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15.2 million people involved in planning India's smart cities: Naidu

Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu is set to launch the 'smart city' project for Indore this week

Angad Singh Thakur
Published: Feb 12, 2016 12:45:26 PM IST
Updated: Feb 12, 2016 12:53:47 PM IST
15.2 million people involved in planning India's smart cities: Naidu
Image: Mexy Xavier

“The smart cities initiative marks a paradigm shift in our approach to urban development in our country,” said Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu in a keynote address at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum in Mumbai on Friday. The minister, who is set to launch the ‘smart city’ project for Indore on Friday, insisted that the selection of cities for the programme on the basis of competition was unprecedented. They were chosen via a two-stage selection process, based on predetermined criteria.

Naidu said 15.2 million people were involved in the planning process of the smart cities programme, through various channels of consultations. This bottom-up approach, he added, was essential to the process.

Given rapid urbanisation in India, the pressure on cities is set to increase. He laid out four focus areas for the government, which included improving the quality of life in cities, increasing employment opportunities, ensuring better urban governance and making urban areas better prepared for the effects of climate change.

The government, he said, would also work towards reducing the dependence of cities on fossil fuels. “All the smart cities will have solar, LEDs and rainwater harvesting. All these will be made mandatory,” he said. The use of information communications technology (ICT) would also be compulsory for all the smart cities and that would enable better, integrated governance, Naidu said.

Housing would also be a major focus area in the coming year. In this regard, Naidu briefly alluded to the proposed Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill and said that he was confident that the bill would receive the Parliament’s nod. “The idea is to improve urban life and empower local bodies.”  

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  • Dr.a.jagadeesh

    Excellent. A smart city is defined as the ability to integrate multiple technological solutions in a secure fashion to manage the city's assets - the city's assets include, but not limited to, local departments information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, law enforcement, and other community services. The goal of building a smart city is to improve the quality of life by using technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet residents' needs. Business drives technology and large-scale urbanization drives innovation and new technologies. Technology is driving the way city officials interact with the community and the city infrastructure. Through the use of real-time systems and sensors, data are collected from citizens and objects - then processed in real-time. The information and knowledge gathered are keys to tackling inefficiency. Technology can be used as an enabler to tell what is happening in the city, how the city is evolving, and how to enable a better quality of life. A smart city uses information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance quality, performance and interactivity of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to improve contact between citizens and government. Sectors that have been developing smart city technology include government services, transport and traffic management, energy, health care, water, innovative urban agriculture and waste management.[7] Smart city applications are developed with the goal of improving the management of urban flows and allowing for real time responses to challenges. A smart city may therefore be more prepared to respond to challenges than one with a simple 'transactional' relationship with its citizens. Other terms that have been used for similar concepts include 'cyberville, 'digital city'', 'electronic communities', 'flexicity', 'information city', 'intelligent city', 'knowledge-based city, 'MESH city', 'telecity, 'teletopia'', 'Ubiquitous city', 'wired city'. Major technological, economic and environmental changes have generated interest in smart cities, including climate change, economic restructuring, the move to online retail and entertainment, ageing populations, and pressures on public finances. The European Union (EU) has devoted constant efforts to devising a strategy for achieving 'smart' urban growth for its metropolitan city-regions. The EU has developed a range of programmes under 'Europe's Digital Agenda". In 2010, it highlighted its focus on strengthening innovation and investment in ICT services for the purpose of improving public services and quality of life. Arup estimates that the global market for smart urban services will be $400 billion per annum by 2020. Examples of Smart City technologies and programs have been implemented in Milton Keynes, Southampton, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Stockholm. In the Smart Cities Should have eco friendly structures,Efficient utilization of Water and conservation of water (Rainwater Harvesting),optimum utilization of Renewable Energy etc. The maximum power consumption goes for Air Conditioning. For Mumbai City alone daly 2000 MW of power for Air Conditioning is needed. In this connection adoption of traditional architecture from Rajasthan and East Gate Centre,Zimbabwe may be adopted. The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, typifies the best of green architecture and ecologically sensitive adaptation. The country's largest office and shopping complex is an architectural marvel in its use of biomimicry principles. The mid-rise building, designed by architect Mick Pearce in collaboration with Arup engineers, has no conventional air-conditioning or heating, yet stays regulated year round with dramatically less energy consumption using design methods inspired by indigenous Zimbabwean masonry and the self-cooling mounds of African termites! Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside of which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. The fungus must be kept at exactly 87 degrees F, while the temperatures outside range from 35 degrees F at night to 104 degrees F during the day. The termites achieve this remarkable feat by constantly opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound over the course of the day. With a system of carefully adjusted convection currents, air is sucked in at the lower part of the mound, down into enclosures with muddy walls, and up through a channel to the peak of the termite mound. The industrious termites constantly dig new vents and plug up old ones in order to regulate the temperature. The Eastgate Centre, largely made of concrete, has a ventilation system which operates in a similar way. Outside air that is drawn in is either warmed or cooled by the building mass depending on which is hotter, the building concrete or the air. It is then vented into the building's floors and offices before exiting via chimneys at the top. The complex also consists of two buildings side by side that are separated by an open space that is covered by glass and open to the local breezes. Air is continuously drawn from this open space by fans on the first floor. It is then pushed up vertical supply sections of ducts that are located in the central spine of each of the two buildings. The fresh air replaces stale air that rises and exits through exhaust ports in the ceilings of each floor. Ultimately it enters the exhaust section of the vertical ducts before it is flushed out of the building through chimneys. The Eastgate Centre uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building its size. These efficiencies translate directly to the bottom line: Eastgate's owners have saved $3.5 million alone because of an air-conditioning system that did not have to be implemented. Outside of being eco-efficient and better for the environment, these savings also trickle down to the tenants whose rents are 20 percent lower than those of occupants in the surrounding buildings. Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP)

