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SMART C TY
Dr Raman Singh
Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh
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Special Article
46 Smart Cities Need of the Hour For India’s Rise Sameer Sharma
Additional Secretary (Smart Cities) Ministry of Urban Development Government of India
08 COVER STORY
Policymaker’s perspEctive
Raipur Set to Fly High With Smart Cities Mission
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Chhattisgarh: Integrating Governance with Smart Cities
Changing Urban Environment of Chhattisgarh
Raipur Citizens The Power Behind Smart City Mission
Amar Agrawal
Rohit Yadav
Rajat Bansal
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Chhattisgarh Gearing Up for Entrepreneurs
‘Citizen Cop’ for Smart Policing
eHealth, mHealth Changing Rural Health Landscape
Kartikeya Goel
Arun Dev Gautam
R Prasanna
Minister for Urban Development, Commercial Taxes and Commerce & Industry Government of Chhattisgarh
Director Industries Government of Chhattisgarh
Special Secretary (Independent Charge) Urban Administration & Development Department, Government of Chhattisgarh
Secretary – Home, Jail, and Transport Government of Chhattisgarh
Commissioner, Raipur Municipal Corporation & Managing Director, Raipur Smart City Limited
Director Directorate Health Services Government of Chhattisgarh
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
42 Schneider Electric — Game Changer for Smart Cities
EcoCentric—Processing Electronics Waste The Eco-Friendly Way
Prakash Chandraker
Karan Thakkar
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Vice President and Managing Director Energy Business - Greater India Region Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited
Special interview
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Salil Shrivastava
Chief Engineer Naya Raipur Development Authority
Naya Raipur — The World’s First Integrated City
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Dr Sandeep Dave — Master of Laparoscopic Surgery Dr Sandeep Dave
Founder and Managing Director Ramakrishna CARE Hospital, Raipur
Anand Singhania Managing Director Avinash Group
48 CREDAI Shouldering Real Estate’s Social Role Shailesh Verma
President of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) Chhattisgarh
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CHiPS Making Chhattisgarh Champion of E-Governance
IL&FS Technologies: Integrating smart technologies with Infrastructure
Alex Paul Menon
Durga Prasad
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Bilaspur Municipal Corporation: Crusading the ‘Smart Cities Mission’
SonicWALL — Innovating to Create Secure Digital Spaces
Saumil Ranjan Chaubey
Debasish Mukherjee
Commissioner Bilaspur Municipal Corporation (BMC)
Country Manager SonicWALL India & SAARC
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Empowering Smart City Mission Through Clean Energy
Ajeevi Making Citizens Life Easier
Joint Secretary Ministry of Power Government of India
Special Interview
54 India Post – Changing With The Times Usha Chandra Sekhar Member (Operations) Postal Services Board
Chief Executive Officer IL&FS Technologies Ltd
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Dr Arun Kumar Verma
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Naya Raipur The First Green-field Integrated Smart City
32 Chief Executive Officer, Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) Joint Secretary- Information Technology Government of Chhattisgarh
Founder EcoCentric Management Private Limited
special feature
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Singapore Beckons the World, Redefining Sustainable Living
Raipur Set to Fly High With Smart Cities Mission Raipur received its real identity the day it turned the capital city of Chhattisgarh in 2000. From there, its odyssey of development and subsequently a ‘Smart City’ began. Things are falling in line as per the developmental roadmap due to active public participation and determination of residents to make things happen towards building a Smart City, observes Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).
Understanding Smart City A city that maintains a sustainable growth in different sectors for making it a better place to live for the people could be termed as a Smart City. Economic growth and high standard of life are the two important components where the progress at a high pace can enable a city turn into a Smart City easily.
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Implementation of smart solutions for improving the infrastructure to provide a decent life to citizens and a clean environment to sustain a healthy life can also be a component for making the city a smart city. There are many basic amenities that are imperative for leading a normal life i.e. better public transport, efficient urban mobility, better electric and water supply. These are essential and play a major role in making city smarter than before.
Why Smart Cities Are Required? For residents’ betterment in a city and providing them a sustainable life with all amenities, a city needs to be reshaped accordingly. People usually tend to look for a suitable place for a better career option. A Smart City helps dwellers to get such needs be taken care of with the passage of time. An undeveloped city, failing to take care of residents’ aforesaid requirements, may witness a major shift of people in search of a better life and livelihood. Proper development in every sector like infrastructure, transport, employment, agriculture will assist migrants to be a part of that city. This is the prime reason why every city must be transformed into a smart city quickly.
Raipur Smart City With the advent of 21st century, an era started where the developed minds of people and their need to enjoy a better life than the one they have been leading, motivate them to migrate towards a city properly established.
There are cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and many others, calling the migrants to be a part of them by offering them basic amenities to meet their needs. This raises an issue regarding development of urban areas in many States which are still undefined due to being latent. Albeit, there is a city which is giving pace to the life of its occupants by incorporating environmental, social and economic sustainability. The name “Raipur” got its real recognition after becoming the state capital of Chhattisgarh in 2000 from where its journey to transform into a Smart City commenced. The dedication and true determination of many people is facilitating execute the plan to develop Raipur a popular Smart City. To make Raipur a shining city among the dwellers and the migrants, the State government and the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) are trying to improve facilities which have been provided to its occupants. Different plans have been initiated by both the wings where equal amount of support from the Raipurians is helping in converting Raipur into a Smart City.
With an eye on reshaping Raipur to make it a better place to live, RMC and the State government have sketched a plan which includes two basic areas that can build a better tomorrow for citizens of Raipur and give them a reason to begin their life in this city. They are:
Smart Solutions for better improvement Area-Based Development: Focusing on a particular region and picking up the issues of that area and drafting strategic plans to solve the issues associated with that, could work to ensure progress in making Raipur a Smart City. The assistance of occupants of a particular area to improve its quality could work a lot for the RMC to establish an improved and better city within a limited span of time. After
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establishing a particular area, other areas can be focused and planned accordingly to connect it with the developed areas to encourage residents to include their helping hands towards development of their own city. Smart Solutions for better improvement: For uplifting the standard of living of Raipur and make it a suitable place to live, the participation of residents play a major role in sharing their inclination towards the transformation of it into a Smart City. Improving the infrastructure, public transport, connectivity with the prime locations of the city, building an
infotainment centre for the locals etc. are some of the smart solution ideas that can work a lot in reshaping Raipur into a Smart City. There are some verticals on which the civic body RMC is working which will motivate Raipur to excel in different aspects quickly: Raising Raipur’s Image: The main motto of this campaign is to work for the betterment of Raipurians as better citizens and to look after their overall growth whether it is in terms of demeanor, ethics, social awareness or their fitness. Shining Raipur: Cleanliness is one of the big issues in most of the areas of Raipur. It needs to be addressed to make them a suitable place for Raipurians to survive. This campaign has been launched to improve condition of all vicinities where cleanliness is a prominent issue till date. RMC is ensuring cleanliness in these vicinities to develop Raipur as a shining city. Badhiya Raipur: Infrastructure reflects the overall progress of a city. An improved infrastructure with all the amenities available at one place can motivate people migrate to it for greener pastures. And, the RMC is ensuring that the city turns the best place to live in.
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Hariyar Raipur: A good environment develops charm among resident to live there. By joining hands with RMC to run this campaign, one can be a help in protecting one’s environment by planting tree saplings and furthering the green cover in entire Raipur city and inspire others to be a part of it. Compassionate Raipur: Poverty is the big issue of every city that pushes them backward from getting developed into a Smart City. Compassionate Raipur is a campaign that appeals the citizens of Raipur to help the poor meet their basic needs. This may eradicate the hitch of poverty and help the poor prosper along with the city rapidly. Digital Raipur: The initiatives of Central Government to make every city a cashless city, has opened up an alley for the RMC to run a campaign to make Raipur a digital economy. A progress in this field has been noticed where the dwellers of Raipur itself are praising it. Above all these campaigns and initiatives of RMC and State Government to make Raipur a Smart city, the Smart City mission aims, “To provide the civilians with high quality modern and efficient Municipal Services, Sustainable Development and sound Environmental Management”.
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Chhattisgarh: Integrating Governance with Smart Cities
Amar Agrawal
Minister for Urban Development, Commercial Taxes and Commerce & Industry Government of Chhattisgarh
There are three Smart Cities in Chhattisgarh. The State government with its priority for Smart Cities is also planning to integrate e-governance and provide employment opportunities in the other cities of the State as well, says Amar Agrawal, the Minister for Urban Development, Commercial Taxes and Commerce & Industry, Government of Chhattisgarh, in an interview with Arpit Gupta and Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN). The central Government has selected two cities – Raipur and Bilaspur from Chhattisgarh under Smart Cities Mission, what initiatives have been taken by the State government to make these two cities smarter? Raipur and Bilaspur were added to the Smart Cities’ list earlier. Recently, Naya Raipur has also been included in the list. This way, three cities from Chhattisgarh will be developed as Smart Cities.
