On 18th April 2022, The 3-day “Smart Cities, Smart Urbanization” conference has a grand opening event at the Surat International Exhibition & Convention Centre (SIECC), Surat, Gujarat. Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs took part in the events as the chief guest.
- The conference, organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India, Government of Gujarat with Surat Smart City Corporation Development Limited., under the clarion call of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM)”, will be held from 18th to 20th April 2022.
Key People:
i.Kaushal Kishore Minister of State(MoS) for MoHUA, Darshana Jardosh MoS for Railways participated in the event.
ii.Bhupendrabhai Patel, Chief Minister(CM) of Gujarat, virtually addressed the event through a video message.
Highlights of the event:
i.The conclave showcased several interactive activities with eminent speakers and learnings across the 5 themes: Reimagining Public Spaces, Digital Governance, ClimateSmart Cities, Innovation and Smart Finance. The conference venue also exhibited 5 thematic pavilions based on the 5 themes.
The pavilions include,
- Digital Governance Pavilion(Digital Duniya) – Empowering communities with data and digital technology.
- Innovation Bazaar Pavilion(Innovation Bazzar): Defining and solving societal issues.
- Climate-Smart Cities Pavilion(Climate Cafe): To build climate actions in cities.
- Smart Finance Pavilion(Finance ka adda): Cities as Drivers of the Nation’s Wealth.
- Reimagining Public Spaces pavilion(Mahallo par charcha).
Inauguration of ‘Amaro Padosh’:
i.The Smart Cities Mission and Surat Municipal Corporation created a temporary, life-size neighbourhood of 30,000 square feet at the conference venue(SIECC) with public amenities like a park, Anganwadi, public health centre, municipal school, bus stop with cycle stand, food plaza, EV charging station, and handloom shop.
ii.The neighbourhood was inaugurated by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
- This was built by professionals with expertise in urban planning and design, architecture, landscape design, traffic studies and civil engineering.
- This will provide learning with experiencing opportunities to the participants.
Virtual Hub for Collaboration on Urban Transformations:
The Smart Cities Mission and World Economic Forum have jointly established a ‘virtual hub for collaboration on urban transformations’ which will leverage the emerging technologies and innovations to transform Indian cities into centres of sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth.
- The cities need collaborative action across governments, industry, academia and civil society both national and international to solve complex urban challenges.
India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020:
The winners of the India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020 were felicitated during the event.
- Surat and Indore were honoured with the Best city award, and Uttar Pradesh (UP) was honoured with the Best State award. Chandigarh has been adjudged the best Union territory in ISAC 2020.
The winners were announced in 2021 during the online event organised by the MoHUA to mark the 6th anniversary of the launch of Smart Cities Mission (SCM), AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U). Click here to know more
Releases and launches during the event:
i.During the event, SCM released the Urban Outcomes Framework 2022 including, ‘Ease of Living’, ‘Municipal Performance Index’, ‘Data Maturity and ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework.
ii.The SCM also released the Integrated portal of MoHUA, AMPLIFI – Assessment and Monitoring Platform for Liveable, Inclusive and Future-ready urban India, which will provide valuable data about Indian cities and The Artificial Intelligence(AI) Playbook for Cities, a guidebook for the implementation of AI solutions that cities can deploy to solve complex urban issues.
iii.These initiatives aim to provide a platform to offer various opportunities to create and promote the use of data that addresses complex urban issues.
Note:
- A compendium of AI use cases that have successfully been implemented in the urban domain was also released at the event.
- The SCM launched a comprehensive dashboard with Outcome Output Management Framework (OOMF) dashboard in Geospatial Management Information System(GMIS).
About Smart Cities Mission(SCM):
i.In 2015, Prime Minister(PM) Narendra Modi launched the Smart Cities Mission which has been a part of the agenda for urban rejuvenation.
ii.It was designed as a part of a multi-layer strategy to meet the aspirations of 40% of India’s population living in cities.
iii.Of the total investment of ₹2,05,018 crore under the Smart Cities Mission, projects worth ₹93,552 crores were proposed to be developed by Center and State funds.
Recent Related News:
i.Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated ‘Azadi@75 – New Urban India: Transforming Urban Landscape’ Conference-cum-Expo in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on October 05, 2021.
- During the expo, the Prime Minister virtually handed over keys of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) houses to 75,000 beneficiaries in 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
ii.Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri virtually inaugurated the 14th Edition of Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference 2021 with the theme of “Mobility for All” for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
About Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA):
Union Minister– Hardeep Singh Puri (Rajya Sabha- Uttar Pradesh)
Minister of State– Kaushal Kishore (Constituency- Mohanlalganj, Uttar Pradesh)