    on Feb 12, 2016
  • Dr.a.jagadeesh

    Excellent. A smart city is defined as the ability to integrate multiple technological solutions in a secure fashion to manage the city\'s assets - the city\'s assets include, but not limited to, local departments information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, law enforcement, and other community services. The goal of building a smart city is to improve the quality of life by using technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet residents\' needs. Business drives technology and large-scale urbanization drives innovation and new technologies. Technology is driving the way city officials interact with the community and the city infrastructure. Through the use of real-time systems and sensors, data are collected from citizens and objects - then processed in real-time. The information and knowledge gathered are keys to tackling inefficiency. Technology can be used as an enabler to tell what is happening in the city, how the city is evolving, and how to enable a better quality of life. A smart city uses information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance quality, performance and interactivity of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to improve contact between citizens and government. Sectors that have been developing smart city technology include government services, transport and traffic management, energy, health care, water, innovative urban agriculture and waste management.[7] Smart city applications are developed with the goal of improving the management of urban flows and allowing for real time responses to challenges. A smart city may therefore be more prepared to respond to challenges than one with a simple \'transactional\' relationship with its citizens. Other terms that have been used for similar concepts include \'cyberville, \'digital city\'\', \'electronic communities\', \'flexicity\', \'information city\', \'intelligent city\', \'knowledge-based city, \'MESH city\', \'telecity, \'teletopia\'\', \'Ubiquitous city\', \'wired city\'. Major technological, economic and environmental changes have generated interest in smart cities, including climate change, economic restructuring, the move to online retail and entertainment, ageing populations, and pressures on public finances. The European Union (EU) has devoted constant efforts to devising a strategy for achieving \'smart\' urban growth for its metropolitan city-regions. The EU has developed a range of programmes under \'Europe\'s Digital Agenda\". In 2010, it highlighted its focus on strengthening innovation and investment in ICT services for the purpose of improving public services and quality of life. Arup estimates that the global market for smart urban services will be $400 billion per annum by 2020. Examples of Smart City technologies and programs have been implemented in Milton Keynes, Southampton, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Stockholm. In the Smart Cities Should have eco friendly structures,Efficient utilization of Water and conservation of water (Rainwater Harvesting),optimum utilization of Renewable Energy etc. The maximum power consumption goes for Air Conditioning. For Mumbai City alone daly 2000 MW of power for Air Conditioning is needed. In this connection adoption of traditional architecture from Rajasthan and East Gate Centre,Zimbabwe may be adopted. The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, typifies the best of green architecture and ecologically sensitive adaptation. The country\'s largest office and shopping complex is an architectural marvel in its use of biomimicry principles. The mid-rise building, designed by architect Mick Pearce in collaboration with Arup engineers, has no conventional air-conditioning or heating, yet stays regulated year round with dramatically less energy consumption using design methods inspired by indigenous Zimbabwean masonry and the self-cooling mounds of African termites! Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside of which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. The fungus must be kept at exactly 87 degrees F, while the temperatures outside range from 35 degrees F at night to 104 degrees F during the day. The termites achieve this remarkable feat by constantly opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound over the course of the day. With a system of carefully adjusted convection currents, air is sucked in at the lower part of the mound, down into enclosures with muddy walls, and up through a channel to the peak of the termite mound. The industrious termites constantly dig new vents and plug up old ones in order to regulate the temperature. The Eastgate Centre, largely made of concrete, has a ventilation system which operates in a similar way. Outside air that is drawn in is either warmed or cooled by the building mass depending on which is hotter, the building concrete or the air. It is then vented into the building\'s floors and offices before exiting via chimneys at the top. The complex also consists of two buildings side by side that are separated by an open space that is covered by glass and open to the local breezes. Air is continuously drawn from this open space by fans on the first floor. It is then pushed up vertical supply sections of ducts that are located in the central spine of each of the two buildings. The fresh air replaces stale air that rises and exits through exhaust ports in the ceilings of each floor. Ultimately it enters the exhaust section of the vertical ducts before it is flushed out of the building through chimneys. The Eastgate Centre uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building its size. These efficiencies translate directly to the bottom line: Eastgate\'s owners have saved $3.5 million alone because of an air-conditioning system that did not have to be implemented. Outside of being eco-efficient and better for the environment, these savings also trickle down to the tenants whose rents are 20 percent lower than those of occupants in the surrounding buildings. Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP)

    on Feb 12, 2016