Draft Concept Note on Smart City Scheme

Draft Concept Note on Smart City Scheme – My 2 coins

Context

Humans are social animals and live in a complex society. As the urbanization increases (that is more and more humans start living in closer vicinity), the society becomes more complex. The institutions in the society become more specialized and number of institutions grows. More so, the interdependence of the institutions grows.  While each institute must work efficiently to improve their productivity, they must work well with other institutes. They must work to improve their collective productivity. Hence there should be checks and balances in place for institutions in a city, leading them to become Smart City. 1. The functions of institutions should be clear, transparent and accessible to the citizens and other institutions. 2. Their functioning and productivity should be challengeable. 3.  In case of a conflict, a fast and fair system should be able to address issues.

Humans are intelligent animals and in pursuit of better quality of life they continuously evolve. The living space of human must evolve with them reflecting human’s current and future needs. Some of the measures of the quality of life are GDP or monetary status, Happiness and Intellectual Capital. There cannot be one scale measuring all. The Smart Cities must reflect some or many of these measures. There can be different path and stages of the development of cities. Smart Cities should be nothing but the Evolving Cities or Learning Cities.

Smart City Vision of the Government of India

The Government of India has decided on developing 100 “Smart Cities” in the country. Accordingly, in his budget speech of July 2014, the Finance Minister has stated as follows:

”As the fruits of development reach an increasingly large number of people, the pace of migration from the rural areas to the cities is increasing. A neo middle class is emerging which has the aspiration of better living standards. Unless, new cities are developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people, the exisitng cities would soon become unlivable. The Prime Minister has a vision of developing ‘one hundred Smart Cities’, as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernising the exisitng mid-sized cities.”

Pillars of Smart City

Governance

The Government bodies at various levels of the government must define their roles and must have reasons to coexist.

The government bodies should provide a fast and fair issue resolution system for the citizens at all levels.  The governance would then be a self correcting and learning system with the help of active participation of citizens.

The Government bodies should only facilitate the functioning of the Institutions. They should be involved in the planning and monitoring of institutions or fellow citizens.

The Government should not own any companies or manage any companies thus leading to a fair and competitive marketplace for all. There should be maximum governance with minimum government.

The taxes imposed and collected should be transparent with the expenses.

Institutions

Various institutions can include urban mobility system, the housing stock, the energy system, water supply system, sewerage system, sanitation facilities, solid waste management system, drainage system, educational, healthcare, entertainment, financial institutes etc.

Citizens

As part of the democratic country each citizen has the responsibility to actively participate in the functioning of government as well as institutions – all publicly listed as well as all neighborhood institutions. The Government bodies as well as institutes must facilitate to this responsibility of the citizens.  The citizens should be able to move courts in case of delays or discrepancies at negligible cost.

Measures leading to Smart Cities

 Let there be development of Smart Cities through the active participation of responsible Citizens, Industrialists, and government officials.

The risk in the development of Smart Cities can be the non-cooperation between the Citizens, Industrialists, and government officials. The lack of resolution of issues amongst these at the earliest is even the biggest risk.

 Hence the foremost measure is formation of an effective Judicial System. It should not only clear the existing cases, but should be accessible, fast, and fair in handling the ongoing cases. Since the citizens cannot take the law directly in their hands, they should be allowed to file cases not just of the opponent but also the law and order establishment bodies of the government. It should improve the accountability and develop the confidence of the citizens, institutions and government bodies alike. This in turn would provide the secure and safe place to live, invest and prevail.

Secondly, since the government would not be running any companies, it would not be biased to any company. The government can define the standards of quality of each kind of institute, their products, their services, and their functioning (R&D expenditures etc.), and thus there will be much better transparency and accountability in its own operation.

A time line must defined for the achievement of these parameters in selected 100 cities.

Some Examples of the Measures are as follows: