India Expects 100 New Smart Cities

As Indian citizens await the 2014 budget, the inclusion of the decision to build 100 new smart cities is one of the most hotly anticipated moves.

Although the smart city model is relatively new in India, they are receiving increased support - both from within India and from other countries extending an arm of assistance.  Singapore is one such country, with vast smart city experience, to offer a helping hand. With India key to Asia's security, Singapore has a vested interest in the success of the initiatives and this comes on top of the role it hopes to play in India's infrastructure development.

France too has committed to supporting the drive, during a meeting between the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who is largely responsible for the vision.

Cisco Systems - the Global networking products company - is also having an involvement in India's smart city drive, with a bid to transform south Bangalore's Electronics' City into a smart city. Also, as part of this development, there is the desire to make it Asia's first Internet of Things (IoT) innovation hub. The park is already one of the largest industrial parks in the country and is home to a number of large global multinationals and top Indian IT firms. The initiative will see the implementation of "smart parking, smart CCTV surveillance, smart street lighting, smart water management and community messaging," according to Anil Menon, Cisco's president for smart and connected communities.

Although India's current smart city credentials are limited, GIFT City and Naya Raipur are the closest models currently on the landscape.

The Gujarat Information Finance Tech City (GIFT), located 30 km outside Ahmedabad and close to Gandhinagar, is thus far just two empty towers surrounded by dusty roads and construction workers. Launched back in 2007, the government has promised that GIFT will provide more than half a million jobs, and local residents are already impressed with the employment opportunities it has brought, as well as improved water and electricity supply.

Naya Raipur, on the other hand, is the new state capital of Chhattisgarh and is set to become the country's first smart city. According to the NRDA chairman, N Baijendra Kumar, the city is a "greener, smarter and more liveable city, with a low stress-level for residents." Although still some way off completion, the progress is impressive and the vision is one lauded by many who see it as a healthy step forwards.

It is not just new cities, however, which are being focused on, but too the evolution of existing cities. It is key if the two - the new smart cities and India's existing urban centres - are to exist side-by-side, there needs to be a concerted effort given towards addressing the problems of the latter. Already there exists several national level projects in India targeting such efforts, including the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program (RAPDRP) and the National Land Records Modernization Program (NLRMP). Each one of these programmes will exist in the overarching smart city vision of the government.