The Smart City Concept?

The Smart City Concept:

(a) The concept of smart city goes back to the time of invention of automated traffic lights; those were first deployed in 1922 in Houston, Texas, Leo Hollis. The author of “Cities Are Good For You”, says that the one unarguably positive achievement of smart city style thinking in modern times is the train indicator boards on the London Underground. The concept progressed since then at a pace as technologies kept on evolving; however, it has undergone a drastic change in last one decade or so due to the rise of internet connectivity (Internet of Things (IoT) and the miniaturisation of electronics into an image of the city as an “Operating System or Centre”. It had been possible with the concerted efforts of big technology companies globally present in this market, all of whom hoped to profit from the big contracts in “Smart City Projects”. In brief Smart Connected Communities delivers transformational benefits as Economic, Social and Environmental.

(b) The Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced setting up of 100 Smart Cities soon after he took over in May last year. The project has been struggling to take off with little clarity on how to even define a Smart City. The Urban Development Ministry, GOI says that there cannot be a uniform criterion to develop smart cities as each city has a unique social and economic fabric so it has announced even a competition among cities to qualify and get “Smart City GOI Funds”. In-view of the same, I felt that some distinct clarity is to be brought out through this article so that to understand how this inititive got evolved. (c) The Smart City Concept is based on the following being Smart: Smart Governance, Smart Security & Safety including law & order, crime control and fast track courts for speedy trials, Smart Buildings, Smart Environment including waste treatment, Smart Energy, Smart Water, Smart Transport, Smart Health including The Smart City Concept? 39 hygiene, well being & sanitation, Smart Education, Smart Jobs Opportunities, Smart Entertainment, Smart Support Infrastructure, Smart IT & Communication including use of SMACT(Social Media, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud and IoT) technologies for public participation in Smart City Initiative. But the most significant aspect shall be the progressive Smart Social Development of a city keeping a pace with changing time. The smart-city is all about efficiency, optimisation, predictability, convenience, safety and security. The most important aspect is public participation in governance of the city. Let’s define each: (i) The smart governance: The entire administration of city is required to be transparent & corruption free with an accountability and equal accessibility to all, effective & optimum utilisation of city resources and discharge of efficient & adequate services to its citizens in time. Hence, providing an environment where public is involved & get what they aspire in a city conveniently and feel proud of being a citizen of that city. It should also cater the best resources optimisation & provisioning of an effective planning towards Disaster Management to be in place to handle any eventuality. Maximisation of e-governance will ensure 40 India Transforming and drive a smart city governance to take fast decisions on public centric local issues. It will be the most important & significant to decide that what data is to be opened to the public and who hold licences among others as entire smart governance of a city will revolve around collection of big data and its analytics at a centralised Command & Control Centre. The decisions will be taken at local level and with well established processes through which the citizens can actively participate in such decision making towards city governance. (ii) The Smart Security & Safety: Though, this aspect shall be dealt in details at a dedicated Para below. It deals with the best law & order situation where security & safety is ensured to all the citizens and the commuters arriving at 24x7 with the best, smart traffic & crime control facilitating proactive security through monitoring at centralised command & control centre & with dedicated patrolling. The rapid emergency response at any part of the city within a minimum & acceptable time frame needs to be catered. Hence, a befitting Integrated Security Design comprised of adequate but optimum resources in terms of equipments & technology along with systems involved, PCR Vehicles and trained manpower The Smart City Concept? 41 available without shortages, should be in place as per Risk Profile and crime probability & gaps analysis in a Smart City. It should provide a pleasurable and remember able experience to the people during stay / visit in / to the city. The crime cases should be handled through fast track courts, so that justice is delivered in time. The traffic control should cater to physical handicaps and ambulance movements during any emergency. The city Threat Matrix needs to be upgraded on day to day basis. The Public participation takes priority with the use of SMACT technologies to offer suggestions & feedback with complete involvement of well being of the city as it belongs to its people. (iii) The Smart Buildings: The buildings should be constructed / developed with LEEDS-NC / LEEDS-CS ratings & energy-efficient building designs along with retrofitting of existing buildings and provisioned them with Green Technology equipped with the smart BMS & intelligent energy management technology. These buildings will be equally accessible to the physically challenged. The smart buildings will reduce 30% of water usages, 40% of energy consumption. However, to keep these systems running, ensuring a sustainable power 42 India Transforming supply will be off prime importance. Hence, installation of independent solar power supply to the buildings shall remain a focus area in smart cities. The intelligent BMS should be able to provide a net saving of about 20-30 % in its existing cost. It should have adequate fire safety equipments and refuse areas for fire fighting & evacuation and security as per risk profile. The security & safety drills catering to various emergencies and disasters needs to be conducted periodically, so that public participation could be ensured in such requirements by creating interest among them and an efficient use of civic services with a fit co-ordination. The orientation & familiarisation training to the residents could be available periodically to achieve this mission. The smart city should have adequate parking’s for each building, colony, market places, metro stations, hospitals, schools and public gathering / event places, so that there is no congestion on roads & public places and the disaster management initiative could be carried out without hindrance to meet out any eventuality. The green cover is to be provided to take care of the environment. (iv) The Smart Environment: The cleanliness is maintained through an effective & trained The Smart City Concept? 