Singapore commits to assist the Indian government in the ‘’smart city’’ program
Singapore has expressed keenness to invest in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grand plan of creating 100 such cities across the country. In order to achieve that desired goal, the government of Singapore has sought clarity on India’s concept of smart cities.
Singapore is trying to understand what the (Indian) government actually means by a ‘smart city’. Whether they want a city to be information technology (IT)-enabled or having a state-of-the-art connectivity or both is the major clarification which the Singapore government has sought before presenting the proposal to assist in creating some of the smart cities.
A state-of-the-art city is a much larger concept than being IT-enabled, as the former addresses social, economic and environmental concerns as well. First we need to understand this difference before starting such projects. Without a clear guideline, the project will be in troubled waters later. IT-enabled services would comprise only five % of a smart city of the kind being debated in India.
Singapore is globally regarded as a smart city but the government believes it to be a “garden city”. The Singapore official sought these clarifications and presented his viewpoint in this regard.
This matter was discussed extensively during the visit of K Shanmugam, Singapore’s foreign minister, to India last month and also during external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to that country.
Source- Business Standard
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