Cities are often the nerve centers of a nation. In the developing world, they usually embody both challenges and opportunities and often straddle many centuries simultaneously. With the global trend towards rapid urbanization, cities will only grow in importance and innovative leaders have started to explore the concept of “Smart Cities” (see 2016 World Bank World Development Report chapter on Smart Cities).
Smart cities mean different things to different people. See the videos below for a quick introduction to the concept from various perspectives:
The Government of India (GoI) has launched an ambitious Smart City Mission 2015 to transform 100 selected cities into “smart cities” using state of art technology enabled solutions to effectively respond to the challenges arising out of rapid urbanization in the country. To achieve the objectives of the 100 Smart Cities mission, integration of information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and ‘new media’ (including Internet of Things, social and mobile web technologies and smart solutions) in urban planning and development is expected to meet the ‘twin objectives’ of Improving efficiency and life standards of the citizens, while minimizing the adverse impact on the environment and preserving the planet for future generations. The mission will cover 100 cities from FY 2015-16 – FY 2019-20 and may be continued after an evaluation by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and incorporating the learnings from the mission.
The ‘India- ICT enabled integration for Green Growth’ initiative of the World Bank financed by the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund and undertaken with a growing list of knowledge partners, aims to mainstream the philosophy of ‘green growth’ in this Smart City mission and is. This “live” e-book, developed as part of this effort, is intended to prototype how data, information, and knowledge related to smart cities can be packaged in modern interactive ways for easy interactive access.