“We are planning to replace autorickshaws with e-rickshaws. Moreover, such initiatives will be implemented in the cities other than Smart Cities as well.” 12
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As far as developing Smart Cities in the State is concerned, the work is progressing at a very fast pace even in its maiden year. Soon, we are going to issue tenders for various development projects related to Smart Cities. Other than Smart City projects, we are also working on other projects like 24X7 water supply, 24X7 electricity supply and implementing revenue reforms etc. Various autonomous bodies are constituted to govern and supervise aforementioned projects and other projects for Smart City development. These bodies will help to ease the processes. The State government on its own is trying to develop Korba, Rajnandgaon
and Bhilai as Smart Cities under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. These cities will be developed as per the guidelines of the Central Government. We have also appointed a consultant for the Smart Cities. It is our effort to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream by developing other cities of Chhattisgarh smartly. Chhattisgarh Government has developed Naya Raipur as India’s first “Greenfield City”, how the government is planning to develop the Smart Cities at the same paceas that of Naya Raipur? It is easier to develop a new city as a “Greenfield City” or “Smart City” but to transform an old city into a Smart City has different types of challenges. However, Smart Cities are the government’s top priority. We are planning to incorporate facilities like e-governance, Wi-Fi, ecotourism, pollution control and waste management etc in old cities. For an example, we are planning to replace auto-rickshaws with e-rickshaws. Moreover, such initiatives will be implemented in the cities other than Smart Cities as well.
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Naya Raipur
What kind of challenges are there in the Urban Development Department while developing infrastructure in Naxal affected areas? How are these challenges tackled? We have tried our best to make available the basic amenities like education and health in Naxal-affected areas. As far as roads are concerned, with the help of security forces, road construction is being done at a rapid rate. It is wrong to say that the “Naxalism” is due to underdevelopment or there is no development in Naxal affected areas. You are also handling the Industries Department. What initiatives have been taken by the Chhattisgarh Government to promote business and investment in the state? We have different policies to attract industries like automobile, electronics etc. Chhattisgarh’s rich natural resources are also a reason for industries planning to invest in the
state. Chhattisgarh is at second place in the country in promoting industralisation in the State. We have invested around Rs 1,000 crore to generate employment opportunities in food technology sector for the youths. We are developing Electronics Parks, Plastic Parks and Herbal Parks. There is a plethora of employment opportunities in Chhattisgarh and after GST, there will be a boost in manufacturing and services sector. Our efforts are not limited to national level but we are also trying at global level to showcase the State as “Preferred Business Destination”. Are there any schemes by Chhattisgarh government in line with the central government’s schemes like Make In India, Digital India, Skill India etc? Chhattisgarh is among the few states for implementing the Government of India’s schemes. We are trying to implement schemes like Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All in our state.
“Our efforts are not limited to national level but we are also trying at global level to showcase the State as “Preferred Business Destination.” I would like to thank our Prime Minister to make it compulsory for every branch of each bank to provide loan to at least one SC and one ST customer. We have also formulated a policy for “Startup India” after that we received around 4,000 ideas for start ups. After selecting better ideas we will support them. The central government’s policies are helping us in implementing our strategies quickly. In order to work effectively and within deadline, we allot State’s share timely.
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Mayor’s Perspective
Ensuring More Raipur, Beautiful Raipur Raipur is competing with Indore to win the tag of No. 1 Indian city in cleanliness. To achieve this goal, Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) has launched an awareness campaign on sanitation and waste management, says Pramod Dubey, Mayor, Raipur Municipal Corporation, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).
Pramod Dubey
Mayor Raipur Municipal Corporation
“We should compete with Indore, which has been declared the cleanest city of India. We have made it a challenge for ourselves to make Raipur comparative to Indore. We want more participation of people.” 14
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What is Raipur Municipal Corporation’s (RMC) plan to make the city Smart? What are the challenges RMC is facing in making old Raipur city an advanced city with the aid of technology? If Raipur has ensured its place as a smart city among 500 cities of India, the credit for it goes to the city’s people, infrastructure and our future planning that was taken into account while preparing the Area Based Development (ABD) and pan-city plan. By assimilating all the existing challenges, we are committed to make old Raipur a beautiful city. We plan to transform Raipur into a modern city without losing sight of its historical importance, providing citizens – young and old – all the facilities ranging from basic necessities to entertainment. Raipur continues to grapple with challenges like solid waste management and clean drinking water. How do you plan to solve them through smart solutions? We have made progress in all these areas, but it was a bit slow. Administrative challenges, tender process, consultant selection, etc, take time. But we are very determined to speed up the process
Mayor’s Perspective
to solve these challenges at the earlier. For the implementation of Smart City projects, there should be a good coordination between various government departments, what are your views on that? There should be a regular meeting of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). There is also the need for a proper plan and time limit for execution of every project. The SPV has been formed under the guidance of the state’s Chief Secretary, while the nodal officer of SPV is the collector. A proper coordination between all the
departments can help overcome hindrances easily. Big projects like multi-level parking, central library, or bus stand are gaining momentum in Raipur. Does that mean that an important beginning has already been made towards the Smart City goal? Yes, indeed a good beginning has been made. However, I believe that some of the project would have been started much earlier. It has been more than a year since Raipur was included under the Smart Cities Mission. But I also believe that only those who run could
Raipur Municipal Corporation building
fall. People are working hard under all circumstances and we are hopeful to get good results, even if a bit delayed. Despite making progress in comparison to the last year, Chhattisgarh has fallen behind in the Swachh Bharat Ranking. What could be the reason behind it? Is it because of lack of public participation? We were ranked 68th last year in the city cleanliness index. This year we are on the 38th rank. Out of 500 cities, Raipur has been ranked 129, which is an improvement from the last year. We have made progress but we are not satisfied with that. We should compete with Indore, which has been declared the cleanest city of India. We have set a challenge for ourselves to make Raipur comparable to Indore in terms of cleanliness. We want more participation from people. We will launch a public awareness campaign; motivate them; and strengthen door-to-door collection. We will provide more facilities to the people. We will ensure better waste collection and disposal. It is for the government to decide whether they want to convert waste to energy or waste to compost. What are the future plans of RMC? It is a matter of pride for us that India’s tallest flag measuring 82 metres is in Raipur. We have already done a lot of work for students. We have made a world class library. We have introduced special programmes for areas like Jawahar Bazaar and Shastri Bazaar. We consider ponds as sacred and have launched special schemes for their maintenance. Almost 54 ponds are covered under the scheme. We plan to make Raipur pollution-free which will transform Raipur as more smart, better and beautiful.
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Changing Urban Environment of Chhattisgarh Rohit Yadav
Special Secretary (Independent Charge) Urban Administration & Development Department, Government of Chhattisgarh
“Around 360 buses plying in 70 towns of Chhattisgarh, are being run with the help of intelligent transport system where an app provides all information about the buses.” 16
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A lot of IT initiatives have been undertaken and tried in Chhattisgarh, especially for the urban development of the state. One of the IT initiatives is LED Street Lighting System being implemented in all urban local bodies, says Rohit Yadav, Special Secretary (Independent Charge), Urban Administration & Development Department, Government of Chhattisgarh, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). What initiatives have been undertaken by the Department of Urban development, Chhattisgarh, for the holistic infrastructure development of the State? We are a great beneficiary of the Government of India schemes like Atal Mission for Rejuvenation And Urban Transformation (AMRUT) mission and Smart Cities. We are developing water supply system and sewerage system in nine urban towns. The total amount alloted for these two projects is around Rs 2,154 crores. Both projects will be completed by 2020. Two cities of Chhattisgarh have been empanelled under the Smaller Cities Mission. One is Raipur which has already been selected. Second is Bilaspur, competing for a place in Smart Cities Mission. In addition to these two cities, three cities of Chhattisgarh i.e. Bhilai, Rajnandgaon and Korba will be developed as Super Smart Cities by the state government. It will be a very innovative project. This project has not been taken in any other state so far. Chhattisgarh is taking lead in various
LED Lighting in Raipur
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
central government initiatives like Make in India, Startup India, what are the plans for their expansion? We are taking Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in a big way. We have already sanctioned construction of 35,000 dwellings in one year. In the last 15 years, the State received 19,000 dwellings by the central government. So, you can see that we are striving at a great pace. Another part of PMAY is Beneficiary Led Construction. We will be taking that in all the medium and small towns ie. Palikas and Panchayats to achieve our target of three lakh houses. This number has emerged as the need of the hour during the survey.
What IT initiatives have been taken to smoothen the operations of the department to connect with the last mile? A lot of IT initiatives have been taken and tried in Raipur. We will gradually roll them out in other Smart Cities as well. One IT initiative is LED Street Lighting System. It is being implemented in all the urban local bodies. All lights will be replaced by LED. Through dashboard, we will be able to see which light is on or which light is off. We can manage these lights from a tick of a button. We can also monitor that the lights requiring repair and maintenance and how much energy we are saving as a result of this replacement. This is being
rolled out in all the 168 urban local bodies. Other is Urban Public Transport System. Around 360 buses plying in 70 towns of Chhattisgarh, are being run with the help of intelligent transport system where an app provides all information about the buses. There is a central control room where all these buses are being tracked. The app tells the arrival and departure time of the buses. All relevant information about the buses is being also displayed on the queue shelters. The passengers can also track the buses they want to commute via an app on their mobile. What are your future plans for Chhattisgarh, especially Naxal affected areas? We have been told that many people are shifting from Naxal affected areas in search of employment. So the towns will be in a great need of infrastructure to accommodate these people. We will be focusing specially on housing. If required, we can approach the central government for some innovative developmental projects. What have been the achievements of the Urban Development Department, Chhattisgarh, since the bifurcation of the original state of Madhya Pradesh? Before the bifurcation, our central allocations very less. Our revenue resources were very less. So, if we compare our performances in one year vis a vis of the past 15 years, that has increased many folds. Water supply projects worth Rs 1,790 crores have been initiated in 10 months.If we compare it with the past 15 years, projects of only Rs 280 crores were commenced. We constructed 2.60 lakhs toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission in just 18 months, whereas only 19,000 toilets were constructed in the last 15 years.
