Smart Cities Mission Essay Projects In India: The Mission’s goal is to support communities that offer basic infrastructure, a respectable standard of living for their residents, a clean, sustainable environment, and the implementation of “Smart” Solutions. The goal is to design a reproducible model that can be used both inside and outside of the Smart City, with an emphasis on sustainable and equitable development.
The essential components of a smart city’s infrastructure would be: 1. a sufficient supply of water; 2. a reliable supply of electricity; 3. sanitation, including solid waste management; 4. effective public transportation; 5. affordable housing, particularly for the poor; 6. strong IT connectivity and digitalization; and 7. adequate sanitation.
Smart Cities Mission Essay Projects In India
Cities house almost 31% of India’s present population and produce 63% of the country’s gross domestic product (Census 2011). By 2030, 40% of India’s population and 75% of its GDP are anticipated to reside in urban regions. Infrastructure in the physical, institutional, social, and economic realms must all be developed thoroughly for this. All play a crucial role in raising the standard of living, luring in visitors and investors, and starting a positive cycle of growth and development. A step in that direction is the creation of smart cities.
The Smart Cities Mission is a creative and recent project by the Indian government that aims to promote local development and use technology to produce smart outcomes for citizens in order to increase economic growth and improve people’s quality of life.
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What is a Smart City Mission?
The most urgent demands and life-improving potential are the focus of Smart Cities. To alter things, they use a variety of strategies, including public-private partnerships, best practices in urban planning, digital and information technology, and policy change. They constantly prioritize people.
The goal of the Smart communities Mission is to support communities that offer basic infrastructure, a good standard of living for their residents, a clean, sustainable environment, and the implementation of “Smart” Solutions. The goal is to examine compact areas and design a reproducible model that will serve as a lighthouse for other aspirant cities, with an emphasis on sustainable and equitable development.
The goal of the Smart Cities Mission is to create models that can be used to create similar Smart Cities both inside and outside of the Smart City. This will help the country as a whole.
SMART CITIES MISSION STRATEGY
- Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied city-wide
- Develop areas step-by-step – three models of area-based developments
The core infrastructure elements
- Adequate water supply,
- Assured electricity supply,
- Sanitation, including solid waste management,
- Efficient urban mobility and public transport,
- Affordable housing, especially for the poor,
- Robust IT connectivity and digitalization,
- Good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation,
- Sustainable environment,
- Safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and
- Health and education.
COVERAGE AND DURATION
100 cities will be included in the Mission, which will run from FY2015–16 through FY2019–20. Following a review by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), the Mission might be resumed after incorporating the lessons learned.
How Many Smart Cities in Each State/UT?
According to fair criteria, the 100 total Smart Cities have been divided among the States and UTs. The State/UT’s urban population and the number of statutory towns each receive equal weight in the algorithm (50:50). Each State/UT will therefore have a specific number of possible Smart Cities based on this formula, with each State/UT having at least one. There will only be a certain number of prospective Smart Cities from each State/UT. The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, or AMRUT, has allocated funding using this distribution formula as well.
After the Mission has been in place for two years, the distribution of Smart Cities will be reassessed. The Ministry of Urban Development may need to redistribute some of the remaining prospective Smart Cities among States based on an evaluation of how well States/ULBs performed in the Challenge.
FINANCING OF SMART CITIES
The Smart City Mission would be run as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), and the Central Government wants to financially fund it to the tune of Rs. 48,000 crores over five years, or on average Rs. 100 crore per city per year. Nearly Rs. 1 lakh crore of government and ULB funding would be available for the building of smart cities because the State/ULB must provide an equal amount on a matching basis.
Convergence with Other Government Schemes
By combining the physical, institutional, social, and economic infrastructure, places experience comprehensive development. Although the route is different, many of the government’s sectoral plans share this objective. In order to achieve urban transformation, the AMRUT and Smart Cities Mission work very well together. The Smart Cities Mission employs an area-based strategy, in contrast to AMRUT’s project-based methodology.
Similar to this, there are significant advantages to attempting to align other central and state government programs and schemes with the mission of smart cities. Cities must work toward SCP convergence with AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY)- External Website that opens in a new window, Digital India, Skill development, Housing for All, construction of museums funded by the Culture Department, and other initiatives linked to social infrastructure like health, education, and culture.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES?
- This is the first time an MoUD program has chosen cities for funding utilizing the “Challenge” or competition technique and an area-based development plan. The idea of “competitive and cooperative federalism” is effectively conveyed in this.
- States and ULBs will be crucial in fostering the growth of smart cities. The success of the Mission will be significantly influenced by wise leadership, vision at this level, and the capacity for swift action.
- By the policy makers, implementers, and other stakeholders at different levels, understanding the ideas of retrofitting, redevelopment, and greenfield development will require capacity help. Prior to participating in the Challenge, significant time and resource commitments must be made during the preparation process. This is distinct from the traditional DPR-driven methodology.
- Smart individuals that actively participate in governance and transformation are needed for the Smart Cities Mission. Participating in government as a citizen is much more than a formality. The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will make more use of ICT, particularly mobile-based solutions, to facilitate the engagement of intelligent people.
India Smart Cities Challenge
The India Smart Cities Challenge– External Website that opens in a new window is a competition created to encourage and assist local government leaders as they create innovative ideas to enhance the lives of inhabitants. In the first round, 100 cities will vie for money from the Ministry of Urban Development, which will support the finest plans.
What is the need for the development of Smart Cities?
- Smart cities are needed to bring in growth and development in a country.
- Smart cities are needed for the development of the quality of life of people in the cities.
- If the quality of life of the people is improved in cities, then naturally the city will attract more people and thereby more investments.
