Smart Cities in India

A smart city conjures a picture of highly networked systems working in tandem to increase quality of life for its citizens in terms of good infrastructure. It includes interlinking of various systems such as traffic systems, vehicle tracking, safety and security crime prevention and redressal, electricity generation and distribution, hospitals, schools, residential and commercial development, public transport, healthcare system, conservation and development of forest areas, garbage management & recycling, upcycling and many other aspects of governance that enhances the quality of life for its citizens.

For citizens it means that we will have access to good roads, be informed of traffic congestions and have alternate routes available; have demarcated areas for residence and work places; safe, clean, and timely public transport; security systems; garbage mangement without pollution; efficient and transparent government offices; access to healthcare and many other systems. This list is by no means complete but you get the idea.

This is an opportunity for many businesses to join hands with stable IT systems to enable their smooth functioning. How IT can enable smart governance is by providing actionable information to preempt repeat occurences and elevate the problems of the citizens.

A few examples for how IT works with traditional systems are given below:

Smart Traffic Management

Real time maps show congested roads when planning a trip helping avoid those roads and show routes that are less congested. This would be dependent on more options available such as more number of roads available, highly functional public transport system reducing the burden on private vehicles plying for everyday routes.

Smart Garbage Management

Each area will have a designated route for garbage collection. Garbage collection would de divided according to the type of waste generated. The collector would have realtime data on which areas in his/her route are critical to their route and can plan accordingly. After collection, there needs to be adequate number of designated areas where garbage is recycled, upcycled, and disposed while causing minimum pollution for surrounding areas.

Crime prevention

The police and residents to be better equipped to deal with threats. Police stations to get quick alerts when a crime occurs and to have a faster way to arrive at the scene.

Smart City Rider

A person on a trip within city limits would be able to select the starting point and destination in the map. Depending on the type of trip taken, the user would have an option on different filters like road trip, city ride, hospitals, reataurants, service stations, schools, dentists, etc. The results of the search would populate the map with directions. This concept will be adaptable across any city of any country in the world.

Smart Security Systems

Homes and commercial spaces to have smart systems that are connected with the Internet to alert and avert security breaches by having autoalert systems in place, alerting both the owners and the police. It can also be used as a decoy by mimicing homes as if it is occupied even when it is not by switching on television, music systems, lights, and other appliances at specified times.

Smart Healthcare

From a hospital perpective, hospitals can have updated systems which relay to their patients about vacancy and availability of doctors and beds. Diagnostic centres can go completely online by having their customers reports and medical history on the cloud accessible by patients at any time and sharing them with their doctors.

If the government has access to diseases treated by heathcare service providers in a given geography, then government can see trends of repeat occurences and come up with better management solutions.

Smart IT Security

If the Internet is to be the backbone of all smart operations, it means a huge amount of data generated and stored in the cloud. A lot of information will be personal and confidential; this means security to protect from breaches should be even tighter than it already is. This gives opportunitites to IT firms to invest and protect their data by using better and hack-proof means.

Smart Natural Resource Management

Conservation and prevention of loss of natural resources needs to be tracked and monitored in a timely manner. Pollution levels for air, water, and land are to be monitored and alerted to necessary parties so that steps can be taken to prevent crossing of threshold levels and alerting government authorities. Action can be taken to mitigate such effects. For example, evacuation of people in case of earthquakes, cloud bursts, floods, fires, etc. can be carried out in advance.

Smart Energy

Consumption can be tracked by consumers to regulate consumption and use alternate means. Government can track consumption to forecast and budget according to the demand to provide for citizens and recommend measures to counter over consumption and for generation.

Smart Schools

Schools to have an integrated system of enrolment, attendance, classes, exams, transportation, staff appointments, online library, video coaching, etc. all managed by a single-sign-on platform. This would help the school keep track of the student’s safety and their learning progress. Schools of the same chain will be able to transfer their students and staff seamlessly.

The Smart City Initiative envisages to create a smart govt.-citizen partnership for managing the welfare of the citizens. Several cities globally have already implemented this idea. India has taken up the initiative across 100 citites. Future citizens will find urban life more enjoyable than what it is now.

Baryons provides several application components and solution platforms which can enable smarter and timely governance. Some of these are:

• Smart school management

• Smart Compliance Audit and Tracking

• Smart survey and data collection

• Smart city rider

• Smart diagnostic labs for healthcare.

• Smart workforce for field force and project personnel management

• eLearning for skill development & workforce productivity enhancement

Some of the initiatives that India is currently undertaking are enabled by organizations, such as:

• Cisco

• IBM

• Dell

• HP and others

Baryons is enthused by Dell’s efforts as can be refered to

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/smart-governance-framework-cities-ravinder-pal-singh