Living in times of smartphones, smart homes, smart cities is just one step further in this digitalised effective living. While there is no universally accepted definition of a smart city to answer this question of "what I smart city". It can be said that everyone has a different perspective and it means different things to different people.
Therefore, the smart city concept in India varies from city to city and country to country; depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents. A smart city in India would have a different connotation than what it will have in Europe.
So, even if there is no one way of defining a smart city; the central government's mission of Smart City has some definitional boundaries; to guide cities in the Mission like a smart city. It should contain a wish list of infrastructure and services that describes his or her level of aspiration.
To provide for the aspirations and needs of the citizens, urban planners ideally aim at developing the entire urban eco-system. Which is represented by the four pillars of comprehensive development-institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure. Which can be a long term goal and cities can work towards developing. Such comprehensive infrastructure incrementally, adding on layers of 'smartness'.
PROMOTING MIXED LAND USE IN AREA BASED DEVELOPMENTS:
The major feature of the mission is planning for 'unplanned areas' containing a range of compatible activities. And land uses close to one another to make land use more efficient. The States will enable some flexibility in land use and building bye-laws to adapt to change;
Housing and inclusiveness – expand housing opportunities for all.
Unlike any other, this mission is one of the very first MoUD programmes which is using the 'Challenge' or competition method to select cities for funding and using a strategy of area-based development capturing the spirit of 'competitive and cooperative federalism'.
Apart from the structure of the programme, there will be crucial roles of the states and ULBs in the development of Smart Cities as there will be a massive need for smart leadership and vision at this level and ability to act decisively will be important factors determining the success of the Mission.
Capacity Assistance a term used to describe the on-going support with the water service authorities (typically local governments) to unable in different roles of planning, monitoring, regulation, etc in sustaining rural water supplies.
Having said that smart cities schemes achievements would be in the fact that there will be understanding the concepts of retrofitting, redevelopment and greenfield development by the policymakers, implementers and other stakeholders at different levels will require capacity assistance.
This mission also requires a major investment in time and resources will have to be made during the planning phase before participation in the challenge distinct from the conventional DPR-driven approach.
The people matter for the Smart Cities Mission. It requires smart people who actively participate in governance and reforms which means citizen involvement is much more than a ceremonial participation in governance.
After all, what is the smart city? They are what the people make it, and smart people involve themselves in the definition of the smart city, decisions on deploying Smart Solutions, implementing reforms, doing more with less and oversight during implementing and designing post-project structures to make the Smart City developments sustainable.
The participation of smart people will be enabled by the SPV through increasing the use of ICT, especially mobile-based tools and lead to smart city mission success.
Visit http://smartcities.gov.in to know more about the various steps of implementation of the scheme.
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