Digital India Offers 'Smart Cities'

With some of the recent revelations around state-sponsored cyberattacks, IT administrators know any serious breach could cost them dearly in terms of money, data, credibility, and reputation loss. Facilitators of this plan must breathe new life into their cybersecurity plans, making security a key element of the smart cities of the future.

- Shrikant Shitole

The ‘Digital India’ program is an ambitious and robust blueprint for transforming the digital identity of India, primarily due to its thrust on building smart cites that could well be a game changer for the country. Smart city is fast becoming a buzzword,not only because of the benefits connectivity and efficiency it offers to people, but also because of the newer avenues of contribution it opens up for organizations engaged in its development. To realize the dream project, the Government of India has already allocated `48,000 crore for the initiative, with `100 crore to be given to each city per year for the next five years.

What Does Smart City Offer?

A smart city is designed to optimize residents’ quality of life by leveraging technology and integrating several essential functions like managing citizens’ data, intelligent transportation, public safety, and security among others. Primarily, smart city deployments come with multiple features and state-of-the-art technologies (ICT implementations) and comprise of diverse ecosystems of technology providers. Various devices like sensors, gateways, communication infrastructure, and servers will collectively bring to life the concept of ‘Internet of Things’—a critical component in shaping the cities of the future.

What can this mean for India where even basic infrastructure is patchy at best? As the vision takes shape, India will transform into a knowledge economy with the state-of-the-art infrastructure and technology. As the smart city ecosystem falls into place, the key question that will arise is: Will the interconnected smart city be a cyber-secure city?

The cyber-security challenges presented by hyper data connectivity are not only an integral consideration in the private sector boardrooms, but must also impact policy making within the public sector.