Bloomberg Philanthropies to Make Indian Cities Smart

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New Delhi (ABC Live): The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Urban Development and Bloomberg Philanthropies  (BP), New York to support the development of Smart Cities.

The proposal entails Bloomberg Philanthropies to work as Knowledge Partner and support the development and execution of a Cities Challenge under the Smart Cities Mission. The Union Cabinet has already approved the Smart Cities Mission in its meeting held on 29th April 2015 and subsequently, the Prime Minister launched this Mission on 25th June 2015, when the Mission Statement and Guidelines were also released.

The Proposal under the Smart Cities Mission seeks to facilitate creation of quality urban infrastructure which will lead to improvement in the quality of urban life. Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation Initiatives equip mayors and local leaders with practical tools and approaches to solve major challenges and enable public sector innovation to flourish.

As Knowledge Partner, Bloomberg Philanthropies will also support the Ministry of Urban Development in helping design and manage the cities challenge. There is no financial implication to the Government of India as the cost implications to the activities done in supporting the Mission will be incurred by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The first question is what is meant by 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. 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’.

In the approach of the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.

The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities.

The core infrastructure elements in a smart city would include:

  1. 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.