The Need for Smart Cities in India

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Volume 1, Issue 3, Apr 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org
International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017
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The Need for Smart Cities in India
R. Ragavendira
School of Architecture and Interior Design
SRM University
Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu – 603203
Mob: +91 9944443335
Mail Id: ragavendira.r@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in
Abstract:
This abstract paper talks how we can think a
certain city as a smart one, representation on
modern practices to make cities smart. A set
of the everyday multidimensional factors
motivating the smart city concept and the
primary things for anup-and-coming smart
city lead is identified by exploring current
working definitions of smart city and a
diversity of various theoretical connections
related to smart city. The document deals
considered principles aligning to the three
main dimensions (technology, people, and
institutions) of smart city: integration of
infrastructures and technology-mediated
services, social learning for strengthening
human infrastructure, and governance for
institutional improvement and citizen
engagement.
Key Words:Smart city, Smart technology,
Infrastructure, Governance
Introduction:
More than half of the World‟s population now
lives in urban areas [1]. This shift from a
primarily rural to a primarily urban
population is projected to continue for the
next couple of decades. Such enormous and
complex congregations of people inevitably
tend to become messy and disordered places
[2]. Cities, megacities, generate new kinds of
problems. Difficulty in waste management,
scarcity of resources, air pollution, human
health concerns, traffic congestions, and
inadequate, deteriorating and aging
infrastructures are among the more basic
technical, physical, and material problems [3].
Although there is an increase in frequency of
use of the phrase “smart city”, there is still not
a clear and consistent understanding of the
concept among practitioners and academia.his
paper attempts to start filling this gap by
identifying important trends and suggesting
research agendas about cities as they invest in
new ways to become “smart.” By exploring
an extensive array of literature from various
fields such as e-government, information
science, urban studies, and public
administration, we identify and discuss
challenges, success factors, and impacts of
government-driven initiatives to that make a
city smart.Some cities are identified to
successfully operate in a smarter way to solve
concerns. Recent practices to make cities
better for living have become successful cases
for new city development strategies. We need
to learn from the successfully progressive
practices of the cities listed below
„Smart Cities‟ aim to decrease the challenges
that cities face, such as society of energy
resources, healthcare, housing, water, and
deteriorating infrastructure (roads, schools
and transportation). They also suffer from
price instability, climate change, and the
demand for better economic opportunities and
social benefits.

Recent advancements in Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT), aligned
with technology cost reduction, such as cheap
mobile apps, free social media, cloud
computing, and cost-effective ways to handle
high volume data, provides cities with better
opportunities and tools to understand,
communicate and predict urban functions [25]
In this context, Smart Cities and Smart City
projects are being seen as a holistic approach
to city planning [28]. Shah (2015) on the
Government of India‟s 100 Smart Cities
Programme says is is about making cities
better and he emphasises the need to leapfrog
towards bringing cities to a level where they
deliver a quality of life that people are
demanding, youth are expecting and which is
everybody‟s right. Himmel et al. (2014)[26]
conclude with the need for understanding
today‟s urban challenges by the youth-who
constitute 25 percent of today‟s world
population and 28 percent (UNFPA 2015) in
the case of India – and actively participating
in civic engagement.
What is a smart city?
The term “smart city” was coined towards the
end of the 20th century. It is rooted in the
implementation of user-friendly information
and communication technologies developed
by major industries for urban spaces. Its
meaning has since been expanded to relate to
the future of cities and their development.
Smart cities are forward-looking, progressive
and resource-efficient while providing at the
same time a high quality of life. They
promote social and technological innovations
and link existing infrastructures. They
incorporate new energy, traffic and transport
concepts that go easy on the environment.
Their focus is on new forms of governance
and public participation. Intelligent decisions
need to be taken at the strategic level if cities
want to become smart. It takes more than
individual projects but careful decisions
on long-term implementations. Considering
cities as entire systems can help them achieve
their ultimate goal of becoming smart. Smart
cities forcefully tackle the current global
challenges, such as climate change and
scarcity of resources. Their claim is also to
secure their economic competitiveness and
quality of life for urban populations
continuously on the rise.
Smart Cities Definition analysis
Exploratory research focuses on multi-
dimensional keyword analysis for definitions
of Smart City[7]; a conceptual framework[9];
definition of a sustainable Smart City [8]
highlighting the importance of existing
literature and empirical evidence in redefining
the context specific framework for Smart
Cities.
The keyword analysis also facilitates the
process of defining Smart Cities, while
providing a framework to define each sub-
system. City governments while planning for
transforming their existing cities into Smart
Cities or planning for new can ones can apply
this framework in order to recognise their
goals, components, and key stakeholders. One
such case of a conceptual framework by
Mosannenzadeh & Vettorato (2014) will set
the context for the subsequent sections of this
study. The key guiding principle of this
framework is Kipling‟s method of 5W1H
(Why, What, Who, How, When and Where),
which is considered the most basic approach
in information gathering and understanding of
literature [10] relating to the Smart Cities
movement.
Evolution of smart cities
In Anthopoulos & Fitsilis (2013)[24] a
roadmap for Smart Cities was presented.

