Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) has been rapidly developing through the world.
Technology development has brain ware the peoples, therefore, peoples are
leading to improved quality way of life with social and economic changes.
Peoples are going smarter and smarter and prefer everything smart such as smart
phones, smart kitchens, smart house, smart cities and smart culture. The things
are getting smarter and smarter with technical innovations and it is endless
process.
World has been
shifting from agrarian economics to industrial and service sector, thus the
urban world is developing at a faster rate with economic and population growth.
The growth of urban population is due growth of own population and rural public
migrating to cities at regular intervals for employment. In previous years the
rapid urbanization was observed in developed countries. Local government of
developed countries could not create the required infrastructure facilities
with the rapid urbanization. As a result
urban public had to suffer a lot due to non availability of facilities in urban
areas, the services became costly and inaccessible to everyone. This rapid urbanization had given birth to
concept of smart cities to meet the future challenges. The aim of developing of
smart cities is to create facilities to enable public to lead a quality way of
life along with employment opportunities. Basically smart cities are
capitalizing on new technologies and insights to transform their systems, operation
and service delivery. So many smart cities
have been developed in the world (almost in developed countries) and their attributes
decides the ranking. The top ten ranking Smart Cities of the World are Vienna,
Toronto, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hong Kong and
Barcelona.
Now, the speed
of urbanization has gained in developing countries. This growth of urbanization
is expected to continue at a faster rate for next 10 to 15 years. Growth of
urban population has also been observed in India, it was 27.8% in 2001, 30% in
2011. Presently, urban population is 31%, expected to be 32.3% in 2021, 38.2%
in 2026, and 41% in 2030 and if the same trend follows the urban population
would be 50% by 2050.
Projection of Urban Population in
India
UN
Projections-2006
Several cities
in India are facing the problem of facilities due to rapid urbanization and if
such conditions prevail for longer periods the cities will be unlivable in
future. Now, the time has come to learn the lesson from developed countries to
avoid the problem faced by them during the transition period.
Some
peoples raised issues and advocating against the development of smart cities in
India. Their opinion is that our country is an agrarian country and majority of
peoples are engaged in farming practices. The government is caring for 31%
urban population and leaving aside unprivileged 69% rural population. More than
300 million peoples have no access to the electricity; around 20 million ton of
grain is wasted every year for want of preservation, availability of doctors
per capita is very much less in comparison to even other developing countries
and 500 millions are without secondary education.
Finally,
Government has decided to develop 100 smart cities in India with the concept
that cities are engines of economic growth and would create large employment
opportunities in the country. On 21st June 2015, prime minster Shri
Narendra Modi declared 100 smart cities will be developed in. our country. Guidelines
have also been issued by the Government of India for selection of 100 smart
cities and finally selected 98 cities.