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Raipur Citizens The Power Behind Smart City Mission Citizens have become an integral part of the Raipur Smart City Mission. From coming up with innovative ideas for the Smart City project to being part of the city’s Change Rovers, residents of Raipur have contributed in its growth story in a major way, observes Elets News Network (ENN).
Rajat Bansal, IAS Commissioner, Raipur Municipal Corporation & Managing Director, Raipur Smart City Limited
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
The move has underlined a reality that allowing citizens to become active in the process of city design is important for the success of the Smart Cities Mission. It may be noted that Smart City initiative has always been about people’s involvement in it. The Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) made sure that the involvement of all the stakeholders commences from the planning stage itself. RMC approached people for suggestions. It was only after that the concept was finalised and submitted for the Smart Cities Mission. Traditionally, initiatives like the Smart Cities Mission are indicators of developed economies. A developing country acquires potential to turn into developed country when its citizens also upgrade their approach to their city. “As a Smart City Commissioner, it is our duty to not let public involvement die out. We try to rope in the momentum and enthusiasm of resident. People get emotional thinking that if their city gets selected in the Smart Cities Mission, they will also become smart. “For a city like Raipur, we are already going through a cultural change. Raipur is still a city which does not have an established night life, identity of its own in terms of social cultural space,” said Raipur Municipal Commissioner Rajat Bansal while attending Elets Smart and Sustainable City Summit in Nagpur recently. To make Raipur citizens a part of the Mission, the municipal corporation of Raipur decided to implement many citizen-centric programmes. One of them is Raipur’s Change Rovers, a non-government organisation of Raipur Municipal Corporation Engineers which keeps innovating on a daily basis.
“We want people who just want to work harder for their city. We invited people who wanted to add innovations to their city. Through Change Rovers, we started working much before our Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) was formed. We evolved a lot of concepts which involved the citizens directly,” he added. Engineers, who are part of this unique concept, are not given any incentive. They are a group of people who want to work towards their city’s development. Another campaign started by the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) was “Shining Raipur”. Shining, as the name suggests, was launched to making Raipur shine. Various campaigns were launched under “Shining Raipur”, which received great reception and participation from the citizens of Raipur. #ToiletMyRight is the first name which strikes everyone’s mind whenever Shining Raipur is mentioned. This campaign focused on getting toilets built in every restaurant, shopping complex, office and other commercial building. Every commercial building was directed to build toilets, and they were warned beforehand that failing to do so would result in official actions against them. Any citizen could complain directly to the RMC authorities by just tweeting under the #ToiletMyRight, mentioning the name and address of the Commercial building/restaurant. Actions were taken by the RMC against those buildings within 48 hours. #LaparwahMitra was another campaign started by the RMC, which exposed any commercial, medical or any other establishment which irresponsibly disposed of the waste. Laparwah Mitra campaign was launched to give a wake-up call for them to maintain the proper
“We came up with a solution for dirty toilets wherein you report a dirty toilet to Nagar Nigam and the Nigam will use all its resources to make sure the toilet is clean. Initiatives like these don’t allow the citizen momentum to die out. It helps in wiping out the negativity at the time of the commencement of the smart city projects.” disposing methods. “We came up with a solution for dirty toilets wherein you report about a dirty toilet to Nagar Nigam (municipal corporation) and the Nigam will use all its resources to make sure the toilet is clean. Initiatives like these don’t allow the citizen momentum to die out. It helps in wiping out the negativity at the time of the commencement of the Smart City projects,” he said. Other citizens-based programmes are multi-level parking and market redevelopment project. “Market redevelopment project means a lot of sacrifices from the stakeholders’ end. We gave them four plans. We shared pros and cons with them. We just helped them take the decision. But the decision was theirs,” he added.
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Chhattisgarh Gearing Up for Entrepreneurs Kartikeya Goel
Director - Industries Government of Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh was at fourth position in the “Ease of Doing Business” ranking by the World Bank and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). Government policies are not only drawing the business investments but also promoting the startups, says Kartikeya Goel, Director Industries, Government of Chhattisgarh, in an interview with Gopi Arora of Elets News Network (ENN).
What are the steps taken by the State government to nurture startup ecosystem in Chhattisgarh?
“Sectors like food processing, logistics and distribution, equipment manufacturing, textiles and apparel etc have untapped potential of growth and development in Chhattisgarh.” 20
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On the lines of “Startup India”, the Department of Commerce and Industries, Government of Chhattisgarh planned out “Startup Chhattisgarh” programme. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh launched the programme in last September in Raipur. The “Startup Chhattisgarh” programme has been designed to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. The programme’s main aim is to create an ecosystem for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the State. The startup policy initiatives and the programme were intended to boost the startup culture in the State by handholding and supporting the existing enterprises as well as the new entrepreneurs. The majority of ideas will have good viability in the market since they cater to existing problems being faced by people. Ideas with respect to social sector, education, health and agriculture comprise over 30% of it. Chhattisgarh was ranked fourth in the
“World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business” rankings, what are the key factors that make Chhattisgarh being ahead of other states in the country? The Government of India embarked on ambitious reforms focussed on improving India’s performance in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” rankings. As part of this exercise, the Government of India pushes through yearly an agreed set of Business Reforms for the States to implement. Subsequently based on evaluation of implementation of these reforms, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and World Bank come out with a national ranking for the states. Chhattisgarh has consistently been amongst the leaders in Ease of Doing Business ranking in India. The State secured fourth position in 2015 as well as in 2016 DIPP-World Bank rankings. Chhattisgarh’s success in Ease of Doing Business has largely been a result of the methodology followed for implementation of the “Business Reform Action Plan”.
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Particulars Chhattisgarh ranking as per DIPP & World Bank Implementation Scorecard Reform points Number of reform areas The Department of Industries held discussions with various business associations such as Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), PHD Chambers of Commerce (for large industries) and Laghu Udyog Bharti (for the MSME sector) at the State level. It helped us to understand the main points faced by these associations in their interactions with the State government, as part of their business set-up and operations. The policy amendments were around the 340-points of “Business Reform Action Plan” provided by DIPP that was woven around the then feedback received from the above-mentioned industry stakeholders. Nine major State Government departments that were part of the business operation’s service delivery eco-system mapped and then systematically the government processes or points of interface that impacted business operations were simplified. Of the 10 key reform areas listed on the DIPP website, Chhattisgarh secured 100% implementation in seven that were: Environmental Registration Enablers, Labour Regulation Enablers, Obtaining Electricity Connection, Online Tax return filing, Inspection reform enablers, Access to Information and Transparency, Single Window What efforts are being made to bring more investments in Chhattisgarh? Chhattisgarh is among country’s top producers of coal, iron ore and zinc. Having developed our industrial foundation with core sector, we are ready to promote new sectors which are of strategic importance for us.
2015 4 (Out of 32)
2016 4 (Out of 36)
62.45 % 285 reforms 8 areas
97.38% 340 reforms 10 Areas
Sectors like food processing, logistics and distribution, equipment manufacturing, textiles and apparel etc have untapped potential of growth and development in Chhattisgarh and are to leverage our core sector foundation. These sectors are being promoted in the State as focus sectors. We are committed to have investments in our focus sectors and our policies are aligned to our commitment. To cater to sector specific needs, we have dedicated policies for some of these sectors such as Agri and Food Processing Policy, Chhattisgarh Mission on Food Processing, Automotive Policy, IT/ITeS and Electronics policy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Policy. We are also offering sector focused plug and play infrastructure for these sectors. Food parks in Dhamtari and Raipur, Electronic Manufacturing Cluster, Engineering Park, Metal Park, Solar SEZ, Multi Modal Logistics Hub, Industrial cluster in Naya Raipur are developed in the State to provide ready to operate infra for the investors. In last one-and-a-half years we have signed investment related Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) worth over 23,000 crore in food processing, electronics, defence, engineering and solar equipment manufacturing sectors. Stemming out from our Chief Minister’s vision of hassle-free business through technology ennoblement and facilitation, ease of doing business (EoDB) has been focused in the State. Chhattisgarh is a pioneer in business process re-engineering under EoDB initiative. Our USP to business is all
round facilitation which includes best-in-class urban and industrial infrastructure, simple and technology enabled compliance and processes and pro-business policies Chhattisgarh is very rich in natural resources, how does it help government and industries in building a smart and sustainable industrial infrastructure? To augment our production capacity in view of future demand, we are strengthening our railway and road network. In coming five to six years rail network in Chhattisgarh is going to get doubled and that too without regular budgetary support from Ministry of Railways. New smart cities and industrial clusters are also being developed to ensure sustainable and smart industrial infrastructure. What has been done to attract foreign investment in Chhattisgarh? The Government of Chhattisgarh under “Make in India” campaign is promoting the State as one of the best investment destinations in India. In last one year, we have conducted three international business missions and covered countries like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the US. During our business missions in last one year, we signed investment intents of $ 2.5 billion across our focus sectors. Apart from it, we also signed strategic MoUs for skill development and technology transfer during our business mission. What are the components which will lead to industrial transformation in Chhattisgarh? Industries in Chhattisgarh are going through a transition state. New generation entrepreneurs are emerging with innovative and technology-driven ideas and concepts in the State. Innovation, technology, state of the art infrastructure, research and development by academic institutions
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Similarly, MSME sector in Chhattisgarh has witnessed significant transformation with around 180% increment in registration of new MSMEs in the State. The number of MSMEs has gone up to 1,150 from 641 in 2016-17 from that of in 2015-16. A state-wide drive was conducted across Chhattisgarh to promote entrepreneurship at grass-roots level by highlighting focus sectors and locally available opportunities. A unique process of enterprise registration “Udyam Akanksha” has been introduced in the State. Raipur
and connectivity are the key components to transform the industrial profile of Chhattisgarh. It will also help the State to make a new identity on India’s industrial map. Start-up ecosystem is providing smart solutions, how government is planning to help them through different schemes? The State government’s focus is on innovation as a driver of social change leveraging technology. The government is venturing into fields as diverse as agriculture, health, education, skill development, mining and tribal development. Therefore, the State government took following major policy level initiatives for the promotion of the same: Startup Chhattisgarh Package–2016: Notified in November 2016, the package includes special incentives and subsidies for the Start-ups under Industrial Policy 2014-19. Chhattisgarh Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Policy: Under the action plan for this policy, we are establishing Incubators and Accelerators in the State to ensure that at least 100 ventures get setup and funded by Venture Capitalists/Financial Institutions/Angel Investors.
