Knocking on India's Smart Cities door

IN urban development circles, "Smart Cities" is clearly the buzzword and flavour of the month. The technologies of today allow us to come just that step closer to Isaac Asimov's wonder cities.

And Singapore is often mentioned in the same breath - the metropolis that Singapore is today is the result of the combined experience of Singapore companies and agencies alike. Together, they have developed strong expertise in the areas of transport, utilities and renewable energy, information and communication technologies (ICT), urban design and development, and e-governance, among others. Our own Smart Nation initiative is an endeavour to integrate these capabilities to be greater than the sum of its parts.

Similarly, India has a Smart City vision of its own. Not just for one city, but 98 of them. Borne from the election manifesto of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Smart Cities Mission is an Indian urban renewal initiative that was launched on June 25 2015. The Mission aims to modernise existing Indian cities and their satellite towns, as urban centres continue to contribute to an increasing proportion of GDP and accommodate demographic movement from rural to urban areas.