43 conservancy service, the waste collection and treatment is carried out with the best possible means using latest technology and systems or plants in place, so that zero effect is there on the environment. The pollution is controlled through adequate measures in place with use of private vehicles optimally towards the requirement. The green belt is ensured in and around city and also in parks and road sides. The adequate amount of toilets including mobile ones at some places are erected & catered. The efforts made in this direction should be futuristic keeping the needs of next generation in mind. The roads should have pavements, Bicycle path ways and footpath for walk the way to the work / offices & markets. Intelligent watering needs to be put in place for this green cover of the city. The international standard opendata programme shall address the city issues relating to weather, pollution and noise by gathering data with use of open source and do-it-yourself (DIY) environmental sensors. Indian school education often focuses on the climate and geography of India and the world, but we never learn enough about how things work in our own city and now it shall be the part of a smart city project. 44 India Transforming (v) Smart Energy: The use of smart grid and an effective distribution of electricity 24x7 without loses & thefts and with maximum efforts to produce & use renewable energy, hence, sources are to be put in place towards the same. The smart energy technologies should make sure to have at least 30% cost savings in energy consumption. The smart & low cost indigenous meters and demand response are to be put in place in such projects. The effective and safe distribution of cooking gas shall be provisioned at all the houses. (vi) Smart Water: It is that potable / treated / drinkable water is available to the entire population in adequate amount and for the common use with optimum utilisation. The waste water could be treated to use it for maintaining greenery in the city and for flushing the toilets. The adequate steps taken and facilities created towards rain water harvesting, so that city water table remains intact. The smart water use with intelligent & effective methods and the best distribution technologies to ensure zero tolerance to the wastages & theft could reduce its consumption in buildings & families. The digitised distribution of water minimising leakages by using geographic information The Smart City Concept? 45 systems and recycling of waste water will be the key features of smart water. (vii) Smart Transport: The smart city should cater for the adequate & effective and intelligent transportation system, real-time information sharing about traffic conditions and public transport availability for internal as well as external transit. It may have a mix of metro, CNG buses and other electric cars or CNG taxis / vehicles, so that pollution control remains under permissible limits without fail. This network of transport to be utilised optimally with the use of smart solutions and SMACT technologies. The smart transport should be able to cut down the cost of transportation by about 25-30% with optimum utilisation and savings in the cost of fuel. (viii) Smart Health: The entire citizen should have an easy access to the health facilities / hospitals at affordable price, hence, the government hospitals will be catered for the poor and common man with adequate health insurance schemes to take care of the expanses in smart cities. The efforts are made to provide gyms for the common population of the city in order to emphasise the importance of good health among citizens. The sanitation and well being resources will make a part of smart 46 India Transforming health. SMACT shall push a health advisory on your mobile. (ix) Smart Education: All the children, 100% should have an access to the education at any level in affordable fee structure and in all the streams with adequate facility towards hostels, sports / games facilities and good quality of food at reasonable rates inside canteens of the schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions. The skills & personality development as part of leadership programme should be in place to increase the employability of the passing out students not only in India but globally. E-learning be given maximum importance so that anyone could take supplements / add on education in their own flexible timings. Webinars & video conferences shall be made part of mentoring and refreshers. (x) Smart Job Employment: Any smart city should create jobs for its residents commensurate to its infrastructure and facilities, so that the city becomes self sustaining. It should result in to an increase of about 10-15 % rise in employment. (xi) Smart Entertainment: A smart city should have enough entertainment facilities to all the The Smart City Concept? 47 class of people and for all budgets in day and night meeting the requirements of its citizen what they look for and visitors aspiring for, including the senior citizens and catering towards social development. Adequate number of public parks, sports facilities, zoo and community centres needs to be created. (xii) Smart Support Infrastructure: The support infrastructure in the form of markets / shopping malls, eateries, stadiums, public gathering places, toilets, cremation, clubs, golf course, infotainment etc needs to be created as per public demand and catering to the visitors needs. (xiii) Smart IT & Communication: It is most important part of a Smart City Concept / Project as internet connectivity is playing the most vital role in ensuring every area as stated above remains smart, hence, use of IT and communication will have utmost significance. The use of SMACT technologies for public participation will serve a pivot around which a smart city will function. This will ensure a big data collection.ICT needs to be protected against cyber security. (xiv) Smart Social Development: It shall ensure that Indian treasure in the form of its culture, 48 India Transforming heritage, family and social values, treatment towards visitors remains intact under the realm of Everything Smart. It could be a part of smart governance and as well as part of Smart Communication and use of SMACT for the public participation.

