By Nirav Shah, Partner, and Ankur Dosi and Rahul Ranjan, PwC India
India is expected to have more than 60 cities with more than one million people by 2030. With this, India stands at the forefront of unprecedented urban transformation, poised to create smarter, more livable, and more sustainable cities for its citizens. This surge in urbanisation will necessitate substantial resources and infrastructural enhancements to improve livability, sustainability, and resilience.
Missions like the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) have emerged as a formidable catalyst in reshaping the urban landscape of India. The mission has delivered tangible outcomes across various domains like water, solid waste, healthcare, education, infrastructure, data analytics, mobility, disaster resilience, environmental improvement, citizen services, citizen safety and building ultra-modern infrastructure, etc.
SCM has kickstarted an era of rapid urban transformation, but there is a lot more to be done. This article explores the journey beyond smart cities, highlighting some unique interventions to ensure urban well-being, meeting the aspirations of young urban India, transitioning from smart to cognitive to quantum cities, prioritising smaller cities and fortifying climate resilience. Further, it evaluates how existing smart city institutions and assets can be leveraged in making smartness more pervasive.
Focus on Happiness Agenda: Creating more livable and vibrant cities for citizens
Smartness must touch the human soul, it must transform the day-to-day lives of citizens, for good. Smart cities are beyond astounding infrastructure and cutting-edge digital assets, it is vital for cities to create an ecosystem to be more vibrant and more livable. Unlike in the past, now there is a noticeable shift in focus as cities now prioritise the livability and happiness of their citizens. For instance, Curitiba, a highly acclaimed smart city in Brazil, recently conducted a study to evaluate the happiness of its residents, and Dubai has incorporated a “Happiness Agenda” into its Smart City Transformation.
Moving forward, it is imperative for existing and future cities to prioritise initiatives promoting the Happiness Agenda. Without a tangible and visible impact on human happiness, the overall benefits of smart city projects will remain in question, regardless of the infrastructure built within cities.
Evolving the role of SPV: Expanding the reach to Tier II and Tier III cities
In the pursuit of a truly smart nation, extending smart initiatives to Tier II and Tier III cities is imperative. We must transcend the confines of 100 smart cities to encompass Tier II and Tier III cities, aiming to establish a unified framework that integrates digital and infrastructure aspects of urban development. Existing special purpose vehicles (SPVs) should evolve into urban centres of excellence, each responsible for neighbouring five to ten smaller towns. Leveraging their understanding of local needs, city SPVs can provide consulting services and resources, and prioritise prioritise urban development requirements, extending their support network to these smaller towns beyond city limits. The SCM can institutionalise this process, fostering collaboration and ensuring a more inclusive approach, thereby amplifying the impact of smart city initiatives across diverse urban landscapes, and fostering lasting institutions responsible for nationwide urban development.
Making cities financially sustainable: Smart financing strategies to fuel city’s economic growth.
Cities must look to make themselves financially sustainable, a good starting point can be to measure the city’s GDP. Cities must make a three-year plan to grow cities GDP and review the plans quarterly. To ensure financial sustainability, smart cities should strategically create infrastructure to attract industries, create jobs and explore various monetisation opportunities including public-private partnerships (PPPs). Some of the monetisation options include green financing, bonds, advertising, data monetisation, etc., providing avenues for funding sustainable infrastructure projects, which not only contribute to environmental resilience but also stimulate economic growth, thereby accelerating city GDP. Concurrently, extracting value from the wealth of data generated within urban ecosystems through data monetisation strategies opens opportunities to better allocate resources, improve service delivery, and generate additional revenue streams.
Climate agenda: Prioritising climate change challenges in smart cities
Climate change exacerbates urban vulnerabilities, manifesting in water scarcity, air pollution, floods and heatwaves across cities. For instance, Bengaluru is running low on water, Delhi deals with bad winter air, Chennai worries about city floods and Ahmedabad faces serious heat waves. Several Indian cities are proactively adopting strategies to enhance resilience and adaptability. For example, Kochi’s ICT-based early warning system for flash floods and Chandigarh’s ambitious pan-city public bike sharing initiative exemplifies proactive measures to mitigate climate risks and reduce carbon emissions by 350 tonnes and enhance last-mile connectivity.