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Atal Innovation Mission: Under this mission, one Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) and a 36 Inc incubators under Chhattisgarh innovation policy has been approved. Apart from that 13 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) have also been approved. Single Window Clearance system under “Ease of Doing Business” has been developed by Government of Chhattisgarh. It helps the startups and existing MSMEs to apply for registrations and compliance from a single platform. MSME-Startup Facilitation Cell: A support and consultation cell at Udyog bhavan has been formed to provide advice and policy related information regarding start-ups and MSMEs in Chhattisgarh (3500+ entrepreneurs facilitated through same). How has been response for “Invest Chhattisgarh” and “Make in Chhattisgarh” schemes? The “Make in Chhattisgarh” initiative is on the same line that of “Make in India”. Chhattisgarh witnessed signing of Rs 80, 000 crore worth of MoUs since inception of the initiative. The sector specific policies have played a major role in this transformation.
What is the importance of startups from India’s point of view? How smart cities will play a crucial role in promoting startups? Start-ups come with fresh perspective and approach the existing problems in a different way. The innovative ideas of startups, their cost-effectiveness and ability to reach a larger mass can affect life of thousands, who are generally overlooked by corporates. The advantage of creating a favourable innovation oriented ecosystem is essential to address the democratic shift happening at rapid pace. Enhanced public-private coordination’ in upcoming smart cities can create a favourable environment for setting-up of innovation hubs. In terms of Ease of Doing Business a Smart City can help in the following ways: • Having city wide Wi-Fi will allow startups to access online services • Having a portal to receive complaints and suggestions from citizens would allow the administration to identify gaps in service delivery and to reach out to stakeholders • Data would be the biggest gamechanger. With accurate data, government policies can be more targeted and more effective
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
‘Citizen Cop’ for Smart Policing
Arun Dev Gautam
Secretary – Home, Jail, and Transport Government of Chhattisgarh
“Citizen Cop is a very useful platform for the common public in Raipur. Citizens can directly register their complaints through Citizen Cop and vehicle information can also be checked in case of traffic violation.” 24
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People can now directly register their complaints through Citizen Cop and any vehicle information can also be checked in case of any traffic violation. Chhattisgarh is the first State to successfully implement programmes like Vahan and Sarathi across the state, says Arun Dev Gautam, Secretary – Home, Jail, and Transport, Government of Chhattisgarh, in conversation with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN). What initiatives have you undertaken to improve the transport system in Chhattisgarh recently? Many areas of Chhattisgarh, including Raipur, are developing with good urban systems. New cities are developing. But the expected infrastructure is still missing. A new kind of infrastructure is being created to develop the cities. Chhattisgarh is the first state to successfully implement ‘Vahan’ and ‘Sarathi’ programme across the state. Naya Raipur as a very advance transport management system. In Old Raipur, a lot of things have been done to reduce the density of traffic. Many multi-level car parking spaces have been developed. Even the congestion of very crowded markets like Malviya Nagar and Sadar Bazar areas have been managed by creating parallel roads, parking spaces and restricting vehicles entry in the main area so that pedestrians can move around freely. This way, even the most dense market areas are being eased out. How much development Chhattisgarh has witnessed in terms of transport infrastructure? In big cities like Raipur, Durg, Bhilai,
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Bilaspur, Rajnandgaon, Ambikapur and Raigarh, urban infrastructure is being taken at a high priority. In the rating of Smart Cities, cities like Ambikapur have done a commendable job in areas like sanitation and waste disposal. Raipur is also doing laudable efforts waste collection, waste disposal, sanitation and drinking water. Apart from that, Raipur has done a good work for environment, pollution and introduced many initiatives like e-rickshaws, phasing out of old vehicles and restricting registration of new polluting auto-rickshaws. As far as industrial pollution is concerned, a lot of efforts are being taken like monitoring of pollution levels at different places. Pollution check is
again a good initiative, as earlier there was no mechanism to check and enforce the pollution norms. Infrastructure for controling the level of vehicle pollution has been created in most of the cities across the State. Most of the vehicles are complying and getting themselves checked for their vehicle pollution. When we talk about Smart Cities it is equally important to have safe cities, what is your take on this? Security is a very important aspect of developing any Smart City. Recent innovations taken up by the police, especially Inspector General of Raipur have involved the citizens like shopkeepers and residents of the
locality to installing CCTV cameras at many locations. This has helped the police department to curb the level of criminal activities. It has been able to create deterrence in the mind of offenders where they know that they are under surveillance. What initiatives are being taken up for police modernisation in recent times? We are creating a centralised emergency dial service called “Dial 112”. In case of an emergency whether it’s a fire, crime or natural disaster, Dial 112 will act as the centralised command and control centre. After receiving the call, it will dispatch the police vehicles, fire-fighting vehicles, ambulance etc as per the crisis. This service is yet to be operational. But we are at a very advanced stage of completion. Soon, it will be launched across state. Are you planning to introduce additional services in Dial 112 in future? Dial 112 service is a platform where all the technology will be combined. As of now, we are starting with police services. In the next phase we will integrate 108 emergency, fire emergency services and link CCTV feeds so that it can be monitored at that level. So, it is a phasing system and technology will be integrated as it comes. What is Citizen Cop app all about? We have an app Called Citizen Cop, a very useful platform for the common public, in Raipur. Citizens can directly register their complaints through Citizen Cop, and vehicle information can also be checked in case of any traffic violation. This app is very helpful in terms of women security. The woman in need as they can directly call or make some indication in difficult situation and access instant help.
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Advertorial
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and Africa. L&T Construction was one of the earliest companies to operate in the Gulf and over the years, has gained significant market presence in UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain for executing projects on EPC basis. L&T’s dedicated Smart World and Communication (SW&C) business unit in L&T Construction offers end-to-end solutions comprising security solutions, communication network and telecom infrastructure and smart infrastructure as a Master Systems Integrator. The SW&C business unit leads the business initiatives and collaborate with other businesses within the L&T Group - L&T infotech, L&T Electrical and Automation IC and L&T Technology Services.
