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The Indian Government launched the Digital India campaign on 1st July 2015. It was indeed a bold move and the motive behind the launch was improving the online infrastructure by having enhanced Internet connectivity and fuelling the nation’s growth by digitally empowering it with technology.
Vision Areas of Digital India
1) Developing a Secure and Stable Digital Infrastructure
With Digital India deployment, the primary aim of the Indian Government is to provide fast and high-speed Internet connections for last longing utilities. It also emphasizes on providing a stable digital infrastructure with easy access to all types of online services.
2) Digital Delivery of Government Services
The services provided by the digital means to promote and motivate people to adopt more and more online services and carry out transactions that are easy, electronic and cashless.
3) Digital Literacy
Digital empowerment has given the advantage to people to submit all of their documents online rather than physically going out to various organizations.
To make India digitally empowered, there is a strong demand for the deployment of Smart and Advanced Technologies like- IoT, Cloud to name a few. The citizens of India have the required immense knowledge and are also technologically sound, who are playing a pivotal role in making the Digital India campaign a success.
To fully encash this knowledge of our citizens, the Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narendra Modi launched the ‘100 Smart Cities Mission’ in 2015.
Under this mission, 100 cities were identified from all the states and UTs based on predefined criteria. This has given equal importance to both the urban population of the states and UTs.
The Smart City proposals of the qualified cities have offered insights regarding how the citizens, states, and UTs have looked forward to implementing this ‘smartness’. The Smart Cities Mission plans to implement various for addressing their irrespective problems.
Also Read: How The Cloud, IoT, and Blockchain Can Help The Planet?
Growth Drivers of Indian Smart Cities
1) IT-Enabled Solutions
Emphasis on technology has emerged from the increased demand for smarter urban services by its citizens. Today, the citizens look for transparent and efficient municipal services and full-time access to urban services.
The Urban Local Bodies or ULBs have facilitated this and now have adopted the technology solutions for smart education, healthcare, parking, etc.
2) Smart Mobility
The provision of providing an efficient transport infrastructure plays a significant role in the development of cities in terms of economic as well as sustainable perspectives.
Inadequate transportation infrastructure and increased traffic congestion have been some of the pain points of the citizens and the demand for smart mobility time and again has emerged out of these pain points only.
3) Smart Infrastructure
Smart infrastructures are one of the core elements of a Smart City. Houses, offices, public transport terminals (airports, railway stations, and bus terminals) are part of the city’s major infrastructure and thus can’t be ignored when it comes to developing a Smart City. Most of the citizens spend a significant amount of their time in these infrastructural setups.
4) Smart Power
Developing smart energy purely emphasizes on providing reliable power quality and climate protection. To encash on these needs, the utilities have started focusing on analyzing the existing network and then planning for modernizing the distribution infrastructure.
Cities have started installing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to monitor the real-time flow of power.
5) Smart Water and Waste Management
‘Smart Water’ is used for defining an infrastructure that makes sure that water and energy are well utilized and managed effectively. The Urban Local Bodies have understood the need for modern infrastructure facilities and have initiated the deployment of IT solutions.
These solutions are inclusive of advanced flow and pressure management systems and tracking systems for better management of the infrastructure facilities.
6) Smart Network
Communication, data exchange, and interconnectivity lay the foundation of a Smart City. A Smart City can be conceptualized on the communication framework and combines the entire range of network devices.
A smart network also comprises a bigger deployment of Information and Communication Technologies for assuring effective communication is established. A Smart City today includes data centers, cloud services, IoT as the frontrunners of technologies.
Under campaigns like- Make in India and Digital India, various companies like ESDS are playing a pivotal role in empowering Smart Cities in Pune and Bhubaneshwar with Smart Technologies.
