Embarking on the smart city journey

By Swati Prasad, Primafila correspondent

Getting back to work after a long holiday is never easy. In early July, when Primafila got in touch with me about working on a multimedia report on the Smart Cities Mission in India for Siemens’ new online platform, I was still recovering from a rather hectic 40-day holiday to the UK and Ireland.

On June 25 this year, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced three urban schemes to urbanize India – the Smart Cities Mission, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Housing for All Mission.

After my return to Delhi in June-end, my mind was preoccupied with the usual comparisons. I wondered why the Delhi Metro couldn’t offer the same last mile connectivity as London’s Underground? Why Delhiites can’t get the 100 mpbs internet speed of Waterford (Ireland)? Why India hasn’t marketed its innumerable forts, palaces, monuments and heritage sites the way the UK has? Why our taps can’t give us potable water? Why are power outages so rampant? Why isn’t the life of an average Indian as valuable as an average Briton? The questions in my head seemed endless.

While reporting on the multimedia story on the Smart Cities Mission in July-August, I gauged the scale of work that’s already underway to make Indian cities better. It’s clearly a lot more than what I was aware of. Yet, given India’s large population base, the rate of urbanization and the current level of economic development, the magnitude of work required to make Indian cities more liveable is clearly humungous.

But is five years – the timeframe of the Smart Cities Mission – enough to accomplish that? And does India have the human capabilities, technology and financial wherewithal to create 100 smart cities? These are questions that will get answered only by 2020.

However, it’s clear that that Modi is leaving no stone unturned in drawing all eyeballs towards India. He is touring countries across the globe with a vengeance – meeting political leaders and businessmen. He just got back from a trip to the US, and as I write this, he is in Bengaluru with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, promoting his ambitious ‘Digital India’ campaign.

Investments in technology, good roads, bridges etc. can definitely bring about higher economic growth. And foreign investment will certainly help create smart infrastructure. But economic development will still be a long way off. Development must first happen in the mind. Issues like illiteracy, poverty, corruption, pluralism, law and order, internal security, health and digital literacy must be addressed. For smart cities, the citizenry needs to be smart.

India’s Union minister for urban development M. Venkaiah Naidu even said this in his emailed response. “The Smart Cities Mission requires smart people who actively participate in governance and reforms,” he had said.

Surely, a smart city inhabited by malnourished children, divisive and corrupt citizens and politicians, anti-social elements, poor people and women who live in constant fear is no good. And for so much progress, five years is definitely a very short period.

The good news is that with the Smart Cities Mission, India has accelerated its development agenda. Because without economic development, a smart city has no meaning. Now let’s hope the Smart Cities Mission is able to deliver 100 smart cities for 2020’s smart Indians. That’s the kind of magic India needs.