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
eHealth, mHealth Changing Rural Health Landscape
R Prasanna
Director Directorate Health Services Government of Chhattisgarh
“The overall objective of the public financial management system is to help the Directorate of Institutional Finance of the Government of Chhattisgarh to identify gaps and weaknesses in expenditure tracking for health sector.” 28
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As the country is embracing digitisation with a tremendous speed in various sectors, Chhattisgarh state’s health department is also not far behind as it is using various digital initiatives to reach the last mile connectivity in health services, says R Prasanna, Director, Directorate Health Services, Government of Chhattisgarh, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) and tells us more about them. Excerpts: What are the various initiatives undertaken by Directorate of Health Services using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for improving efficiency of the public healthcare system? We have started various e-health and m-health initiatives in the State. Some of them are: Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS): HRMIS is a tool to manage the Human Resource (HR) related tasks which are being performed in the health department. This project captures collective information of health department’s employees. Kayakalp Kayakalp helps to promote cleanliness, hygiene and infection control practices in public health care facilities. One online portal has been created for assessment and peer review of performance related to hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation. After the assessment, the awards are distributed based on the performance of the facility on the following parameters: • Hospital upkeeping
• Sanitation and hygiene • Waste Management • Infection Control • Support Services • Hygiene Promotion Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) The main aim of this scheme is to detect and manage the 4Ds prevalent in children of Anganwadi Centre (6 weeks to 6 years) and government aided schools (6 years to 18 years) based screening. These 4Ds are defects at birth, diseases in children, deficiency conditions and developmental delays including disabilities. Nursing Home Act This is an online web portal for any private hospital/maternity home/ nursing home, clinic and physiotherapy unit, medical laboratory or diagnostic services. Any new or established medical facility can register for license under nursing home act. E- Hospital System- (Implemented in three districts hospitals) E-hospital system made easy access to data to generate varied records including classification based on demographic, gender, age, and so on
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
hence, enhancing continuity of care. It helps as a support system for the hospital authorities to develop comprehensive healthcare policies. E-mahtari This is online tracking system to track due and overdue services to be provided to the pregnant women during pregnancy, during delivery and after delivery and also to the newborn child up to five years. The aim of e-mahatari is to ensure that every woman gets complete and quality pre- and postnatal care and every child receives a full range of immunisation services. Demonetisation has opened a new scope for cashless transactions across India, how Directorate of Health Services is working to make cashless payment system across the nation? We are using the following systems for cashless transactions: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) With the aim of reforming government delivery system by re-engineering the existing process in welfare schemes, for simpler and faster flow of information/ funds and to ensure accurate targeting
of the beneficiaries, de-duplication and reduction of fraud Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was started on 1st January, 2013 by the Government of India. In Chhattisgarh, DBT was piloted in two districts namely Koriya and Dhamtari in 2013. After successful piloting, it was rolled out across the State in 2014-15. Cash incentives under various health schemes are directly transferred to the beneficiaries’ bank account. Main schemes are Janani Suraksha Yojna, Family Welfare Programme and Mitainin incentives. Salary of contractual staff working under National Health Mission is transferred through DBT directly to the employees’ salary account. In 2016-17, the department has transferred Rs. 16 crores to beneficiaries’ bank accounts through DBT. Public Financial Management System (PFMS) Public Financial Management System (PFMS) was initially started as a scheme named CPSMS of the Planning Commission in 2008-09. To overcome the weaknesses of conventional government financial management system and to introduce improved
systems, the last decade has witnessed large scale reforms in the public financial management systems in India. What all ICT initiatives the Ministry is working on or planning to introduce in the near future? We are soon going to launch the following android applications: Health Emergency- Mobile App This app will automatically call to 108 ambulance on just one click. It will also enable quick search for nearby hospitals in case of emergency i.e. accident, attack, burn case etc. This app will provide guide to the user about hospital address, distance, location and navigation through Google map. Health info app This app provides information about various programmes and schemes of Department of Health and Family Welfare, information about Chhattisgarh’s pregnant women and child vaccination scheduler, Body Mass Index and diabetes risk calculator and other information for general public. mHealth is a very important component of eHealth. Tell us about medical and public health practices supported by mobile devices like mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices? Some of the mHealth apps we are using are: CGMSC-Drug Info (M-Application) This android app provides drug information to its stakeholders, doctors, pharmacists and general public. Some of the key parameters of the drugs like expiry can easily be known. It also gives information about count of the issued medicine to any particular facility/district of Chhattisgarh, drug which is mostly consumed in particular district.
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CHiPS Making Chhattisgarh Champion of E-Governance
Alex Paul Menon
Chief Executive Officer, Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) Joint Secretary- Information Technology Government of Chhattisgarh
“We are going to put one digital tablet in each Public Distribution System shop. Chhattisgarh was one of the first states to adopt computerisation of PDS system.” 32
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The Chhattisgarh government is very proactive in terms of adoption of e-governance initiatives. The general acceptance of digital initiatives in the State is also very good, says Alex Paul Menon, Chief Executive Officer, Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) and Joint Secretary- Information Technology, Government of Chhattisgarh in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: What has been the role of CHiPS in setting up robust IT infrastructure in Chhattisgarh? CHiPS has been paying constant attention on the IT infrastructure of the State. We have prepared our own proposals and submitted to the Government of India. Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is the most advanced data architecture for laying Optical Fibre Cable (OFC). Where installation of OFC is not possible, we take alternative means to reach Gram Panchayats. We plan to complete this work in next two years. The second work we are involved in is for mobile towers. Here CHiPS is putting up a grand scheme called Sanchar Kranti Yojana (SKY). Under the SKY, we are proposing the distribution of around 45 lakh smartphones. We have tried to increase the mobile phone penetration. We have 60 lakh households out of which 45 lakhs are already covered. We are getting the additional benefit of improving our network coverage from what it is today to every village, having a population of 1,000 and above. This 45 lakh smartphone subscriptions
will go to one mobile company. They will have a tie-up with a mobile network player. They have to jointly produce mobile network coverage. The third project we are involved in is the creation of Wi-Fi hot spots. Wi-Fi at Chhattisgarh Mantralaya is one of the best. We have been trying to put better Wi-Fi at government facilities, public places and educational institutions. CHiPS has provided digital infrastructure for Wi-Fi hot spots in around 50 colleges. In Raipur, Wi-Fi is already active at six places. Bastar Net project is taking care of the absence of fibre cable in Naxal affected areas. Mobile network companies are not able to expand in Bastar. So, we are laying optical fibre cable of 832 km across the length and breadth of Bastar. Mobile network companies can directly implant towers and increase connectivity in these areas. The software initiatives are another key digital infrastructure. We want to enable citizens using digital platform. We are also trying to put up a Common Service Centre (CSC) in every panchayat. We have been able to create
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
more than 7,000 active CSCs across panchayats and are also leveraging urban choice centres. Our dream is to have one service centre in a ward. This involves creation of human resource, digital set up etc. We have also found out alternative means of providing internet like Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT). Panchayats can now pick up internet directly through VSAT. It costs around Rs 40,000 per annum, which is quite cheap. We have successfully introduced video conferencing facilities in every block including the Naxal affected blocks. How well has the government officers and general public accepted the e-governance and m-governance initiatives? Chhattisgarh has been known to be the champion of e-governance. The leadership is also very proactive in terms of adoption of e-governance. The general acceptance of e-governance is very good. We can call our State, an e-champion of e-governance. We have been aggressively pushing and digitising things. Chhattisgarh is one of the few states which has a digital Secretariat.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, launching the Chhattisgarh Jansampark mobile app
one of the first States to adopt computerisation of PDS system. Naya Raipur is a Smart City which is using IoT. What opportunities do Chhattisgarh have for startups?
Our mining auction was done digitally. We are doing 100 per cent eprocurement. We are putting Lok Seva Kendras in every headquarter through which a person can come and apply and take digital services. We are trying to push the number to 200. E-governance has been the one core driving engines for the state.
We were one of the two institutions selected by NITI Aayog for funding under the Atal Rejuvenation mission to put up a startup space. We are starting innovation incubation centres. This is a 40,000 sq feet space where 200 desks will be given to startups. We also have tie ups with Stanford University for getting medical IoT. We got a tie up with Wadhwani foundation for budding entrepreneurship. It is like creating a whole ecosystem so that the startups can flourish. Entrepreneurship skills need to be inculcated. Our first batch of around 15 startups has started.
States like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana are talking more about the Cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure, what is your opinion about it?
Vocational training has been taken up in over 300 elementary schools. There have been laboratories established for this purpose.
Technology is a great enabler. If IoT serves purpose here, we are ready to adopt it. We are going to put one digital tablet in each Public Distribution System (PDS) shop. Chhattisgarh was
Unlike Chhattisgarh, cities like Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad have well- established IT ecosystem. They have better educational institutions, banking, corporate, culture etc. But still
we are improving day-by-day. Being a Naxal affected state, how has been the response of the investment in Chhattisgarh? What are your future plans to attract investment? With the advent of Naya Raipur, we made the announcement to the world that we have arrived. With our digital infrastructure, a lot of investments are flowing in the BPO sector. We have got both local and global players established here. They all are expanding slowly. For IT hardware, our focus is to put up an Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC). The focus is on LED lights, switches and routers. More than 35 proposals have been cleared where the payments are even being made online. We are fourth in terms of ease of doing business in the country continuously for the past three years. We are putting up a thriving ecosystem for investment to come. But taking in consideration the level of education in the state, the size of the state, we are still making a lot of progress. We are providing basic facilities including the land at a cheaper cost. This will help us to gain growth momentum in the State.
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Advertorial
R R Ispat-Setting New Benchmarks
(Diversification from Manufacturing to Engineering)
Since its establishment in 1999, R R Ispat (A unit of Godawari Power and Ispat Ltd), is pioneering the arena of wire rod manufacturing (Central India’s first group to set up Automated Wire Rod Mill in private sector) Now venturing in engineering products to cater upcoming demands of power transmission line, solarv PV systems ans HT/LT panels for industry as well as infrastructure. the leader in steel rolling mills. It has entered into a new venture of electrical engineering division, wherein, it manufactures HT/LT electrical panels and wide range of perforated and ladder type cable tray products.
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eticulous attention to detail in every aspect of the raw material procuring, manufacturing and after sales process has facilitated the company to come out with high quality products. Growing with the need of offering standard products to renowned customers, RRI is striving for various technical innovations in both manufacturing and supply chain. Block Mill technology (second plant in Central India) is one of the examples of it. This new process helped company to scale their productivity more than eight times in comparison to previous manufacturing scheme. It adds value to the supply chain and also does well to expand the market share. In addition to promoting environmental activities like plantation, saving water, RRI has succeeded in reducing carbon footprints. It has been vitalised by installing power generating unit through sources like windmill across
different Indian States. The company has efficiently collaborated its manufacturing practices with issues
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Director’s Message I take this opportunity to thank our valued customers, whose continued patronage and confidence in our products inspires us to extend the best of services and enables us to provide value for their money. The organisation is also committed to its shareholders by way of maximizing the wealth through sustained growth under the overall ambit of the spirit, to optimally balance the commercial objectives and the goals of social service to the nation at large. By using external and peer benchmarks, we identified gaps and developed a more integrated and holistic set of goals and targets to drive sustainability further into our core business processes. The ongoing plant integration soundly witnesses this statement. I therefore, seek continued patronage of our valued customers, cooperation of our employees and thank our well-wishers who have contributed to the growth of the organisation.
