Smart Urbanation Convention & Expo 2018: Meeting of Minds and Ideas

The mindset is changing in India and growing urbanisation is being accepted as a reality. Various stakeholders meet frequently and discuss the issues and challenges confronting the cities. The perception needs to change both on the consumer side and that of the government and its agencies as well. Technological advancement has helped but human side is equally imporatant if the desired result has to be achieved

The two day Smart Urbanation conclave was held in Hyderabad on 22nd and 23rd of March. The event discussed various themes related to smart cities mission and issues concerning it. This was the fifth edition of Smart CitiesSummit, a process that began in 2014. The concept got a big boost when Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run up to Lok Sabha elections in 2104 included it in the manifesto. Cities have become the
growth engines for the overall growth of the country. Cities need to be empowered. There are bigger challenges like delivery of services that is suffering. There is too much pressure on the cities’ infrastructure and the capacity is inadequate. Innovative ways and means have to be found to meet these challenges and one cannot depend on the traditional methods used twenty or forty years ago. The demands of the generation have changed and the cities will have to change accordingly. These were the concerns raised by the
panelists in various sessions.

Mindset is changing

Pratap Padode, founder and director of Smart Cities Council of India says the mindset is changing fast today and people are willing to pay for the services provided they get quality and consistency in the services. He said “the old mindset sometimes becomes just too challenging and actually a whole lot of public service projects don’t go forward because the perceptions are different both on the consumer side and the government side. So our whole plan is to actually power the smart cities. On the one hand that is the government side, show them the perspective of what has happened internationally, what has happened in smarter areas within the country. Our country has got all the smart possibilities except that they have all not converged in the single city. So that’s the reason why we do it for the government and for the private vendors”. The idea of holding such forum is to connect with the government officials and also when they raise certain questions there are others who demonstrate their exhibits from all the possibilities available in these times. That also makes the whole process believable. He added “we have taken move to bring things down to basic communities. So it’s a good beginning for all of us to realize that these kinds of smart solutions are available and they seem to be pretty much within reach. There is a financial modeling in place which can help you recover the expense of this activity, keep it operational, keep it going, that changes the mindset. You don’t have to put your hand into your pocket. There are companies putting it up for the citizens and benefiting them. They are giving you the credit and all you have to do is to keep monitoring it and administering so that the service and quality is good so these realizations will only help people have a little bit more belief in the subject”.

Moving beyond conferences and seminars

Things have certainly moved beyond conferences and concepts. Sharing of knowledge, experiences, key studies and even obstacles and probable solutions have become the key factor in the smart cities project. The question of multiplicities regarding authority was also discussed in the conference. There is the SPV, the municipal corporation, city development authority and other agencies who all have separate jurisdictions and at times it becomes a hurdle in executing a project like this. What is specially being recognized is the fact that problems in the running and development of a city have been identified and we must move in the right direction. Ashish Sable, Senior Vice President, SBI Capital Market Limited said “These are long term initiatives and have been created with a particular vision in the mind. If you talk about sustainable economic growth and better quality of living for the citizens, development has to happen at the city level.

Today we see that there is an entire paradigm shift from what is required of cities by the citizens. When the citizens are becoming smarter, cities too have to become smart. It’s not about the requirements of the citizens but also for the corporations and other bodies to be responsive to the requirements of the citizens. The diagnosis has to be done and it has been done. Now we need to move forward and scale it up”.

The slow pace and visibility factor

It is being recognized that the work on smart cities project is slow. There are quite a few challenges to convert this idea into reality and manifestation of this concept on the ground. Writer and the author of the book ‘Shape Up for Smart Cities’, Surya Jeedigunta admits there are a lot of challenges ahead. He says “the first challenge is capacity building. The skill sets of city managers who are supervising these projects need to be upgraded. There are a lot of technological changes taking place; there is a need of greater leadership, need of collaboration among different stakeholders.

All this coordination, collaboration and upskilling have to be done. We need to take it to a new level by bringing in new technologies and making people aware of availability of electric vehicles, smart buildings and town planning”. Finance is another big concern for the people associated with this project.

Jeedigunta says government grants cannot be an everlasting solution. He says “Typically cities get grants from the government and they use it for the expenses they incur. For projects, finances are not available easily. I have mooted the idea of alternate ways of funding. If the city has the potential to grow but is starved of funds you raise money, expecting that in future because of the growth you will have an increase in tax revenue. It will pay you back”.
Most people who attend a conference like this, come for networking. Secondly to understand the new technologies that are available. So the advantage is that you meet people working in different areas and learn from their experiences and knowledge. You get to explore the possibilities of collaborations. These kinds of conferences can help but it will be expecting too much if we think these will set things in motion. This could be just the first step. You need to build on the relationships that you have made at such venues, take it forward; continuity and follow up is must.