Vandana Ramnani Moneycontrol News
Smart cities are not about sensors. This was the message given by experts while deliberating on citizens engagement in smart cities at a global event held in Jaipur.
"Smart cities are all about PPPP – Private Public People Participation," said Professor Yasser Helmy, head of Smart + Connected Communities, APAC region, Cisco, adding that in order to deliver a better city for the citizens, costs to run cities need to be brought down and cities need to attract FDI to create jobs and improve the quality of social services.
"Smart cities need to be much more than cold, hard infrastructure high on technology. These cities need to make life more convenient, accessible and inclusive," said Yao Yi, deputy director, Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences during a discussion on citizen engagement titled 'Cities for All: Community Development in Smart Cities' at the three-day Smart Cities Expo India.
The session was moderated by Sunil Dubey, Advisor, Urban Innovation and Smart Cities, Sydney.
Amit Kapoor of Social Progress Imperative said that the top 10 percent cities were spending more than the bottom 50 percent cities. He also told the audience that cities lose about Rs 300 crore every day to traffic jams.
Delivering a keynote session on helping cities and towns reclaim manufacturing prowess by leveraging the Maker movement, Peter Hirshberg, innovation advisor to cities and companies, said that when data is thrown open to the public, you actually empower them to prepare for a future packed with technological and economic change.
Highlighting the benefits of a shared workplace, he said that when put people in compact spaces and bring them together, more ideas are generated through open collaboration. Urbanisation is not only about moving to cities, it should be about taking the benefits of urbanisation and spreading it to farthest spaces. "We need to build more food and products locally so that we throw less out and become a sustainable economy," he said.
He noted that cities have become enormously expensive. But by moving innovation into cities, businesses can speed up processes and collaborate. This can help reduce costs for both people and organisations. "A Maker City prepares its citizens for the future. We need to think about making new technologies, tools and materials for people to empower them and empower our cities," said the chairman of the Maker City Project, San Francisco.
The Smart Cities Expo platform also saw CEOs and commissioners of 100 smart cities discussing about urban problems and their solutions.
As a part of Smart City Expo India 2018, awards were also presented. The city of Bhubaneswar won the first prize under the category of City Award. The Special Mention Award was given to Indore Smart City. CISCO won the first prize under the category of Smart City Platform Award and second prize was won by Fluentgrid. The first prize in the category of Project Award was bagged by Telangana State Police with implementation partner LnT. The Special Mention Award was given to LnT-Vizag Safe and Smart City among others.
vandana.ramnani@nw18.com
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