Theme:

  • On 25th June 2015, the government of India launched ‘Smart Cities Mission‘.

Background:

  • The concept of ‘Smart cities‘ was born in 2008 when IBM introduced this concept as a part of its ‘Smarter Planet Initiative‘.
  • There are some successful smart cities in other countries such as Amsterdam, Barcelona & Stockholm etc.
  • It is expected that in India, by 2050, 70% of the population lives in cities. But the present cities are not capable to accommodate the growing migrants. 500 new cities will be needed by then according to futurologists. To address this challenge, the Govt of India launched ‘Smart Cities Mission‘ (SCM) on 25th June 2015.
  • 100 cities were selected to be transformed as smart cities by 2020. But the deadline was extended to 2023.
  • The approx budget for this mission is 1 lakh crore rupees. Center will provide 48,000 crores in the next five years and respective state govt will provide another 48,000 crores. On top of this, investments will be provided through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.

What is a Smart City:

  • The definition of ‘smart city’ differs from country to country and even from the city to city. It highly depends on local needs. In the west, a smart city is more IT-focused. But here, in India, the smart city is the one that promises essential needs like clean water, electricity, sustainable environment, affordable housing etc with the integration of IT services.
  • The smart cities in India are being designed to drive economic growth and also to give a decent quality of life to the citizens.
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Features of the Smart City:

  • Rooftop solar panels
  • Public Electric Vehicles, Smart parking system
  • Happiness areas for social needs of citizens
  • Smart classrooms in all schools
  • Smart poles with LEDs with WiFi, air-quality & noise pollution sensors etc.
  • Sustainable development
  • Clean environment

Benefits of Smart Cities Mission:

  • This can solve the problem of slums and the growing need for accommodation in cities.
  • Smart cities are going to be more citizen-centric. This will be a good step towards a bottom-up approach in governance.
  • Smart initiates will reduce the cost of infrastructure, thereby making the housing cheaper and affordable.
  • Many employment opportunities will be created not just to IT people but to many. So this can reduce unemployment to some extent.
  • Benefits will spread to all sections of people through a trickle-down effect.
  • The improved transport system will have a positive effect on the economy.
  • Though the capital amount is huge, the benefits can recover the investment in future.

Challenges:

  • Building smart cities may result in evacuation & displacement of many people.
  • Smart cities may widen the rich-poor gap.

Criticism :

  • As of now, the progress of the mission is slow. The earlier deadline was the year 2020, but it is extended to the year 2023.
  • Smart cities initiative will develop the already developed cities but not the poor villages. Instead of looking at solutions to accommodate the migrants from rural areas, it’s better to look at the solutions to increase the employment opportunities at villages.
  • Huge investment may make life in smart cities more costly and unaffordable to many. Gated communities may develop there, which makes it a rich people zone. This can encourage slums.
  • As everything is integrated with technology, there will be a big data collection, putting privacy at risk.
  • Too much dependence on digitalisation can make us vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
  • PPP model has failed in many cases. Relying on it is risky.
  • This mission requires a huge investment.
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Conclusion:

‘Smart cities mission’ is indeed a smart move. But the real challenge ahead is ensuring that this mission won’t widen the rich-poor gap.

Photo credits: source

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4 Comments

  • Tinku Paul, Sep 21, 2020 @ 7:13 am Reply

    According to me in India mission smart city mission- in india populations are very high and metro city like Kolkata , Mumbai , Delhi it is over crowded. As a result every where rush , traffic problem administration can’t control. But smart city where people gets all the civic amenities like Road conditions, transportation, electricity, Water, Hospitals, Reputed Schools and Colleges & market places are there. Yes people gets the facilities in the metro city but place is overcrowded. Many people have desire to stay in city area for threir work purpose. Everyday thousand and thousands people coming from rural areas to city area for their work purpose. As metro city lots of facilities are there but there is some of problems ,first of all crowd, traffic problem, pollution etc.But village areas people don’t get the proper civic amenities but get fresh air, empty space , no pollution etc. If Govt wants to make smart city to some village area it will be very good.

  • Ram, Sep 25, 2017 @ 11:21 am Reply

    No, we really don’t need smart cities but we need smart peoples and good culture which makes a city a smart city. The Smart city is never born, it has to made by hard work and various struggles. If the government tries to make a city smart but people these cities don’t know how to use those resources, then the city is no more called a smart city.

    Smart and intelligent peoples make a city smart.

  • Sravani, Feb 27, 2016 @ 12:14 pm Reply

    Investing only on cities instead of poor villages is not a good move.

    • sanket chavan, Aug 26, 2016 @ 2:16 pm Reply

      thats right….

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