2. An Analysis: If I go in depth and carry out an analysis of the “Smart City Concept” it revolves around internalising the above mentioned features of “smart”: (i) So, “You’ll be able to get to work on time; there’ll be a seamless travelling & shopping experience, safety through cameras & other security systems & gadgets installed and SOPs in place etc. Well, another argument I would like to offer that all these things can make a city bearable, but they don’t make a city valuable. A smart city might be a lowcarbon city, a city where people are paying less for water, medical treatment, electricity and other civic services & taxes or towards building maintenance services or a city that’s easy to move around, or a city with jobs and housing. One message is clear that whatever a smart city might be, it will have a vast network of sensors & systems or even robots & drones amounting to millions of electronic ears, eyes and noses that will potentially generate huge The Smart City Concept? 49 amount of big data and it will be meaningful with the use of many soft wares, analytics and internet of things.

3. The Smart City Projects: It is clear now that Safe City is a subset of the Smart City Initiative .The Smart City Projects could be segregated in two categories, one as Green Field Projects and another as Brown Field Projects. (a) Green Field Smart City Projects: (i) The whole new cities conceived right from the scratch & planning stage, such as Songdo in South Korea, have already been constructed according to this template. Its buildings have automatic climate control and computerised access; its roads and water, waste and electricity systems are dense with electronic sensors to enable the city’s brain to track and respond to the movement of residents, so, saves lot of public money. In India, meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced to build no fewer than 100 Smart Cities on the same concept but as per Indian conditions. A forward-looking way in economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and living, built on the 50 India Transforming smart combination of endowments and activities of self-decisive independent and aware citizens. A city that monitors and integrates conditions of all of its critical infrastructures including roads, bridges, tunnels, rail, sea-ports, subways, airways, water, power, even major buildings, climate control, can better optimize its resources towards heath & education and creation of intra city jobs, plan its preventive maintenance activities and monitor security aspects while maximizing services to its citizens right from the conceptual & planning stage. Hence, it is easy to put architecture of a Green Field Smart City Project in place as it does not have an issue of handling the challenges posed by legacy infrastructure. (ii) India is having an ongoing Green Field Smart City Project in Gujarat which was conceived by none other than our visionary Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi when he was the CM of Gujarat and it is GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec) City. The Gujarat government has approached the Centre, now firmly under its previous boss to push long pending clearances from the ministries of finance, highways and civil aviation, so that its first phase can meet its 2016 deadline. A 50:50 joint venture between a state government undertaking and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) Limited, the GIFT city was planned as a global financial and IT services hub spread over 886 acres near Ahmadabad airport and is expected to create a million direct and indirect jobs. (b) Brown Field Smart City Project: Some of the attributes of such projects are as following: (i) The “smart city creativity” arguably remains the world’s established metropolises such as London, New York, Barcelona and San Francisco. Indeed, many people think London is the smartest city of them. All of them have come to the stage of Brown Field Projects as new technologies & systems have been incorporated there over a period of time as per the challenges faced by them including of legacy infrastructure. The Rio de Janeiro’s centre of operations: ‘a high-precision control panel for the entire city’ is indeed a technology revolution in such projects. One only has to look at the hi-tech nerve centre that has been built,” it is festooned with screens like a NASA Mission Control” for the city and it allows having people looking into every corner of the city, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The challenges of such smart city projects were the following: ? Interagency communication, collaboration & networking on a massive scale. ? Interoperability of systems and technologies (open ended platforms & solutions). ? Limited budget for technology solutions and continous upgrades. ? Accessing real time information, big data collection & use of analytics on a secure architecture to have real time situational awareness. ? Time taken to respond to a situation either in an accident or a disaster. (ii) The Capital of South Korea, country’s largest metropolis; Population of over 10 million and best known as one of the most tech-savvy cities in the world is another example of Brown Field Smart City Project. It is retaining No.1 ranking in UN e-Government Survey 2003. The ‘Smart Seoul 2015’ is a people-oriented & human-centric project led by the Seoul’s Metropolitan Government aiming to utilize the huge potential of Smart technologies for urban development Smart city. (iii) The City of Baltimore is a remarkable example of a successful project demonstrating the clear benefits of a Smart+Connected community approach for government agencies worldwide but it was more towards a Safe City Concept or Project though a part of Smart City Initiative only.

