How Jaipur is preparing to be a Smart City?

The Smart City Expo being held in Jaipur on 26th – 28th September 2018, is an important event in its evolution as a Smart City. This would be an international conference that will attract Government officials, Policy makers, Industry experts, Companies, Innovators, Entrepreneurs, and Researchers from around the world.

Academia is a very important colour in this rainbow. University of California, Berkeley (UC, Berkeley) has partnered with technology company Quantela to provide an “accelerator” for Smart City start-ups.

Manipal University, Jaipur (MUJ) has been at the forefront in implementing smart systems. The University has been awarded as First Smart Campus for being pioneers and architects of India’s digital transformation by NDTV and Cisco. In addition MUJ campus has been awarded for its energy conservation and environment design. Cisco is common to MUJ and Quantela. The smart city platform that Quantela offers is based on Cisco products/technology.

Entrepreneurship Enablement

In addition to Quantela, UC Berkeley’s Innovation Accelerator Group has partnered with Invest India to help technology entrepreneurs across the spectrum.

The tie up will be showcased at the Expo. Berkeley-Quantela Accelerator is an opportunity for start-ups to build and grow in the field of smart cities. It is a mentorship platform that provides guidance to succeed. Quantela offers an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based smart-city platform – an IOT platform for students, start-ups, entrepreneurs and corporates to join and innovate on.

UC Berkeley will design the innovation accelerations program, teaching, delivery and curriculum. It will also focus on coaching of “Lean Start Up” methods and customer development process for selected start-ups.

Invest India being a partner is helping the Indian start-ups to get access to this unique program.

This initiative will help Indian start-ups that operate across the entire technology spectrum – from Smart IOT to Smart Mobility and Smart Power, areas that are critical for smart cities.

More importantly, Start-Up India Hub with its pan India membership is likely to help entrepreneurs not only in Tier 1, but more importantly in Tier 2/3 cities as well.

Such partnerships play an important role in transforming India from a consumer of technologies to a provider of technologies, not just for India, but the SAARC region.

From Tourism to Tech-enabled Start-Ups

While Jaipur has strong social and economic momentum, and enhanced connectivity infrastructure as it is part of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC); what will be important would be to build relevant incubators and ecosystem for the New Age – the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR).

Presently Jaipur’s industrial base is large, but traditional. How quickly industry and businesses in Jaipur can move from legacy to leadership in FIR technology applications, will depend on its ability to attract young technopreneurs. Similar to the ones who built the IT Industry, and made it US $ 175 billion industry that it is today, creating 10 million new jobs and making it the envy of the world.

Citizens in Cities

Cities are emerging as magnets - not only for people, but also for businesses. While 1/3rd of India lives in cities today, 2/3rd of India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is contributed to by them. And this is only going to rise.

However, Indian cities are facing significant challenges like increasing population, and lack of physical and social infrastructure. They have to learn new and smart ways to manage the complexity of urban living, and to address problems ranging from pollution, overcrowding, inadequate housing, high unemployment, public transport/mobility, resource management and rising crime.

Long standing urban challenges include housing – especially for low income population groups, infrastructure inadequacies and a constant struggle to deliver a variety of services – including water, sanitation, education and health.

With a view to modernising India and accelerating the process of urbanisation, the Prime Minister has envisioned the creation of 100 Smart Cities. The core idea is to develop satellite towns of large cities, and modernise existing mid-sized ones.

Jaipur is well placed, having started work on a number of smart city projects.

In fact Jaipur is positioning itself as an attractive investment destination by offering state-of-the-art infrastructure and attractive lifestyle, in addition to attempting to attract entrepreneurs by incentivising their start up journey.

Catalyzing to Critical Mass

Demographic strength is an essential factor for a city to realise its true economic potential.

Jaipur has mass and momentum. The city’s annual per capita income is Rs. 2 lakh, which is highest in the country (as per 2015 data), population is 37 lakh, growing at a rate of 2.2%, in comparison to the national average of 1.5%. In addition it is the state’s capital.

It also has enhanced connectivity – both inside (with Metro) and outside the city (being part of DMIC and having a world class international airport).

Moving forward, the focus for Jaipur is building an “ecosystem”. That would need strong and ongoing public-private partnerships, connectivity – physical and virtual, digital (and possibly disruptive) transformations; and most importantly citizens in the city, who are capable and in tune with the times.

Final Thought

Smart City would also need Smart Education, an education focused not just inside the classroom, but beyond. That imparts not only real world experience, but exposure to the virtual world as well. There is a need to collaborate, transform and contribute.

Shivang Ranjan