Smart cities are not merely use of newer technologies, smart devices or leveraging turnover opportunities for entrepreneurs. It is all of these and more
Smart cities’ have of late become a buzzword. Six months after its announcement though, the concept itself is in the draft stage. The 2014-15 Union budget had provided Rs 7,000 crores for 100 smart cities of which only Rs 924 crores was reported as spent. In 2015–16, only Rs 143 crores has been allocated (apparently under the assumption that states will contribute a higher share).
So what does a ‘smart city’ mean to people living in such a city? This is yet far from clear. These days there are seminars and conferences galore in the name of smart cities. Of some six invitations that I have received in the last three months on the said topic, I attended two but I am none the wiser for it! So much verbosity, yet no clarity on what such a city implies to common citizen.
So what is a smart city all about? It obviously does not only mean use of newer technologies or use of smart devices or leveraging turnover opportunities for entrepreneurs. The idea of smart cities have to be all of them and much more and many more stakeholders have to be part of such an exercise and beneficiaries. It is a process. Not all cities, or even some could become smart in one go or with one resolve or with a one-time initiative.
A city to become smart has to go through a transition in the mindsets of people of the city, in their life styles, in the very governance and also in the paradigm of the institutions, public and private. It has to be an inclusive endeavour not an elitist exercise.
Theoretically "smart city" envisions use of network as the platform to transform physical communities to connected communities running on networked information. It is much more than the information and communications technology (ICT) deployed; rather it is ICT solutions that go into making of the city and turning it smart for its citizens. Technology will be embedded into the city to deliver improved and reliable urban services. Key elements involved in smart city include smart governance, smart citizens, smart infrastructure, smart healthcare, etc.
Some of the solutions specially to be covered include energy management, waste management, water and waste management solutions, traffic management and environmental solutions.
The proof of the pudding in this case, are experiences of people and enriching of quality of life. What difference will smart city make in the lives of its people? How distinct will their life style become? Is the quality of living different than before and in comparison to the others, which have not yet become smart? Obviously, all this is possible with changes in the organisations, functioning of institutions, and in the political culture.
However, if more is merrier becomes the popular norm, then would it be possible to realise the benefits of city adopting high-end technologies? In today's context newer technologies are essential to make cities smart, but not sufficient. Mobile connectivity is an opportunity. Shifting to led bulbs is good. More parking lots for more automobiles is an easy solution. These, however, cannot be a benchmark for a smart city. The concept of smart cities has to be evolved as per local socio, political, economic and cultural factors.
Quantitative criteria cannot be avoided but without qualitative concerns built into and ensured, this concept of smart city could end up to be a yet another missed opportunity. Priorities as to immediate benefits vs. concern for sustainable future are a factor.
The populist view that political parties are known to be preoccupied with could be misleading to sustain the idea of smartness, particularly since cities have elected bodies. For example, in municipal elections held recently in various parts of the country, political parties spent thousands of crores to win elections despite having little money to pay salaries to employees. But they continue to advocate building flyovers and the like, despite the fact that garbage on the streets lies without being cleared and the drainage system is incomplete.
Then there are countervailing forces that deter smart features. For example, if high liquor consumption is what the government promotes, and also sale of more and more automobiles year after year in such a way that city has more cars than people, how can such a city be expected to be smart?
Similarly, city governments trying to generate revenue will pay more attention to constructing billboards on its roads, oblivious of increasing road accidents. And, if public parks, ponds and such resources in cities slowly disappear for whatever reason, can they expect to become smart? If the cities get divided into developed pockets or schools with air conditioned class rooms and one with no basic infrastructure and so on, how soon can we expect such cities to become smart and also sustain themselves?
Even more, how will smart cities shape up without visible political, accountable, sovereign powers and mayors with reasonable tenure (in most states it is one year)? Cities have been reduced to subservient entities with frequent postponement of municipal elections and diversion of functions to remotely managed officials. Focus of cities has shifted from services to land resources and projects with special allocations. Project orientation, not policies to ensure continuity and sustainability, has become the concern.
On the other, cities are experiencing citizens’ dissatisfaction with public services and narrowing space for citizen participation, as if citizens no longer own their city. No wonder, the earlier greenfield approach has hardly resulted in outcomes. Cities are fast becoming centres of grief on account of mounting transport, garbage, and security hazards. There are at least a dozen such basic public services, which a household requires and tries to avail once or more in a year with varied experiences. These have to be the priority concerns of a smart city.
However, all this does not imply that we should not take initiatives towards making our cities smart. Citizens have to also feel for their city to become smart. What is being suggested is that parallel to such measures, several more initiatives and correctives are called for to ensure desired outcomes of smart cities. These cannot be taken as a project; rather it should be taken up in a mission mode, under a policy regime for paradigm shift in priorities, practices of institutions and behavioural change of people, including of ever increasing migrants. Apart from changes in physical features, basic public services required by citizens have to be ensured with regularity and without them indulging in corruption or requiring contacts with middlemen.
Digitalisation of these various public services, stakeholders and physical spaces in each case is a prerequisite for proceeding to building smart cities. The government has announced plans to digitalise basic public services in the country by 2018. If in three years that target could be achieved, it enhances the scope for a city to become smart.
Although services like e-seva, bhoomi and the like, in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, are now more than a decade old and much talked about, how many other cities have so far adopted such programmes? Thousands of crores have gone into the pet topic of e-governance for some years and yet, a huge gaps exists between allocations for e-governance and the benefits to citizens.
Connectivity, another essential feature, does not come simply because the number of mobile phones in a city are as many as its people. Installing cameras all over the city by itself does not improve security or help prevent crime. Scanners and sensors, without health hazard and intrusion into privacy, are the other components for smart city, as the other ICT measures are. Skills among citizens to avail these various technologies and to cope with such measures are also an essential prerequisite.
Quality of life and living conditions particularly air, water and standards of food marketed, apart from access to other basic public services, are first order priorities where distinct differences are visible in smart cities. Adapting fabulous high technologies without restrains on transportation will not reduce emission levels, without which life style cannot be any better. Both should happen simultaneously. Eventually, it is determined leaderships and responsible organisations, together with skilled and active civil society, that makes cities distinct and smart. The Modi government has the mandate to push through and pursue the process but not without linking digital India, e-governance and the ambitious e-panchayat programmes.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): N Bhaskara Rao
Quelle/Source: mydigitalfc, 15.04.2015
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