4. The Safe City Projects: The Safe City Project or an Initiative is a subset of Smart City Project, so it can also be put in to 02 categories i.e. Green Field Project & Brown Field Project. The Safe City Initiative at Songdo in South Korea and GIFT City in India will also be the Green Field Safe City Projects. The greater challenge lies in establishing Brown Field Safe City Projects using existing legacy infrastructure and city complexities and some examples of the same are reproduced here: (a) The City of Baltimore could also be taken as Brown Field Safe City Project which has been put in place very successfully. 54 India Transforming (b) The City of Drancy in France used another Smart Connected community approach and achieved economic, social, and environmental benefits. But firstly it was developed as a Safe City or under a City Surveillance Project. (c) It is clear that a new set of tools and technologies now exist to help city governments manage public safety and city services, improve management of city resources towards security & safety, share information effectively, manage data deluge, improve decision making, and collaboration, to deliver safer and more secure communities. (d) Challenges and Objectives: The City of Baltimore & other cities in this category needed the ability to integrate existing dissimilar security technologies across multiple agencies into a common operating picture for improved across-the-board collaboration and information sharing. The City required a sophisticated solution that integrated their current and future security device investments and provided the technology to intelligently share information controlled by separate agencies. The City agencies and law enforcement wanted the ability to rapidly respond to everything from natural disasters, crime, event crowd control, The traffic incidents, and more by having complete situational awareness and standard operating procedures for managing and resolving situations across agencies and organizations. (e) Conclusion: It’s great that we’re developing such a focus on the critical area of Resiliency, something which can greatly benefit as a “Smarter” Cities focus. Leveraging technologies such as analytics, the intelligent operations centre, and asset management will greatly enhance the work of the Chief Resilience or Business Continuity Officer of a City or CSO City and greatly help mitigate potential devastation and the loss of life. But the challenges also lie ahead, if an entire city has an “operating system”, what happens when it goes wrong? The one thing that is certain about software is that it crashes. The smart city is just a “perpetual beta city” so, stand by systems are to be planned. The hacking & cyber crimes remains a most important issue to be taken care in a safe city project.

4. India Perspective: (a) It is expected that about 25-30 people will migrate every minute to the major India Cities from rural areas in search of better live hood and better life style. It is estimated 56 India Transforming that by the year 2050, the number of people living in Indian Cities will touch about 900 million. To accommodate this massive urbanization, India needs to find smarter ways to mange complexities, reduce expenses, increase efficiency and improve the quality of life in cities. Hence, the Prime Minsiter of India announced that India plans 100 new smart cities; hence, GOI will develop modern satellite towns around existing cities under the Smart City Programme. The GOI has allocated $ 1.2 billion for development of Smart Cities in 2014-15 budget. An estimated investment of about $1.3 trillion will be required over next 15-20 years across areas like smart transportation, water, energy and public security & safety to build these smart cities. The GOI has also allocated $ 83 million for “Digital India” initiative in this budget and it will add NOFN (National Optic Fibre Network) & also help the smart city initiative. The PPP model is planned to be adopted to upgrade infrastructure. (b) The Ministry of Urban Development has plans to develop 02 smart cities in each of India’s 29 states and the 07 additional smart cities with an investment of about $185 billion and green field projects are planned to be established and The Smart City Concept? 57 come up along the 1500 kms long stretch of Delhi – Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) formed in collaboration with Japan, as a manufacturing & trading hub across six states with a total investment of about $110 Billion. The first of these 07 Smart Cities would come up in Dholera investment region in Gujarat, 110 kms away from Ahmadabad. Each city will have underground utility corridors for parking, sewage disposal and communication lines to give it a neat look and leave enough space for the facilities that are missing in most of the existing cities like pavements, parks and cycle tracks. The transportation axis is planned to discourage the use of private vehicles. The GOI has allocated $ 340 million in this budget to make 07 big cities (Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad) under “Safe City” project with a focus on technological advancements. (c) It is of utmost importance and also to be seen that we need to nurture, preserve and side by side renew the urban fabric with changing time. India will be the 03rd construction market in the world by 2020 adding about 10 million houses every year now onwards and the Intelligent Building Management System towards Smart Cities will have a big 58 India Transforming role in smart city projects. The investment requirement for these Smart City Projects is huge but the savings due to smart