Based on this research it is evident that Smart
Cities have emerged over the last 20 years
from their initial web forms to their modern
ubiquitous and eco-friendly status and are
considered favourable e-Government
environments. The timeline presented below
indicates the existence of various alternative
approaches to the Smart City. The roadmap in
this case was depicted via technology road
mapping methods to understand recent trends
in the evolution of Smart Cities and to justify
alternate approaches. This roadmap was
structured according to the e-service sets that
Smart Cities offer and could be as useful tool
for urban local bodies (ULBs). From this
analysis of various approaches to Smart
Cities, is is understood that technological
factors are key determinants to the viability of
Smart Cities. It has also raises the viability
indices in measuring the sustainability of
Smart Cities.
Why Smart Citites?
The keyword analysis of Smart Cities main
goals and drivers is divided based on
literature in three main domains (academic,
governmental, industry). It shows that
academic literature has a holistic approach
and covers a wide range of issues. It is mostly
concentrated on improvement in three main
aspects: governance, community/social
development, and Environment. From the
industrial point of view, Smart Cities emerge
mainly due to the interaction between
competition ad sustainable urban
development. In addition, efficiency and
sustainable environment are amongst Smart
Cities main objectives. Finally, governmental
literature is more concerned with overall
challenges including quality of life, economic
growth, environment, energy, sustainability,
health and safety, and mobility. The top five
in the combined list included economic
growth; sustainable environment;
sustainability; quality of life; and improved
governance.
What are the components of a Smart City?
The components of a Smart City are its most
important urban domains. These are the main
targets for stakeholders to invest in. Giffinger
et al. (2007) [11] lists Smart Cities different
domains as economy, people, environment,
governance, mobility, and buildings. Susanne
Dirks and Mary Keeling (2009) [25] have a
more practice-oriented division. They define
the Smart Cities main components (systems)
as people, business, transport,
communication, water, and energy. Berst et
al. (2013) [6] consider a different set of
domains – built environment, energy,
telecommunication, transportation, water and
waste water, public health services, pubic
safety, and payments.
Academic literature has a more holistic but
general view about the main Smart Cities
components while industrial and
governmental literature has a more practical
and short-term approach. The latter mainly
concentrates on urban sectors that can be
directly affected by urban authorities, such as
transportation, energy, and buildings.
Combining the keywords for all three
domains results in several common
components: services, transportation, people,
governance, energy, and buildings. There are
other important keywords not so common to
all, such as health, safety, mobility,
environment, education, economy,
infrastructure, and water. However, further
analysis is required to sub-divide the main
components of Smart Cities. For example,
transportation is a sub-sector of mobility, and
energy could be a sub-sector of the natural
environment. These inter-relationships can
lead us to choose the following areas as the
main components of Smart Cities:
Government, Mobility, Services, Community,
Economy, Natural Environment, and Built
Environment.

Who are the key stakeholders in a Smart
City?
The engagement of stakeholders is key to the
creation of Smart Cities. Although the
perspective of each of the three domains is
different they are complementary to each
other. Leydesdorff & Deakin (2011)[14]
introduce the university, industry and
government as the three main actors of Smart
Cities whose functions are subsequently
organised into knowledge production,
economic wealth creation, and reflexive
control. Lombardi et al. (2012)[15] revised
triple-helix (concept of university-industry-
government relationships) by introducing
civil society as the fourth main actor. C Aoun
(2013)[13] states that Smart Cities involve
business and local stakeholders, with city
leadership. It introduces governments, private
investors, industry suppliers, NGOs and
associations, utilities, and planners and
developers as different stakeholders who
should collaborate to achieve Smart Cities.
CONCERTO a research project in European
commission, suggests that in order to create
Smart Cities, policy makers should bring all
stakeholders together, including investors,
local authorities, material suppliers, designers,
urban planners, developers, energy utilities,
contractors, engineers, tenants, and owners
[16].
The keyword analysis of different notions of
main stakeholders show that academic
literature presents a holistic and general point
of view with four main groups; people,
companies/industries, government, and
university, while industrial literature has a
more detailed and practical approach by
adding NGOs, investors, planners and
developers, contractors, etc. Governmental
institutions suggest a more practical point of
view.
Based on all these analyses it is finally
understood that four main groups of
stakeholders are involved in the creation of
Smart Cities: People, Government, Industry,
and Universities. In addition, some lateral
groups of planners, developers, financing
organisations and NGOs are also involved.
Each of these groups consists of many
stakeholders. For example, government
includes local/regional policy makers and
authorities, municipal and other authorities.
How to create a Smart City?
Creation of Smart Cities is the most important
part of conceptualising the framework. All
literature presents the role of ICT [18]
unanimously in this endeavour, with the
emphasis on technology as an enabling
component of the framework in
governmental, social, economic, and
environmental areas [19]. Industrial literature
has a more instrument-based approach
[25]and governmental institutions emphasise
pro-activity and the necessity of creating
metrics in order to measure the function of
urban systems [20].
The suggestive framework for creation of a
Smart City includes ICT combines with other
strategies like investment in social capital,
collaboration of different stakeholders, and
integration of different components of the city
[9]. This requires gathering data [12] and
knowledge in all domains and of all
stakeholders, and communicating this data
through a comprehensive and interconnected
urban network in order to have an integrated-
collaborative urban development [21].
When and Where to create Smart City?
The most common time reference is the
„future‟ [22], which means there is no time
limit for creation of Smart Cities. This could