Dr Dinesh Agrawal
Director, RR Ispat (A unit of Godawari Power and Ispat Ltd) With 18 years of experience in electrical engineering, Shri Dinesh Agrawal, aged 46, has been a part of the Hira Group since the founding years. He has been associated with all the technical aspects of the steel rolling mills. He is involved in the day-to-day technical functioning of setting up new plants of the group companies. It is his passion for excellence and success in all his work that has taken RR Ispat to a higher level with their product basket covering 80% of products (HT/LT Panels/Transmission Lin Towers/Cable Trays/Solar PV systems) used in generation transmission and distribution. We are major contributor to Smart City Naya Raipur and going to add to Indian Railways also.
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Naya Raipur The First Green-field Integrated Smart City The Government of Chhattisgarh envisaged the creation of a new capital city by the name of Naya Raipur. For realising this dream the state government constituted the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA), observes Arpit Gupta and Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, while inaugurating Jungle Safari at Naya Raipur
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onstituted on November 1, 2000, Chhattisgarh has been carved out of the erstwhile state of Madhya Pradesh. Today, it exists as 26th State of the country. The population of Raipur is about eight lakh. The state of Chhattisgarh has also envisioned a new satellite city of modern state to provide its people with improved quality of life. It was in conformity with this broad vision that the Government of Chhattisgarh envisaged the creation of a new capital city by the name of Naya Raipur that would not only establish the State’s identity, but also depict the hopes and aspirations of the people of Chhattisgarh. Naya Raipur has been planned basically as a self- sustainable administrative city. The Government of Chhattisgarh constituted the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) for planning and implementation of Greenfield Smart City, to be developed under 8,013 hectre area.
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Naya Raipur has been planned and designed as a city of 21st century to focus on socio-economic and cultural life of Chhattisgarh, having its role and recognition at national and international levels. The new city is set in salubrious natural surroundings accessed by an express way. It is envisaged as lively and vibrant city equipped with state-of-art physical, social and economic infrastructure. The NRDA has prepared the draft development plan for Naya Raipur covering an area of 237 square km.
Characteristics of Upcoming Naya Raipur The city would have mainly administrative function with capital complex. It will also have other economic activities such as Software Technology Park, Central Business District, and non-hazardous industries etc. NRDA intends to provide state of art infrastructure and social facilities. A satellite city to Raipur holding capital function is the primary identity of Naya Raipur. It will be modern in the use of technology, uphold worthy traditions and core values, and conserve the prevailing man- nature symbiotic
culture as well as abundant natural and cultural assets in the region. The citizens will be offered a wide range of living options with equity and |dignity. The city will strive to make an impact as: • An agent of economic change and social transformation in the state • An efficient engine of growth and prosperity • A servicing hub not only in manufacturing of goods but also in Information Technology and Bio-Technology sectors • A financial centre of the region • Hub of trade and hospitality sectors in Naya Raipur • Hub of cultural services which would supplement local economy • Hub of affordable and high quality medical services • Hub of quality educational facilities and strive to develop as a knowledge base However, the vision of the city in physical terms, i.e. its form and function in two as well as three dimensional terms is delineated in a subsequent section. For all the lofty or mundane purposes bestowed on this city, a comprehensive exercise was undertaken to find a perfect location for it. An imaginary circle of 50 km radius was drawn around Raipur and this massive area was divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant was analysed in context of regional development, existing development, climatic factors, flora and fauna, water resources, transport network etc. The efforts yielded the present southeast site of Raipur, 15 km away, close to Mana Airport.
Smart City – Naya Raipur Naya Raipur is all set to emerge as a smart and vibrant city to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life by enabling local development and integrating technology. Working in accordance with the Smart City Mission, Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) has
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prepared an inclusive, sustainable, vibrant Smart City model. To address the urban challenges, NRDA has envisaged Naya Raipur as a Greenfield Smart City. The model is being prepared to develop Naya Raipur in three phases by 2031 for a population of 5.60 lakhs. In the phase one, 13 populated areas [80.13 sq km including 500-meter wide green belt of 95.22 sq km] have been taken for development. While in phase two and three, Naya Raipur peripheral region [130.28 sq. km.] and airport zone [11.92 sq. km.] respectively have been incorporated for growth and expansion. Extensive plans for village development like integration of the existing settlements with the new city development, provision of physical and social infrastructure, self-sustainable development with socio-economic upliftment of the villages etc have been prepared for all the village settlements in phase one. In the development model, NRDA has not just overhauled entire city, but improved resources by adding connectivity and intelligence within existing infrastructure. The state-ofthe-art infrastructure involves roads, drainage, electricity, waste disposal,
telecommunications and smart technologies to control city operations. Some pioneering projects include broadband connectivity, GIS Mapping and establishing Wi-Fi across the city. Smart governance system, utility management systems, city surveillance system, city connectivity and IT infra, centralised control centre, and intelligent transport system are the six major parameters under ICT master plan. Single window clearance, land and estate management, online services for city businesses, participatory governance, etc are some of the smart governance modules. The smart surveillance system mainly includes deploying all types of sensors and CCTVs in designated areas, unified Toll-free grievance numbers, safe and emergency mobile app, disaster management control room, emergency operations centre, video crime monitoring etc. This shall aid in implementation of intelligence services, traffic management and law enforcement. In the uility management systems, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) for electrical distribution, water distribution, and sewerage system has been proposed. Additionally, for effective disposal of waste, solid waste management system and drainage management shall be implemented. Also, there is a provision to install intelligent LED street lighting to minimise energy usage. The World Bank-run Global Environment Facility (GEF) is assisting the city in Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP). In the Intelligent Transport System, focus is to improve mobility for the citizens, and promote use of public transit. Synchronised and intelligent signalling, integration of traffic data with navigation systems, traffic rules enforcement and violation detection and smart parking facilities shall be integrated for safety and comfort of the commuters. There shall also be a city management centre wherein data capturing, processing,
Mantralaya Building, Naya Raipur
reporting, monitoring and control shall be handled all under one roof. As a part of the sustainable environment, massive tree plantation will also be undertaken to enhance the green cover of the city. For this purpose 27.67 per cent of the area is earmarked as green belt. Rain water harvesting is mandatory for all the buildings in Naya Raipur. Alternative sources such as solar energy are also being promoted. These smart initiatives would generate a solid standard of urban living, drive economic growth and will support the Smart Cities Mission thereby meeting the demands of the urban population.
Origin of Smart City Concept for Naya Raipur Activities pertaining to the preparation of Smart City blueprint for Naya Raipur commenced in early 2014. While case studies covering specific city transformation aspects were available from work done London, Barcelona, Astana, etc, it was the first time that an integrated Smart City concept was envisioned and needed to be developed from scratch. To overcome this challenge, a team with experts from various relevant fields was formed that worked with the NRDA team to define a Smart City Vision for Naya Raipur, which is centered around the all-important citizen and revolves around three key objectives viz.
enhanced livability, optimised government functioning and ease of doing business. The Smart City Vision was then translated into the smart solution architecture comprising five enabling layers: • Sensing Layer consisting of cameras, sensors, cards, meters, devices etc., acting as sensory organs of the city • Communication Layer to carry data captured by sensing layer to intelligent systems, acting as nerves of the city • Application Layer comprising of intelligent systems that process data / requests for generating insights and automating business functions, acting as brain of the city • Awareness Layer comprising of a Command and Control Centre where all systems converge to provide situational awareness of the city to its administrators, acting as nerve center of the city • Service Layer enables service delivery through multiple channels including mobile, web, kiosks, helpdesk, etc., acting as serving arms of the city. On the functional side, the smart solution covers such dimensions as public safety, utilities management, land and estate management, transportation and smart local governance. Necessary inputs from industry, through industry workshops, have been taken to ensure that the designed solution is in sync with latest technological innovations.
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special interview
Naya Raipur — The World’s First Integrated City The Government of Chhattisgarh is functioning out of Naya Raipur now. So what fascinates investors and people to Naya Raipur reveals Salil Shrivastava, Chief Engineer, Naya Raipur Development Authority, in conversation with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: Salil Shrivastava
Chief Engineer Naya Raipur Development Authority
“We have done 60 km of LED lighting in the city which is network controlled which can be managed from anywhere. It not only helps in saving the energy but also to maintain them easily.” 38
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How Naya Raipur is transforming the face of Chhattisgarh? When the State government decided to have a new capital, Naya Raipur was selected on 26 parameters like availability of basic necessities, transportation, land etc. It was also close to Raipur. The procurement of land from farmers was done amicably. Today, of the core area of 8,000 hectares, we have almost 95 per cent of the land. Almost 60 per cent of the land has been procured through negotiations from farmers. This has been one of the key achievements of the administration and helped in the procurement of the land. Excellent and timely political decisions were taken at the right time which really benefitted the local farmers. We have taken only the farmlands. The 12 villages remain at their places, except for one village Rakhi which we have shifted to Naya Rakhi. This particular village was coming in the Capitol Complex area where Mantralaya and Vidhan Sabha are placed. We are implementing large scale village development plans and investing from Rs 6 crores to Rs 20 crores in each of the 12 villages. Of the 13, one has been shifted and the rest remains at their places.
We started constructing roads and buildings in the late 2008. Till date, we have completed construction of 100 km of four and six lane roads. We have completed the construction of Mantralaya building which is functioning since 6 November, 2012. The government is functioning out of Naya Raipur now. We also have Head of Departments building and Police Headquarters here and 14 other buildings coming up which will serve as various headquarters of different departments.