energy, water and transportation initiatives besides less cost on BMS and other services will amount to more than the expenditure over a period of time in this decade itself and then surplus forever. It is meant as futuristic to cater to the needs of next generation. The DMIC itself is expected to double the employment opportunities, triple the industrial production and increase the export four folds over the next decade. (d) The Smart City Kochi a joint venture between Smart City Dubai & Kerala State Government is having an ambitious smart city project under way. Similarly, the European Business & Technology Centre (EBTC) plans to establish a pilot project of “Smart City Concept” at the industrial town of Haldia in West Bengal. (e) There is growing need that the major cities of India those are having a population more than 01 Million should be administered in the best possible manner with the efficient utilization of its resources with smart governance towards transportation, energy and water and in discharge of its municipal services such a law & order, judiciary, medical, health, education, cleaning & sanitation with the help of public The Smart City Concept? 59 participation, intelligent operations along with an element of accountability, better crime control and top priority towards public safety & security, a fast emergency response towards an incident management, crowd control and on a larger side an advanced method to have a best mechanism of disaster management in any eventuality. (f) Though India is having some ongoing City Surveillance Projects but the biggest is Mumbai City Surveillance Project. The city of Surat, Ahmadabad, Baroda and Gandhi Nagar have already been installed the City Surveillance Systems, mainly comprised of a CCTV network of a large number of cameras and its monitoring at a Centralized City Command Centre. Pune Jaipur & Lucknow and some more City Surveillance Projects are under way in India at different phases of planning and implementation. (g) Challenges: (i) There were a lot of confusion on the subject in last 05 years or so and it is still there to a very large extent and due to the same some big projects of City Surveillance could not take off in time in India. Hence, there is a need to have a lot 60 India Transforming of synergy among security professionals & risk consultants, integrators & installers, product & solution providers and OEMS & developers. It is a fact that product developers or OEMs are not the solution providers and they do not have with them the consultants or professionals on board who can draw a synergy between what is needed by the end user as per the Risk Profile of a City to mitigate, in a Safe City Initiatives and so is the case in the Smart City Projects. It is a fact that some of the well known international Consultant MNCs operating in India since long could not draw proper QRs for formulating a RFP in a City Surveillance Project as they did not have required expertise with them in this field and the same resulted in formulation of a very poor RFP document with lot of ambiguities by virtue of not understanding the complete use of technologies & solutions in the market, end user perspective and the challenges of implementation of such projects on the ground with existing legacy infrastructure in place, as a result even the biggest projects The Smart City Concept? 61 could not take off in time and derailed even after three attempts. Anyway, the problem is somehow has been sorted out now and the Mumbai City Surveillance bid has been awarded to the competent bidder. Secondly, India’s security market at present is still quite product driven and it needs to change. Therefore, many security companies are turning towards solutions or trying to enhance products for application use. Though many vendors claim to be the solution providers, very few take a problemcentric solution approach; therefore education and promotion are needed to bridge the gap. (ii) There are solutions in the market known as Smart Social Technology or Ecosystems or Smart Security Solutions to address some of these problem as outlined above and some are suggesting the overall smart solutions to improve the city governance with an accountability and some are suggesting only surveillance solutions with the installation of some CCTV’s network and some are suggesting an integration of few of them using a some existing VMS software rather a PSIM. Hence, the holistic Smart City Solutions are not implemented through one single window in India so far. However, the GIFT City is being developed in Gujarat as a first Green Smart City Project in India and it could be the first in the World in true sense as a Green Field Smart City Project. It is being built so that it can accommodate some big businesses & financial institutions moving from Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurgaon. It is being conceptualized as a global business & IT hub and designed to be or above par with globally marked financial centre such as Shinjuku, Tokyo, Lujiazu, Shanghai, Paris, London Dockyard etc. 6. Conclusion: (a) Smart City: We are progressing the first Green Field Smart City Project in India as GIFT in Gujarat, a project of about $12-15 billion in 03 phases spread out till 2025.The detailed planning based on various consultancies of the best International & National City Planners, Developers and technology solution providers have been drawn to implement it in a specific time frame, so that the best design is put in place in three phases. SMACT technologies are being planned to be used to ensure an The Smart City Concept? 