Digital India Dialogue — an exchange of thoughts between the political leadership, bureaucracy and chiefs of academic and corporate institutions — organised by the Indian Express group together with NewsX, will focus on Smart Cities. Each of the nine components of the government’s Digital India initiative will be discussed by a distinguished panel.
The range of issues being thrown up by the smart cities concept is rapidly expanding. At one level it is clear, India needs cities that are a paradigm shift from the way they have become at present. At the broader level is the emerging realisation that this is a long-term agenda that will challenge India’s best minds to craft an array of solutions that would hold for a billion-plus people.
This means not just using smart technologies but harnessing efficiencies to create a smart management plan to handle the opportunities urbanisation brings for a larger number of Indians.
Cities can and ought to become an engine of growth, but for that they need re-engineering of governance, of finance and of planning all aided by bringing in the latest available technology. This will be needed both to modernise the existing cities and also develop greenfield Smart Cities. The government has announced a programme to build 100 new Smart Cities in the country.
In the edition of Digital Dialogue on March 24, the Indian Express Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers will jointly present India’s first-of-its-kind Smart City Report — How smart are our cities? — to the minister for urban development, M Venkaiah Naidu.
There will be an exclusive interactive session of the minister and Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director and Head, New Media, The Indian Express, with the audience, followed by a panel discussion titled — Smart Cities: Sustainable & Flexible Models.
The panel will comprise RS Sharma, secretary, department of electronics & information technology, Amitabh Kant, secretary, department of industrial policy & promotion, Bibek Debroy, member, NITI Aayog, Onno Ruhl, India Country Director, The World Bank, Piyush Somani, Founder, MD & CEO, ESDS Software Solution Private Limited. The discussion will be moderated by Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, Deputy Editor, The Indian Express.