Smarter Solutions for better tomorrow

Part 1

Smart Cities: Smarter Solutions for better tomorrow

Introduction

With half the world’s population living in cities, increasing the strain on energy, transportation, water, building and public spaces, the relevance of Smart Cities is more than ever. While the vision is well acknowledged across the globe, there is no unified standard definition for smart cities that has been adopted. The conceptualization, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness and scope to reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents. A compile of some of the definitions for Smart City is captured below in the illustration:

Introduction

The sector is characterized by low investment requirement, operational flexibility and location wise mobility. This enables providing employment at lower capital cost and also helps in correcting regional imbalances through industrialization of rural and backward areas, towards an efficient and inclusive growth model. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) contribute nearly 8 percent of the country’s GDP, 45 percent of the manufacturing output and 40 percent of the exports. They provide the largest share of employment after agriculture. They are the nurseries for entrepreneurship and innovation. They are widely dispersed across the country and produce a diverse range of products and services to meet the needs of the local markets, the global market and the national and international value chains

Introduction

Given the lack of standard definition, Ministry of Urban Development in its report on Smart City Guidelines, has put together definitional boundaries that can guide the cities in the Mission. It states that the objective of Smart City Mission is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean, inclusive and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions. In other words, the Smart Cities initiative will help create cities which optimally tap into digital and information technologies, urban planning best practices, public-private partnerships, and positive policy changes.

Introduction

The guidelines focus on creation of core infrastructure and adoption of smart solutions. While core infrastructure delivery is critical, it will not enable development of a Smart city in itself, unless backed by Smart Solutions and Applications.

Smart City = Core Infrastructure Delivery + Smart Applications

Smart City = Core Infrastructure Delivery + Smart Applications

Key highlights of the MSME Sector: • MSMEs account for about 45% of India’s manufacturing output• MSMEs accounts for about 40% of India’s total exports • The sector is projected to employ about 111.4 million people in more than 48 million units spread across the country • MSMEs manufacture more than 6,000 products ranging from traditional to high tech items

Smart City = Core Infrastructure Delivery + Smart Applications

MSMEs have contributed significantly to the Indian economy, with more than 48 million units employing more than 111.4 million persons. Further, productivity of the MSME sector has been improving significantly with fixed investments and employment growing consistently over the past few years. This is a direct indication of the efforts focused on this sector to integrate the workforce with technological enhancements to increase production.

Smart City = Core Infrastructure Delivery + Smart Applications

MSME sector in India creates largest employment opportunities, next only to Agriculture. It has been estimated that a lakh rupee invested in fixed assets in the sector results in generating employment for four persons. Some of the interesting observations related to employment in MSMEs are related to generation of employment according to the industry. For instance, food products industry ranked first, followed by non-metallic mineral products and metal products. Additionally, Chemicals & chemical products, Machinery parts except Electrical parts, Wood products, Basic Metal Industries, Paper products & printing, Hosiery & garments, Repair services and Rubber & plastic products also contributed to generate employment.

Smart City = Core Infrastructure Delivery + Smart Applications

Thus, in sum, the Mission aims to drive inclusive economic growth and enhanced quality of life by enabling local area development and harnessing technology. Application of Smart Solutions will enable cities to use technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services.

Strategy for building Smart Cities

Strategy for building Smart Cities The mission shall be implemented through area-based and pan-city developments. The area-based developments would include the following: a. Retrofitting which shall include transformation of existing built-up areas through more intensive infrastructure services and smart applications (e.g. city centers and central zones). b. Redevelopment of existing areas, including replacement of existing built-up environments to enable co-creation of new layouts with better infrastructure and land-use (e.g. redevelopment of slums). c. Greenfield developments to introduce smart solutions to the cities through innovation planning, financial planning and implementation planning tools to accommodate expanding populations (e.g. Industrial and Technology Parks and clusters, such as the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in Gujarat.

Strategy for building Smart Cities

In addition to the above, pan-city developments would aim to enable the application of identified smart solutions to existing infrastructure across the cities. The application would leverage state-of-the-art Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to improve the living conditions and governance. (E.g. intelligent traffic management systems, waste water recycling, smart metering, etc.).

Strategy for building Smart Cities

The Smart City proposal of each shortlisted city is expected to encapsulate either a retrofitting or redevelopment or Greenfield development model, or a mix thereof and a Pan-city feature with Smart Solution(s). Further, it has been envisaged that the area- based and pan-city development objectives would converge with other initiatives including AMRUT and Clean India Mission.

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