be due to their continuous nature of evolution
[13].
Since getting smart implies a continuous
improvement of the urban situation [13], each
city can be „smarter‟. Obviously, many
factors can accelerate or hinder this
„continuous improvement‟. For example,
existing policy framework, recent practices in
integration of technology in urban
infrastructure [23], and high level of
technology advancement in a city can lead to
better success in „smart‟ development.
However, there is no absolute limitation to the
implementation of Smart Cities.
A Probable Solution
Cities are real time systems and deem to be
supermodels of efficiency, friendliness and
preparedness on a mass scale[4] but as the
populations swell inexorably due to migration
and other factors leading to formation of
urban agglomerations from cities, they need
to navigate their challenges of growing
demand for new constituent services by
identifying potential solutions for ever
increasing complicated problems within the
constrained budgets, often resulting into
proliferation of point solutions: emergency
response integration, traffic congestion
alleviation, waste and water management,
smart buildings, smart grids, etc. [5] ‬The
cities need to equip themselves to integrate
these point solutions to cater to the increasing
demands placed on them, rather than
crumbling under the growing demand and
pressure.
The "smart city"has become a buzzword over
last few years in the realm of
government/administration, marketing
giants/investors, academia/urban research
laboratories and the common mass or the end
users. Almost everyone has their own
comprehension and conception of ‬Smart City
‬i.e. “what ‬should it ‬be?” and ‬“how ‬should it
be?” etc. The smart city projects (i.e.
development of new towns or transformation
of old cities) that are currently going on or
have completed (like Amsterdam, Seoul, etc.)
have different set of parameters and
characteristics to address different priorities
and problems and to‬call themselves SMART.
In the absence of any clear cut or globally
accepted definition of Smart City , various
attempts have been made to define , categorize
and integrate the parameters of smart cities as
different subsystems of the urban system . ‬One
such categorization has been ‬doneby Chourai
etal [5]. as ‬eight critical factors ‬of
management ‬and organization, technology,
governance, policy context, people and
communities, economy, built infrastructure,
and natural environment [6] ‬ besides some
others, and the major classification include
some or all of these in one way or the other.
Some of the green field development in the
name of sustainable and smart cities have also
been conceptualised and developed in India as
Lavasa, Gift City (Ahmedabad), Kochi Smart
City, Nano City besides some other like
Dholera being labelled as Smart Cities. But
there are far from satisfactory in terms of
numbers and scale to meet the pace of
urbanization and demand in the country, and
is an urgent need of brown field development
in this regard.
Conclusion
The migration of people from rural to urban
areas is one of the main reasons for the
growth of urban population, and failed
regional planning is often attributed as the
main reason for it. The city is swelling in its
sizes beyond the organisable limits into the
peri-urban, suburban and rural areas
surrounding it, thus increasing load rural land
too. Furthermore the cost of infrastructure and
urban service delivery is also increased to be
uneconomical at one point of ‬time and the

urban ‬services require decentralization. To
cope with the crisis ‬within the constrained
budget is an upcoming challenge which could
only be met with the meticulous, coordinate
and planned development of new urban
centres and cities or development of the
satellite towns which are also‬technologically
advanced, self sustaining and ecological. The
smart city concept is one such upcoming
concept which is deemed to be the solution
for the present day problems as well as the
sustainable future. But in the absence of any
definite guidelines and case specific solutions
to develop the smart cities inIndia, thereis
need for further research to work out the
parameters, definitions and ‬guidelines for ‬the
development‬of new ‬cities on ‬green field ‬as
well ‬as the ‬brown field developments.‬
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