Global economy has been passing through an uncertain period. Notwithstanding, driven by structural reforms, India has emerged among the fastest growing economies in the world. The Government of India, has come-up with several initiatives focusing on improving urban infrastructure, river conservation, renewable energy development, financial inclusion, modernising transport infrastructure, affordable housing and driving digital growth in India.
As per the current estimates, urban India accounts for about 33% of the total population and about 65% of the country’s GDP clearly making them the growth engines. As per World Bank, about 54% of the global population resides in urban localities contributing to 80% of global GDP; which clearly indicates the potential growth of urbanisation in India. To ensure sustainable urbanisation, Government of India came out with the Smart Cities Mission, wherein Mott MacDonald using their global expertise prepared the smart city plan for Jaipur; which was ranked 3rd by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the first lot of city challenge under Smart City Mission.
City’s GDP is an important barometer for attracting sustainable long-term investments. City’s competitive advantage drives its GDP and hence it is important for the stakeholders to create sustainable competitive advantages over other cities. With time, all cities need to reinvent themselves and we at Mott MacDonald believe that city rejuvenation is always economically and socially more attractive than creating new cities. City rejuvenation means creating an infrastructure which can attract investments from new age emerging sectors; create safe and secure habitable neighbourhood for its citizens to learn, grow and earn a respectable livelihood and finally the city should be able to mitigate the climate change risks.
Smart cities are expected to be more efficient; which means they consume lesser resources to achieve similar level of economic activity; which is ideally the competitive advantage offered by them over other cities. This means cities need to continuously invest and remain ahead of competition; which in itself creates significant business potential for private sector to come-in. Extent of private sector participation in making a city smarter largely depends on the ability of urban local bodies in creating a business-friendly environment.
Government of India’s smart city mission focuses on creating infrastructure to make cities more liveable. The current parameters considered by the government for defining a smart city is more directed to creating minimum infrastructure and service provisions. However, at Mott MacDonald we
feel, this programme will further undergo major shift in next 5 years and start focusing on resource intensiveness of the cities. Our research on global cities suggest that mega cities globally have adopted different approaches to reduce resource intensity. Hence, we need to learn from different cities and develop our own solutions. Singapore is a country composed of a main island and about 60 islets connected by reclaimed land. Currently, water demand in Singapore is 1,824,000 m³/day of which more than 500,000 m3/day is met through recycled water, about 27% demand is met through recycling. Concept of water recycling is still new to Indian ULBs; which if implemented can reduce fresh water demand and the same can be made available for alternate uses.
In the small country of Iceland, its capital Reykjavik has begun replacing its public transport with hydrogen fueled buses since the mid-2000s. Further, almost 100% of the energy demand of Iceland is met through renewable sources – hydro and geo-thermal. Our cities can leverage on solar and municipal waste to meet their energy demands.
Climate change is a real threat to global economy and we cannot be insulated. Urban India will have to take major strides to minimise the impact on environment while achieving its growth objectives. If Urban India achieves its twin objective of growth without degrading environment; it will actually help India in meeting its international commitments on climate change signed in Paris. To be successful, the Urban Local Bodies will have to think differently while they evaluate investment options and allocate resources in their annual budgets. Those taking early initiatives will create sustainable competitive advantage leading to vibrant local economy attracting investments and creating jobs. Government of India’s initiative on ranking cities is only helping in creating more awareness and pushing the Urban Local Bodies to compete and think differently.
