Any city can become smart city, says HUA Secretary DS Mishra

Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, said on January 21 that smart cities concept does not have a single dimension of focusing on just big or small cities; any city can become a smart city. “Every city will have its own path of smartness. Employability, sustainability and liveability are the core things on which the cities move,” he added.

Addressing the virtual fourth Smart Cities Summit & second Smart Urban Innovation Awards, organised by Ficci, Mishra emphasised on adopting the learnings and success of one city by other cities. “The learning of one city chosen under 100 smart cities be spread to other cities so that it becomes a light house.” He further said that we need to focus on ensuring that these light houses help other cities become smart and that the government is working to standardise these learnings.

“Our target is to develop our 4,372 cities, along with other cities, as smart cities. To make this happen, cities should use their land, resources, local people, and skills to move on different path,” he said.

Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Chairman, Ficci Urban Transformation Committee & Group Government Affairs Officer, Tata Sons, said as growing number of cities have begun their urban transformation, there is an emerging trend of using human-centric and cloud-based technologies to automate and integrate urban services. Such technologies are resulting in significant data generation that can be further used to effective urban development.

Amit Malik, Co-Chair, Ficci Committee on Urban Transformation and MD – Sales, Global Service Provider Segment (APJC), Cisco India, said 5G will further revolutionise the smart cities concept. If India is to keep pace and compete with leading developed economies of the world, a quick adoption of 5G will have a key role to play, he added.

Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, Ficci, said it is encouraging to witness the initiatives being planned by the Government to support the Smart Cities Mission and ensure growth of infrastructure in the country.

During the session, Ficci-EY report on ‘The Journey of Urban India: From Conventional Policy Implementation to Disruptive Transformation’ was also released.

Ficci also announced 13 winners for its second Smart Urban Innovation Awards under 11 categories which are as follows: Public Opens Spaces – Ixora Corporate Services Pvt Ltd; Smart Water – Maithri Aquatech Pvt Ltd; Mobility – SmartE; Solar and Renewable Energy- Bangalore International Airport Ltd; Smart Solid Waste Management – KEC International Ltd. and eQuadriga Software Pvt Ltd; Smart Education – Xynteo Pvt. Ltd, Smart Health- WIPRO Ltd, Disruptive Solutions – CISCO Ltd, Physical Security – Tech Mahindra Ltd and Larsen & Toubro Ltd; Citizen Collaboration – WIPRO Ltd, Communication Technologies – Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

Vikas Aggarwal, Partner-Technology Consulting, Government & Public Sector, Ernst & Young LLP; M Ramachandran, Former Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; OP Agarwal, CEO, World Resources Institute, India; and Kailash Babar, Senior Assistant Editor, The Economic Times, also shared their perspective.