Trillion-dollar smart city opportunity

So, what exactly is a smart city?

By Nandita Singh

Rapid transit systems, emission reductions, smart grid, smart waste management… Prime Minister Narendra Modi has captured the nation’s imagination with his vision of “100 smart cities”. In fact, he has captured the imagination of the global businesses, inspiring them to look at India in the context of this $1.5 trillion smart cities opportunity, globally.

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The Government of India has allocated Rs 7,600 crore in fiscal year 2014-15 to build 100 new smart cities, and to develop satellite towns around existing cities. In January 2015, India signed three agreements with the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) for developing Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, Ajmer in Rajasthan and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh as model smart cities. The task force comprising officials from the centre, state governments and USTDA is being put in place for the purpose and the road map to develop these three as smart cities will be worked out in three months. This development is firming up on the proposal floated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2014 on his maiden visit to the US, after forming the government in India in mid-2014.

Twenty-five years down the line from today 50% of India’s population will be living in urban areas. Given that the country is home to 1.27 billion citizens, currently, the pressure on the cities is mounting. The rapid pace of urbanization needs to be channeled in a sustainable, productive manner so as to improve the quality of life. Smart and sustainable is the way to go.

So, what exactly is a smart city? “The key determinant is inclusion. A smart city is not a real estate venture or a gated community for the rich,” says R K Mishra, founder director of Center for Smart Cities.

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Bengaluru headquartered Center for Smart Cities is a knowledge bank and repository of best practices in the areas of planning, designing and managing Smart Cities. Mishra is a consultant to many of the smart city projects across Indian states and has been privy to discussions where he has witnessed states coming up with fabulous high tech plans for modernizing the cities. “In all those plans the integration of the local regional economic activity was missing and the center sent all those plans back for a rethink and rightly so,” shares Mishra elaborating that a city is not smart unless it improves the lives of locals living there. Going ahead, according to Mishra, the key reform required will be at the municipal level. How a city needs to be governed requires a fresh look?

Meanwhile, all the states are in the running to be the first and model smart city in the country. While it is all still very early stage, the work has begun in full force and the discussions are happening in right earnest among stakeholders across board spanning vendors, telcos and the governance machinery.

Also Read: How ICT companies are leveraging the smart cities opportunity?