63 effective & robust Smart City design comes in place. (b) A budget of $1.2 billion has been allocated for smart cities in the 2014-15 budgets, and under the flagship “safe city” project and the Union Ministry proposed $333 million to develop seven big cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmadabad, Bangalore, and Hyderabad) as Safe Cities and 07 new cities along DMIC as smart cities with a total investment of $100 billion to focus on technological advancement and automation. India can save approximately $ 40 billion every year with efficient energy management. Currently, buildings in India consume approximately 40% of total energy generated, and 20% of water, as well as 40% of carbon emissions, 30% of solid waste and 20% of water effluents. However with smart buildings, 30% of water usage, 40% of energy usage, and a reduction of building maintenance costs by 10 to 30 % can be saved. (b) Safe City: The majority of security integrators and product providers were till now focused on conventional solutions they were used to and their unwillingness to learn information technology and implement software products was restraining them to use PSIM which 64 India Transforming is indeed an answer to integration scale needed in Smart as well as in Safe City or City Surveillance Projects. This is a major challenge because awareness of customers may not be improved by the systems providers & integrators and such consultants involved in designing & formulating RFPs for such projects until unless they understand the need & role of information technology, ISMS and now the use of SMACT and the aspects of IT / Network / Data Security & Cyber Security. This is the sole reason that Mumbai City Surveillance Project could not take off for 05 years. Now, the tender is allocated and I suppose that the solution that is going to be implemented in this project will cater to the need, so that it could be enlarged & enveloped in to a “Mumbai Smart City Project” using not only the legacy infrastructure existing as of now but even the one which will come up / built by this project. A good PSIM will always offer a Value Add to these projects. (c) For the Safe City Initiatives, the onus is on the security fraternity and homeland security professionals & industry to take on such a challenge and prove ourselves that we can handle such projects through a single vendor or window in India and address The Smart City Concept? 65 all the problems being encountered in implementation of such projects. We can draw a synergy among social technology & eco solutions and combine them with the Security & Safety solutions by use of data analytic, internet of things, cloud platforms and having required C4I2C ( Centralized Command, Control, Communication and Intelligent Information Centre) to obtain desired results. The dynamic risk profiles could be drawn and solutions then designed to mitigate the same though real time monitoring & analysis of various parameters along with situational awareness, so that intelligence inputs and information flow could be channelized at a centralized place for a response either proactive or in about real time to contain loses due to any incidents. The C4I2C could handle the feed of all types of solutions being used through broad band connectivity and use of SMACT technologies. Use of social media will bring the needed public awareness and participation in this campaign. We can use news, blogs, virtual conferences, webinars, down loads, market news bulletins, display LED boards for public information & city services and industry news to spread public awareness and safety precautions. We can 66 India Transforming bring Application Security, Bio metrics/IRIS/ Facial recognition towards identity & access, draw compliance’s and policies and make sure that data theft does not take place, so we need to use internet & network security tools as well as IT forensics. We need to maintain Wireless & Mobile Security and malware & hardware security. We need to make sure that the Business Continuity & disaster recovery plans of the city is in place and maintained for 24X7.There is a need that a task force to handle cyber security is added to such an effort to handle the growing security threat as well as to contain cyber crimes. So, we the homeland security industry & professionals can address such a challenge and handle such vital projects to provide Safe & Secure Cities. (d) As India continues to boom, many who seek will find opportunity in the constantly evolving country. High hopes are held with PM Modithe visionary man leading India to the way of success, with expectations for great success in the smart cities project, which will open up opportunities to give the security industry a boost it needs to get on fast track scalable to the global standards beside needed thrust to the Make in India, Digital India, Clean India and Skilling India initiatives which The Smart City Concept? 67 shall take India among top 03 economy by 2030 providing boost to all the industries & services in India. (e) The many exhibiters or event management companies related with Security Events have held many conferences may be about 15-20 on the same theme and organized exhibitions in last 03-04 years, hence, lot of valuable discussions have generated on the subject. The ASSOCHAM & CII have partnered with consultant agencies as knowledge partners or solution providers to come out with some concrete recommendations & way forward to this ambitious initiative / project of GOI launched by our visionary PM of India, so that a national mission could be taken forward. I am also making an attempt through this article in the same direction please. You need to build great cities to make a nation great.??