SMART CITIES – The Future of India

Smart Governance. With that ideal, Mr. Narendra Modi’s Government has promisingly outlined its vision of building a network of 100 smart cities – highly efficient metropolises for India’s expanding neo-middle class. People argue what is the need of smart cities when India is a poverty stricken country and people don’t even have even the basic necessities. Well, the answer is urbanisation. As per the recent UN reports, Delhi is the second most populous city after Tokyo and Mumbai is ranked Sixth. Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad are projected to be among the top 30 cities by 2030. Thus India is urbanising at an unprecedented rate. These cities will face great challenges in meeting the needs of housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy and employment, as well as basic services such as education and healthcare. Thus it is necessary to make cities smart and sustainable.

But the definition of being a Smart City remains fuzzy. The term encompasses a vision of an urban space that is ecologically friendly, technologically integrated and meticulously planned, with a particular reliance on the use of information technology to improve efficiency. In recent times, everybody has focussed on core infrastructure i.e. information technology, reduced carbon emissions, improved solid waste management, efficient public transport systems and friendly environment. But the tabloids have missed the most important thing that how the cities are made keeping a wider view. Cities in the past were built on riverbanks because of availability of resource. Then cities were built where industrialization took place and jobs were created for a livelihood. It is not just about the buildings but it’s about the people, their history, culture and the whole ecosystem of institutions. Taking an example of Delhi, it has an ecosystem which later extended to Gurgoan and Noida, the former developed as a business centre and the later as industrial cluster. Thus, clustering of institutions and people is the way of development. Industrial Cluster is a very important concept to be highlighted when we talk about smart cities. It is an agglomeration of SMEs producing same/similar products/services or engaged in the same line of manufacturing activities or services, located over a geographical area. People migrate when there are job opportunities, more income leads to urbanisation and urbanisation leads to the growth of educational institutions, malls, restaurants and service industry and then comes up the role of having a planned development by using ICT to smarten the city. That’s how some of the cities of China was developed.

Thus the idea of Smart Cities lies in the development of Industrial clusters for creation of jobs and hence the projects like Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor in association with Japan will play a vital role. An initial boost to industries will lead to smart state of the art infrastructure, smart mobility, smart environment, smart living, smart governance and smart Economy. In this way, some cities will be upgraded and some cities will come around the industrial corridor of Delhi Mumbai, Amritsar-Kolkata and Chennai-Bangalore. This is a step towards smarter India and tackling the problem of urbanisation. It might be less promising when just 7060 crores were allocated in the recent Union Budget approximating 70 crores per city but it is just a seed funding that will blossom over the years and indeed become a future of India.