Smart Cities Mission – Government of India
Under the Smart Cities Mission, the municipalities employed their Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICCCs) as war rooms for Covid-19 reaction. The ICCCs established under the Mission are designed to coordinate traffic control, security, utilities, and complaint redress.
The ICCCs of 45 of the 100 towns involved in the Smart Cities Mission are up and running. The ICCCs operated as Covid-19 war rooms and carried out measures like:
- CCTV is used to monitor public spaces.
- Covid-positive case mapping using GIS.
- Heat maps for virus containment across several city zones using predictive analytics.
- Doctors and other healthcare professionals receive virtual training.
- monitoring of cleaning services and ambulances in real time.
- the delivery of medical services via video conferencing, teletherapy, and telemedicine.
- GPS monitoring of healthcare personnel
Smart Cities Mission – Planning
Since there was no established definition of a smart city, there was initially a lack of clarity. The Indian government did not impose any certain model since they understood from earlier urban development missions that one model did not fit all.
Every city was required to develop a concept, vision, goal, and plan that was appropriate for the resources, level of ambition, and local environment.
Figure. The 100 Cities Selected Under the Smart Cities Mission
According to the geographical distribution, several of the selected cities are located in the following big states: Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh. Three or four of the remaining large states—Jharkhand, Haryana, Kerala, Odisha, and Telangana—have one or two each, while only three or four each come from Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan.
Smart Cities Mission Progress
- After three years of the announcement, 89 cities have been selected, but with little to show in urban transformation.
- There are a few cities that have taken the task seriously. Pune has begun by raising funds through the issuance of municipal ‘smart city’ bonds.
- Bhubaneswar has launched a railway multi-modal hub, a hi-tech transport signal system and an urban knowledge centre.
- The New Delhi Municipal Corporation has started implementation of mini-sewerage plants, wi-fi activated ‘smart’ street lights and city surveillance systems through a command and control centre.
- But, most cities are still struggling at a primary planning stage, and financial closure to projects is still a long way off.
- More importantly private investment – has hardly been identified and defined.
Smart Cities Mission Way Forward
- Smart cities cannot be a solution to urban crisis happening in India. It needs understanding of problem rationally through data collected systematically.
- If Chicago city is taken as an example, Array of Sensors are installed on streets for people to download raw data on air quality, pedestrian movement and standing water.
- Similarly India also shall develop transport, waste management data for improving urban governance based on evidence.
- When one has limited funds, an easier and speedier route is to take five big cities or 10 small ones at a time, and transform them comprehensively.
- Building of these cities cannot come only with government spending.
- The funding has to happen through private sector’s involvement.
- Since the smart cities programme aims at affordable housing and modern transportation, government has to facilitate smoother land acquisition with appropriate rehabilitation and resettlement
- We see cutting of trees for widening of roads and highways. Care has to be taken to protect the environment while making cities smart.
- Citizen participation is important right from policy inputs, implmentation and execution because citizens are the ultimate beneficiaries of smart cities.
- Smart cities development requires smart leadership which has to come from all the three tiers of the government.
Features of Smart City Mission in India
We have discussed the main objective of the Smart Cities Mission, which is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life. Let us discuss in detail- how it will be done.
- It promotes mixed land use as per the area. With the mission, the states will have more flexibility to use the land for various purposes and make bye-laws as per the change. However, fulfillment of environmental safeguards will be taken care of.
- It aims to expand housing opportunities for everyone. Housing is one of the essential requirements for the growth of the Smart Cities Mission. Smart cities require more housing projects to cater to large and lower-income demographics.
- Smart Cities Mission visions to reduce congestion, ensure security, reduce air pollution and promote interaction and local economy. New way pedestrians are built for walkers and cyclists to reduce accidents.
- Development of playgrounds, parks, open gyms and other recreational spaces is another objective. This is done to enhance the quality of life for Indian citizens.
- More transport options are promoted, like transit-oriented development (TOD) and public transport.
- To bring transparency and accountability in governance, more online services are launched. For example, a citizen can use an online website instead of going to the municipal offices.
- Identity is provided to the city based on the education sector, health sector, local cuisine, sports, culture, art, furniture etc.
- Smart Solutions are applied to infrastructure and services for area development.
Smart Solution of Smart Cities Mission
Under the mission smart solutions are being used for the basic infrastructure like:-
- Public information and grievance redressal
- Electronic service delivery
- Citizens-city’s eye and ear
- Video crime monitoring
- Citizen engagement
- Waste to compost
- Waste to energy and fuel
- Every drop to be treated
- Treatment of C&D waste
- Smart meters and management for water and electricity
- Leakage identification
- Water quality monitoring
- Renewable source of energy
- Energy efficiency and green buildings
- Smart parking
- Intelligent Traffic management system
- Integrated multi-modal transport
- Trade facilitation center
- Skill Development Centers
Other Missions Related to Smart Cities Mission
The mission is linked to other government-initiated projects to ensure its success. Integration of the social, economic, physical, and institutional infrastructure can result in overall development. The convergence of the sectoral plans listed below can result in a significant benefit:-
- AMRUT- Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation
- HRIDAY- Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana
- Make in India
- Digital India
- Swach Bharat Abhiyan
- Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
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Smart Cities Mission Essay Projects In India (FAQ’s)
The Smart towns Mission was introduced on June 25, 2015, with the main goal of encouraging towns to implement “smart solutions” to offer basic infrastructure, a healthy and sustainable environment, and decent quality of life for their residents.
In India, how many smart cities are there? For the Smart Cities Mission, the government has chosen 100 smart cities. These include towns from several states that were chosen based on their proportion of urban residents.
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