Naya Raipur
special interview
We have done 60 km of LED lighting in the city which is network controlled and can be managed from anywhere. It not only helps in saving the energy but also in maintaing the entire system easily. Emphasis has been given on sustainable development and we have promoted 60 kms of cycle track as well. What have been some of the challenges and achievements in building Naya Raipur? When we started the road construction, lot of land was under procurement process. It was quite tough to convince the farmers to give up their lands. In fact, we have paid them beyond the higher prices than the market prices. It has been a good journey so far. We are giving treated water supply to the citizens of Naya Raipur. For sewerage, we have gone for the decentralised system because the city is going to grow in phases. We are already laying the recycling pipeline wherein treated water will be recycled back to the city to maintain green as well as flourishing trees. We have 26.5 per cent of the city as green in the master plan itself. We have a mandate for rainwater harvesting for every building. We have also undertaken
large scale water body conservation plan. We have around 40 water bodies which we are conserving. What digital transformation is taking place in Naya Raipur? In 2012, we started the procurement of the consultant agency for digital transformation. Companies like Cisco, IBM etc participated and finally PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) was appointed for our ICT consultancy project. Our ICT intervention for Smart City project consists of six verticals. One is the utility management where in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) for water supply, electricity and sewerage is there. The other is city surveillance system wherein CCTV cameras is to be installed. Then we have Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) system. We have already started IT-enabled BRT corridor in the city. We have online tracking of buses, electronic ticketing. This will be linked to the main Control and Command centre. The most important part is the e-governance part. So every citizen of Naya Raipur is connected to the government through e-platforms. Every citizen will be linked to Naya Raipur through Aadhaar soon.
How do you perceive affordable housing? We have planned for a safe, comfortable and Greenfield City. Every residential area in Naya Raipur has a provision of 25 per cent of Low Income Group (LIG) and Economic Weaker Section (EWS) houses. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was first launched in Naya Raipur by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Initially, we are constructing 6,500 houses for LIG and EWS. Eventually, we will have 40,000 EWS and LIGs. Which projects attract people to Naya Raipur? We already have an international cricket stadium which is second largest in the country. We have the jungle safari which is best in the country. We have botanical garden close to it. We have Muktangan where we display the life of the local tribals. It is built on 175 acres and popular among local people. We have a central park which houses a 150-seating capacity dorm theatre. We have an amphitheatre with a seating capacity of 1,500. The central boulevard has a water body too. It has lot of active areas where people come to enjoy with family. We have IIIT. We have a law university which is among the top 10 law universities in the country. We have a private university called the ITM. IIM Naya Raipur is soon coming up. We have AIIMS extension counter and an external unit of IIT which is coming up. We have nine functioning schools in Naya Raipur. We are getting one IB school here. So lot of emphasis is being given on education here. We have a 100-bedded hospital planned, a 10-bed hospital is already working. We have three big lakes within the city which we are conserving in. There are a lot of activities planned around these lakes. We already have adventure sports along one lake.
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Bilaspur Municipal Corporation: Crusading the ‘Smart Cities Mission’
Saumil Ranjan Chaubey
Commissioner Bilaspur Municipal Corporation (BMC)
Shortlisted in the list of 100 smart cities under the “Smart Cities Mission” of Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Bilaspur city has successfully completed the competitive Smart City challenge and made it to the list of 98 Smart Cities, says Saumil Ranjan Chaubey, Commissioner, Bilaspur Municipal Corporation (BMC), in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: Give us an overview of the eGovernance initiatives undertaken by the BMC. In sync with the “Digital India” initiative, the Bilaspur Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been progressively involved in several eGovernance initiatives.
“The Bilaspur Smart City Project is unique in a way that it has been designed with an inbuilt course correction mechanism based on public feedback and has the adaptability and the resilience to do it.” 40
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The eServices initiative taken by BMC include: • Tracking Solid Waste Management vehicle via Global Positioning System (GPS). • Online permission for buildings. • Installing CCTV out of government ex-chequer is not only costly but also insufficient. BMC has launched a campaign to promote installation of CCTV in all commercial and residential establishments by their respective owners and then develop a mechanism to have the feed shared to a city-wide CCTV system. • E-collection of Revenue tax (property tax, user charges, water tax, rent etc). This task has been outsourced to private partners based on revenue sharing model. BMC is the first municipality in Chhattisgarh for initiating such move while assuring
minimum 90 per cent collection. Tell us about BMC’s roadmap in the ongoing process of transforming a ‘Smart City’? BMC is already proceeding towards its path of achieving the Smart City objectives. The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Bilaspur Smart City Limited has been incorporated.It is functional and major projects are being implemented through it. As per the progress report Bilaspur City is ‘Smart City Ready’. Its SPV is already formed in anticipation of inclusion and powers to the corporation have been delegated. The city is first in the State to have an underground sewer network (77 Million liters per day capacity water to be commissioned by December, 2017) Bilaspur’s source for water supply is presently groundwater based. We have about 500 borewells from which water is drawn and supplied. This is unsustainable in the long run. Bilaspur needed to shift its water source from ground water to surface water.
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Under Smart Cities Mission, in convergence with Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), we have prepared and tendered out a comprehensive Rs 310 crore project in which we shall get assured water supply from Khutaghat Dam 30 km from Bilaspur through gravity. Thereafter, it shall be treated and supplied. This project also has provisions for 100 per cent metering in all commercial and residential establishments. Bilaspur is the only city in the Chhattisgarh to have rolled out a centralised 100 per cent door to door Collection and Scientific Waste disposal (181 Tonnes/day Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) + Compost plant under construction). The inorganic waste shall be developed in the form of RDF which shall be used as a fuel for cement plant. The city has a Sustainable Urban Transport System with 50 Intelligent Transport System (ITS) enabled Buses and Passenger Information System(PIS). A state of the art Bus Terminal had been inaugurated in the city. The city has 1,488 under construction dwelling units and so far 20000 people have been rehabilitated under Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) last year. All 17000, conventional street lights in the city have been converted to LED. Can you share about some of the digital initiatives to be launched by the corporation? “Baney Bilaspur” Smart City is being transformed as a community of communities. The unique sociological aspect of Bilaspur is that people from almost every community of the State is
Cricket Stadium, Bilaspur
substantially residing in the city. Hence it is envisioned that Baney Bilaspur Smart City shall strive to conserve and bank upon the individuality of these communities, conserve it and finally leverage it to turn Bilaspur into a community of communities. The Bilaspur Smart City Project is unique in a way that it has been designed with an inbuilt course correction mechanism based on public feedback and has the adaptability and the resilience to do it. What sort of challenges are you confronting in ensuring development of Bilaspur as a Smart City? Challenges faced by BMC are nothing very extrinsic. Some of them can be understood as: 1. Major change in Municipal Service Management: City has moved from a local, non-scientific waste disposal
mechanism to an advanced, centralised, scientific waste processing system that involves door-to-door collection and scientific treatment of municipal solid waste. This is a major change but BMC is ensuring that the stakeholders are least affected by this ‘cultural shock’. 2. Underground sewer line work in final stage: 226 km out of 247 km sewer network has been laid. It has inconvenienced the public but witnessing that as we have reached the last lap, the public is genuinely supporting. 3. Revenue Generation: New avenues for revenue generation have been proposed in the Smart City Plan and city needs to improve its financial condition so as to keep providing assured and quality municipal services to citizens.
