IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The state government has decided to introduce biometric smart cards as ration cards in Public Distribution System (PDS) in the state. It will start rolling out the cards in 18 districts across the state on a pilot basis.

The announcement was made by Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani today during the meeting of state project e-mission team formed for computerisation of the PDS system here.

The state’s Information Technology Department is giving away its first state awards for excellence in e-governance initiatives.

The department has finalised the list of awardees for 2008-09, while the names for 2009-10 have been short-listed. Nominations for 2010-11 will be invited within this month. The date for the function is to be announced shortly.

In a bid to avoid road accidents, especially of school vans and buses, that seem to have increased rampantly recently, the new Lucknow Smart City app will be surveilling road movement.

Under the Mission Bharosa scheme, parents will soon be able to monitor traffic, keep an eye on students travelling by buses and vans, and all whilst sitting at home. The soon-to-be-out app will show information like the speed of the vehicle, traffic jam status, the timing of when it left the school, its location, among other details. You will also receive an alert in case the vehicle crosses its speed limit, thus, ensuring road safety.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday, inaugurated various projects under Varanasi Smart City including the ghat revitalization and façade restoration work at five ghats, basement parking and park at Townhall, beautification and conservation of Chakra Pond, and Bio-CNG Plant at Gau Ashray Kendra, Shahanshahpur.

According to the spokesperson of the Smart City, a fund of Rs 50.92 crore was spent for the execution of these projects.

While the Sangam city has been witnessing development work under the Smart City Project adding to its beauty, the pace and quality of execution has resulted in hauling the city to the 11th rank among the 100 smart cities of the country in terms of development being done under Smart City.

The Union ministry of urban development and housing released the ranking of 100 Smart Cities of the country on Tuesday. As per the list of March 2021, Prayagraj was at 15th place whereas in the list issued in March 2022, the city has improved its ranking and now is at 11th place.

As part of Prayagraj Smart City Mission, Municipal Corporation of Prayagraj is taking significant steps to beautify and modernise city's green spaces. With a vision to enhance public recreation facilities while promoting environmental sustainability, the corporation has announced plans to develop seven major parks as Model Parks across different parts of the city.

In the first phase, four of these parks will be taken up for development. The total estimated budget for the project is Rs 5 crore, and only those parks spread over more than 1 acre will be selected. To identify suitable sites, the corporation will soon conduct a comprehensive survey of parks in all city wards.

The Maha Kumbh-2025 in Prayagraj will utilize an AI-based surveillance system to monitor citizen-centric services. A pilot run under the Smart City Mission achieved an 86.4% resolution rate for urban issues, demonstrating successful implementation of AI technologies in waste management, streetlight maintenance, and encroachment control.

The Maha Kumbh-2025 is set to be the first mega event where many citizen-centric services will be monitored by an artificial intelligence-based surveillance system.

As part of Project Phase-IV of Smart Schools, increase in the utilisation of ICT-based interventions planned

Digital smart classrooms will be established in 48 schools of UP Basic Education Council running within its urban limits, in a move that could provide a fillip to teaching and learning initiatives at government-run primary schools of the district.

If you are denizen of the Sangam City and wish to plant a tree next to your house, a useful helpline number has been issued exclusively for this purpose.

The Prayagraj Smart City authority have issued a toll-free number, 1920. Anyone who is willing to plant a sapling of the tree of his or her choice, in front of their house can dial this number and the forest department will approach the individual concern and plant the sapling. The entire cost including the sapling, the cage around etc will be incurred by the forest department and the Smart City authority.

Following signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad (IIIT-A) and Prayagraj Smart City Limited (PSCL), experts of IIIT-A will help PSCL use high-end technology to upgrade citizen-centric services.

The two institutions have signed a MoU for the joint development and enhancement of a wide range of solutions for the Prayagraj Smart City Project.

It will not only allow online application for the licence but also simplify submission of application and payment of fee. "Right from submission of application to payment of fee, the entire process will be online," said sources in the department.

To add value to the concept of the Smart City corporation, the Kanpur Smart City has taken up the ambitious project of “Scanning & digitization of all records” of the offices of the Smart City and Kanpur Nagar Nigam.

“The cost of the project is around Rs 35 lakhs in which around 1000 files of Kanpur Smart City and around 17000 files of the Kanpur Nagar Nigam will be digitized. Nearly, 20 lakh pages of documents are being scanned and digitized in this project,” informed divisional commissioner Raj Shekhar.

"This will bring an end to tender-capturing of major projects by a handful of powerful contractors since e-tenders would be open to all and nobody would know about the bidders," explained a confident looking PWD minister speaking to the TOI on his innovation in his department aimed at ridding the construction and real estate sector of the mafia menace.

Deputy labour commissioner Madhur Singh said, "While death and accidental insurance can be claimed even without biometric cards, rest of the schemes can be availed only after producing a biometric card."

The ambitious Smart City Mission, aimed at transforming cities into technologically advanced urban landscapes, is facing hurdles as the pace of development remains disappointingly slow in several key cities.

“Despite repeated instructions from the chief minister, progress on projects at seven out of the ten selected smart cities has fallen behind schedule, prompting the government to issue a notice to all concerned mission directors,” a senior official told The Pioneer on Wednesday.

In a groundbreaking move, Varanasi, the political stronghold of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has emerged as the first city in the country to deploy a state-of-the-art Face Recognition System (FRS). The cutting-edge technology, now operational in the Smart City control room, has revolutionized the city’s safety and security protocols.

Prime Minister Modi, who secured victory from the sacred land of Kashi in 2019, has overseen the implementation of this groundbreaking initiative aimed at enhancing public safety. The FRS, consisting of an extensive network of 4 thousand cameras, has proven instrumental in tracking missing persons and apprehending criminals across the city.

The city of Taj emerged as the smartest city on Friday evening, in terms of the public participation it received to prepare the smart city proposal. Based on the suggestions and votes of the residents of the city, the proposal prepared by the Agra Municipal Corporation (AMC) received its approval from the state level high powered committee (HPC).

Due to lack of time the proposal would be first forwarded to the central government by December 15 and will then be tabled at the city parliament.

Officials said so far only 26 services were available through state service delivery gateway, including issuance of birth and death certificates, property tax returns, handicap certificates and others. All these services are available under the Jan Suvidha project.

Lucknow Smart City along with Lucknow police commissionerate will install panic buttons at several intersections in the city for the assistance of people in case of any emergency.

Areas to be covered in the first phase include Gomtinagar, Indiranagar, Alambagh and Hazratganj. Such buttons will also be installed near pink toilets being constructed under Safe City Mission. The project has already been implemented in Agra and Delhi.