100 “Smart cities” to be built in India #Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he plans to build 100 so-called #smartcities, an idea that was in part inspired by China’s own #Shanghai. Originally coined by IBM, the term ‘smart city’ refers to a city where computing technology is used to improve efficiency of infrastructure and public services. It’s something that both China and India see as solutions to their rapidly growing metropolises. Faced with the same #urbanization problems as India, including pollution, housing affordability, and traffic congestion, policy-makers in China have been urgently looking for ways to improve living conditions. Shanghai was among the first in China to draft plans for building information technology-based infrastructure using satellite navigation, cloud computing, integrated circuits and next generation networks. By this year, 222 cities in China have begun developing plans to grow into ‘smart cities.’ And it appears as though India is following in China’s wake. Indian expert in Urban Affairs, Jagan Shah, said that it is time for the country to jump ahead with IT centered urbanization, as China did two decades ago. So far India has invested 1.2 billion dollars towards developing smarter cities, and it is looking to attract more funding from private investors. Yet one of the many challenges of smart city development in India is land acquisition and the displacement of rural farmers. Government officials are also pushing back against criticism that India should focus first on providing basic services like electricity and running water to all its citizens, before moving ahead with smart cities. As millions of Indians continue to migrate to urban India, time will tell whether the smart city project will provide them with better lives.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 13:11:47 +0000
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