Smart cities must integrate sustainable practices and technologies to adapt and mitigate the impact of climate change, prioritising resilience and climate-responsive urban planning.
Creating the ultra-modern infrastructure for Urban India: Meeting the growing aspirations of Urban India
Area-based interventions of the SCM laid the foundation for focused and more conscious infrastructure development targeted to deliver tangible outcomes in a particular area of the city.
The burgeoning aspirations of India’s youthful population envision urban centres capable of hosting global events like the Olympics, mirroring the world-class amenities found in cities worldwide. With population growth and a rise in economic activities, cities are poised to become significant economic hubs, attracting residents, workers, and visitors alike. This surge in urbanisation will necessitate substantial resources and infrastructural enhancements to improve livability, sustainability, and resilience. Hence, the time has come for cities to expand the tenets and learnings of “Area-based development” into other areas of the city.
Embracing emerging technologies: AI to be ever pervasive
The evolution from smartness from the digital perspective heralds a shift from reactive to proactive and then predictive approaches, leveraging next-generation technologies for a well-informed decision-making mechanism.
Thanks to SCM, cities have a plethora of data from sensors, cameras, traffic systems etc. Cities must leverage this data and use artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies to develop reasoning engines, super apps, use natural language processing to make predictions and embrace cognitive, quantum computing. Cities must aspire to have an AI-driven operating system to manage their routine activities. This will help cities not only be technologically advanced but also capable of informed decision-making, optimal resource allocation, and adaptive service delivery. The cities must transcend to the following levels of digital maturity.
- Automated intelligence: completes repeated and labour-intensive tasks
- Assisted intelligence: reviews and reveals patterns in historical data and informs the decision-makers to take corrective actions
- Augmented intelligence: uses AI to predict an uncertain future
- Autonomous intelligence: systems that automate decision-making without human intervention
Reusability at the core: Develop reusable technical platforms and assets
Cities grapple with persistent challenges ranging from potholed roads, water logging, safety and security, health challenges, waste management crisis and environmental challenges. Addressing these multifaceted issues necessitates a thorough exploration of technology platforms and assets for a more tailored and reusable approach. For example, UPYOG, a National Institute for Urban Affairs (NIUA) national reference platform created for the delivery of municipal services online underscores the transformative potential of such innovative and reusable solutions. We must aim at developing such universal solutions, which aim at reducing capital expenditure and may lead to faster transformation in the cities. Further, such national platforms would make monitoring and tracking very easy and intuitive as the KPI and data would be coming out from the same platform.
ICCaaS: Transforming ICCC into Smart Urban Digital Hubs
Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) play a crucial role in urban management, fostering innovation and revenue generation. Equipped with real-time analytics and AI, they require integration into a unified governance framework. To extend their benefits, cities can establish “ICCC as a Service” (ICCaaS) for Tier II and Tier III cities, fostering collaboration. This hub-and-spoke model optimises resources and promotes urban development. By adopting these strategies, cities maximise ICCC functionality and create sustainable financial models. Continuous technological integration is essential to maintain ICCCs’ innovative edge and enhance overall city efficiency and resilience.
Cybersecurity, a prerequisite: Creating cyber safe ecosystem in cities
Safeguarding digital infrastructure and smart solutions within smart cities is one of the most crucial aspects of development of the city. The digital narrative of urban space is getting on a transformation spree and is seeing some astonishing developments with each passing day. A comprehensive approach is necessary to protect against cyber threats, including theft and terrorism. Cities must develop their cybersecurity policies and must undergo regular cybersecurity assessments to help in systematically evaluating vulnerabilities and strengthening defences. Institutionalising effective data protection practices involving implementing robust measures such as encryption, stringent access controls and secure storage protocols is warranted for all the cities.
Conclusion
Leveraging above mentioned thoughts, existing SPV must play a pivotal role in evolving cities on the smart city maturity curve, becoming self-sustainable and becoming a torchbearer furthering the smart city agenda to nearby cities. Central and state governments must invest in creating reusable assets to replicate solutions in Tier I and Tier II cities.
The “Next” for smart cities is a convergence of innovative technologies, sustainable practices, and a collective commitment to urban excellence. This will bring about smarter, evolutionary, livable and truly inclusive cities. Going forward, smartness must be accentuated not only by giant structures or smart technology initiatives but also by the enhanced quality of life of every citizen.
