To say that India’s drive to spend more than $7.3 billion over the next five years to ensure more than 100 cities are “smart cities” is a huge undertaking would be an understatement.

The smart cities concept refers to how municipalities can take advantage of emerging technologies — cloud computing, mobility, and the Internet of Things (IoT) — to embrace digital transformation and improve the lives of its citizens.

According to Pratap Padode, founder and director for the Smart Cities Council India, the country’s Smart Cities Mission initiative is an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India with a goal of ensuring its cities are more technologically advanced, citizen friendly, and sustainable.

Padode will be in Toronto next month at the World Future Cities Summit conference to discuss the nation’s aim to set the smart cities template for others to follow.

Smart cities are all about aliging information communications technology (ICT) with traditional infrastructures, said Padode, all coordinated and integrated using new digital technologies. It is projected that the urban areas of India will contribute about 75 per cent of India’s national GDP in the next 15 years. And with a population of more than 1.25 billion, Padode notes that becoming early adopters of emerging technologies is both a no-brainer and a strategic plan to globally lead the way in the smart city concept.

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Accountability is key

“There’s always an issue with accountability with these initiatives…the reporting structure failed several times,” he said. But a recent government regime change — led by current Prime Minister Narendra Modi — has effectively kickstarted the initiative anew; the country has been challenged to accelerate the technology vision of developing 100 smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities and modernizing the existing mid-sized cities.

Padode is focused on the smart cities concept under the principles of livability, workability and sustainability: “This is an undertaking that has never been done before.”

The country recently conducted a competition to select candidates for Modi’s vision of 100 smart cities; regional governments were invited to prepare proposals that would be judged on issues of revenue generation, creditworthiness, and development partnerships. The focus was around cities that could best deliver “core infrastructure services” including sanitation, clean water, affordable housing and public transit.

“Twenty cities were selected for development as of January of this year,” he noted, adding they were entitled to a $15 million a year grant (over five years) to spur development.

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