. Exactly what is a Smart City in India? Here is all you wanted to know in 5 points: (Reuters)

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1. The first question is What is a ‘smart city?’. The answer is, there is no universally accepted definition of a Smart City. It means different things to different people. The conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents. A Smart City would have a different connotation in India than, say, Europe. Even in India, there is no one way of defining a Smart City. (Reuters)

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2. What is a ‘smart city?’: Some definitional boundaries are required to guide cities in the Mission. In the imagination of any city dweller in India, the picture of a Smart City contains a wish list of infrastructure and services that describes his or her level of aspiration. To provide for the aspirations and needs of the citizens, urban planners ideally aim at developing the entire urban eco-system, which is represented by the four pillars of comprehensive development— institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure. This can be a long term goal and cities can work towards developing such comprehensive infrastructure incrementally, adding on layers of ‘smartness’. (Reuters)

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The Smart City initiative would be a game changer in raising the standard of infrastructure in the cities in the country.(Reuters)

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4. What is a ‘smart city?’: The core infrastructure elements in a Smart City would include: i. adequate water supply, ii. assured electricity supply, iii. sanitation, including solid waste management iv. efficient urban mobility and public transport, v. affordable housing, especially for the poor, vi. robust IT connectivity and digitalization, vii. good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation, viii. sustainable environment, ix. safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and x. health and education. (Reuters)

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5. What is a ‘smart city?’: As far as Smart Solutions are concerned, an illustrative list is given below. This is not, however, an exhaustive list, and cities are free to add more applications. Accordingly, the purpose of the Smart Cities Mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to Smart outcomes. Area-based development will transform existing areas (retrofit and redevelop), including slums, into better planned ones, thereby improving liveability of the whole City. New areas (greenfield) will be developed around cities in order to accommodate the expanding population in urban areas. Application of Smart Solutions will enable cities to use technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services. Comprehensive development in this way will improve quality of life, create employment and enhance incomes for all, especially the poor and the disadvantaged, leading to inclusive Cities. The idea is not an original one and dates back to the later part of first decade of the new millennium when technology major IBM came up with the name and listed what it thought was the way forward for a world full of cities which were growing hand over fist and which were clearly not able to cope with the tremendous pressure that the growing population placed on them from basic facilities, education to jobs and more. (Reuters)