KEEPING WITH THE TIMES

There are numerous companies who have advanced products to make Smart Cities Mission a reality

- Molly R

When the government of India launched the Smart Cities Mission in 2015, there was a general perception that it would take another few decades before anything came to pass. Today, 20 cities have already been made into Smart Cities.

Based on the learnings from the implementation of the first major urban mission namely the JNNURM, preparation of smart city proposals has been on a participatory basis. The government did not prescribe any particular model to be adopted by the smart cities. One of the criticisms about the earlier mission was adequately addressed by making it clear that the approach is not one of one-size fits all. Each city had to formulate its own concept, vision, mission and plan which is appropriate to its local context, resources and levels of ambition.

Technology plays a critical role in development of smart cities. Technology tackles severances of the system saving both money and time. A smart city is the development of a region or a city using information and communication technologies to enhance the performance and quality of urban services such as energy, connectivity, transportation, utilities, and others. A smart city is developed when ‘smart’ technologies are installed to change the nature and economics of the surrounding infrastructure. The cloudbased applications collect and manage data In real-time to help the enterprises and residents make better decisions that improve the quality of life.