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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Schneider Electric — Game Changer for Smart Cities
Prakash Chandraker
Vice President and Managing Director Energy Business - Greater India Region Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited
“Smart City will bring paradigm shift in the way we manage city infrastructure. It will help to improve the quality of life of citizens and attract more investments.” 42
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Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Smart City solution is a unique and powerful platform for co-innovation to solve the issues and challenges of cities in partnership with all the stakeholders, says Prakash Chandraker, Vice President and Managing Director, Energy Business - Greater India Region, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). Why cities need to be smart nowadays? Cities constitute two per cent of the earth’s surface; are home to 50 per cent of the world’s population; consume 75 per cent of global energy; and emit 80 per cent of global carbon dioxide. The smart cities are all about how the city subsystems can work together as an integrated value chain under different conditions. Smart City solutions help to create smart ecosystem in the city to improve the quality of life of citizens and attract more investments for economic activities. How do you define a Smart City? At Schneider Electric (SE), we define a Smart City as an efficient, livable and sustainable space. Efficient means improved efficiency of a city’s underlying urban infrastructures, water, gas, electricity network, transportation, emergency response systems, buildings, hospitals and public services, etc. Livable means becoming a more pleasant place to live, work and play for its residents as well as for its visitors and commuters. Finally, sustainable means reducing the environmental consequences of urban life, reducing the city’s carbon emissions, regenerating some districts, planting
trees, creating parks and planning the city differently. What is SE value proposition for Smart City and the benefits? SE value proposition is clear and simple. We deliver urban efficiency. Infrastructures are the building-blocks of cities. Improving their efficiency is the pre-requisite to becoming ‘smart’. This involves operational technology (OT) as well as information technology (IT) platforms to fix the issues. Our Smart City platform provides the city with effective management systems, and citizens with better public and innovative private services. What are the benefits of a Smart City? A city is basically a system of operating systems. It has an electricity grid, a gas distribution system, a water distribution system, all sorts of public and transportation systems, public services, commercial buildings, hospitals, homes, etc. These legacy systems work efficiently, but usually separately, under different city departments. And they are usually not designed or managed to ensure resource efficiency and long-term sustainability. So, our bottom-up,
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
hands-on, collaborative approach makes urban efficiency real. Our projects around the world back this claim. Improving system efficiency brings tangible benefits to a city. It brings up to 30 per cent energy savings, 15 per cent reduction in water losses and up to 20 per cent reduction of travel time and traffic delays. It brings sustainability benefits such as less pollution and carbon emissions from less traffic, increased attractiveness, local jobs and security also. Would you elaborate in detail the Smart City architecture solution proposed by SE for Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA)? SE EcoStruxure Smart City solution is unique and powerful platform for co-innovation to solve the issues and challenges of cities in partnership with all stakeholders. The EcoStruxure solution has three layers which inter-connect with third party Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for efficient governance of city infrastructure. • At level I, we are doing datafication of identified assets through connected products and sensors. • At level II, specialised operations
technology software are being provided to collect, store and analyse the data for effective monitoring and control of different subsystems of the city called edge control. • At level III, we are providing command and control centre with highly sophisticated analytics, best software with productive capability by leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions. It will be a paradigm shift in the way we manage city infrastructure and services. In what way NRDA Smart City solution is different from other such solutions? NRDA integrated Smart City solution is focused on improving the city infrastructural efficiency pro-actively across physical, economic and social infrastructure. NRDA Smart City architecture will create true benchmark for other cities in terms of innovative approach in creating more values for the citizens. The IoT and GoT (Grid of Things)-based solution provided under Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Smart City solution will help gather data in real time from different verticals of the city to create more value for efficient operations of subsystems. It will help provide more
affordable services to citizens. The SE EcoStruxure solution provided to NRDA is designed on open architecture platform and advanced analytics for providing predictive management of city subsystems. This will make the city services more reliable, efficient and sustainable. What will be the impact of SE Smart City solution on the operations of the electric grid in the city? Uninterrupted power supply is the key to ensure that all smart devices and connections work smoothly. Under extreme conditions, the smart grid will manage the balance between supply and demand by shedding the non-critical load in a predictive and pre-planned manner so that critical city services like water supply, sewage pumping, traffic systems, surveillance system, security governance, etc, run smoothly. The self-healing grid being offered as part of SE EcoStruxure solution will help restore power supply through alternative routes to the affected areas. Our state-of-the-art command control centre will connect city value chain seamlessly. It will analyse the huge volumes of data in real time for optimisation and effective monitoring and control of city subsystem identified in the scheme by NRDA. It is often said that the wheel is man’s most important innovation, but there is a strong case to be made for the innovation of datafication and integration of everything on the Smart City platform which is changing the way we live and interact with the world. It is transforming analogue value chain of city infrastructure to digital value chain for effective and sustainable operation. Effective deployment of Smart City solution will be a real game changer with respect to the efficient ecosystem for citizen services and attractiveness of the city for new investments.
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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Avinash Group — Transforming Lifestyles in Raipur Smart colonies make cities smarter. It is much required to make smart colonies which will ultimately make smart cities. We cannot depend on central or state government for all the things. We have to take charge and make our cities cleaner and smarter, says Anand Singhania, Managing Director, Avinash Group in conversation with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN). Anand Singhania Managing Director Avinash Group
“Our team is self motivated and strong. We have passion to develop innovative projects and differentiator services which help to change people’s lifestyle.” 44
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Avinash Developers began its operations in 1996, creating a belief ‘Avinash hai to vishvas hai’ (Avinash is a synonym of trust), how has been this journey? The journey has been really very good. The main objective was to create a change in lifestyle, the way people live, shop, club, dine, watch movies and the way they work. Avinash Group is doing this for all the segments of the society. In residential segment, we are doing a project of seven lakh to one crore per unit. Even in the seven lakh unit, we are providing access to all amenities like 24x7 power and water supply, club, parking, water treatment plant and many more. Our tagline says “Creating Lifestyles” and to some extent we have been able to do that by creating international malls, biggest club in central India, affordable homes as well as premium villas. How has the market performed last year? Last one year was very tough. People buy properties when they are in their comfort zone. Last year, a lot of things happened like demonetisation which
created negative sentiments and insecurity among the people. Lots of jobs were also laid off during that phase. Apart from this, difference in demand and supply was also there which required correction. Now that correction has taken place and people are getting what they wanted in their given budget, things are again back to normal. Ease of doing business is very important for any sector. What is the average time to secure real estate project approvals in Chhattisgarh? In the present administrative system, it normally takes 18 months to secure all the approvals for a project after acquisition of land. Do you think this entire approval process requires correction? The government is positive about making changes to enhance the ease of doing business but nothing is happening on the ground. It takes 18 months from acquiring land to the commencement of the project, as many departments are involved in this process. There is lack of coordination among all of them. There is no industry participation in policy making
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
without which ease of doing business will be a major challenge. The government should monitor all departments involved in the approval process as well as consult with all the stakeholders for a friendly business environment. How is Avinash Group contributing towards government’s ambitious plan of ‘Housing for All’ by 2022? We are doing around 3,000 units in affordable segment. We are the first one to start affordable segment around four years ago and got wonderful response. Today, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All is acting as a catalyst for affordable housing. But I still feel that despite all these initiatives we are not able to attract end users as lot of documentation is involved in the scheme which can be reduced, looking at the risk of Non-Performing Assets (NPA) which is around three per cent. Though the government is doing great job but still it looks difficult to achieve ‘Housing for All’ by 2022. How is the luxury segment performing? What is the threshold in your city? Luxury segment is around 15 per cent of overall real estate market. How do you view the Real Estate Regulatory Bill and GST Bill? How it will help the real estate sector? As far as GST Bill is concerned, there are many things which are not clear like what will be the taxation and other related aspects. I am hopeful that this bill will create an ease of doing business, as there will be one point of taxation across country provided that it should not increase the cost of real estate to end users. The Real Estate Regulatory Bill is a wonderful thing. This bill was much required because end users were not able to differentiate between right and
wrong. Earlier, end users were always in a state of confusion about whether if they were buying right property from the right builder or not. However, at the same time, there will be a slight increase in the costing of the product. There is another major aspect missing from the Real Estate Regulatory Bill as all the stakeholders are not part of this Act except builders. There are many departments responsible for giving No Objection Certificates (NOCs) like banks, municipals corporations, planning department and revenue department. They are not part of this Act. In case of any delay in the process from above stakeholders, there is no way to hold them accountable. You headed CREDAI in the past and very well understand the relation between end users and the builder, why there is a huge gap between buyers and developers? There was a lack of transparency between buyers and developers but in the last 4-5 years this has reduced a lot. I completely understand that there was an image deficit of builders but CREDAI has played a very commendable job in creating transparency between buyers and developers. With an aim to transform the lives of women who are employed at construction sites, CREDAI recently launched its first All Women Mason Batch under its skill development initiative. What is your vision for Smart Cities? We have decided to use waste management solutions and put zero load on municipal corporations for garbage. I believe that smart colonies make cities smarter. It is much easier to make smart colonies which will ultimately lead to smart cities. We cannot depend on Central or State government for all the things. We have to take charge and make our cities cleaner and smarter. At the same time, the government also needs to
A project by Avinash Group
encourage who are contributing towards the vision of Smart Cities through Smart Colonies. What is your take on overall Chhattisgarh real estate market? Chhattisgarh needs bigger job opportunities. We need to encourage core industries as well as non-core industries should be incentivised. We need to encourage our core industries like steel, cement, rice and mineral so that they can contribute towards State’s growth on a large scale. All these steps from government side will help real estate market to grow. Secondly, all builders need to understand the exact requirement of end-user and based on that we should execute our projects. Thirdly, builders need to enter Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities of Chhattisgarh, as there is huge scope of development. Recently you received ‘Chhattisgarh Entrepreneurs and Excellence Awards Raipur, 2017’. To whom would you like to give its credit to? We, the Raipurians, have always been enterprising by nature. It’s in our blood. Firstly, I would give credit to my city and my family for showering immense love, support and blessings upon me. Secondly, I am a selfmotivated person and I have passion to develop good buildings through which I am able to create a change in the lifestyle of Raipur people. It gives me immense pride when someone says we have good malls, clubs, societies and Raipurians do not lag behind anyone.
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Special Article
Smart Cities Need of the Hour For India’s Rise Sameer Sharma
Additional Secretary (Smart Cities) Ministry of Urban Development Government of India
Realising the potential of urban cities in the country’s economic development, India is already in the process of making them ‘Smart’ and it seems to have been accepted that a Smart City requires a well chalked out plan to make it actually work, says Sameer Sharma, Additional Secretary (Smart Cities), Ministry of Urban Development Government of India, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). According to Sharma, in the next 10-15 years, India’s urban cities will contribute 75 to 80 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with their population rising by 50 per cent. “In the future, the prime drivers of the country will be cities. This does not imply that we should ignore the villages but the focus will be on cities,” said Additional Secretary.
“In future, the prime drivers of the country will be cities. This does not imply that we should ignore the villages but the focus will be on cities.” 46
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Speaking at the Elets Urban Development Summit held recently in Hyderabad, he said “Urban areas will determine the way and amount of poverty reduction that can be accomplished. A city has to develop its own pathway”. Laying a roadmap for Smart Cities, Sharma mentioned about three important layers. The first one is core infrastructure of the cities which includes water, sewerage, transport etc. The second layer he talked about was IT-based smart solutions and the third one is finding areas which can be made livable. “When a woman is molested, we use the camera to find out the molester.
The purpose of the camera is to prevent it in the first place. There has to be an analysis to develop a response system which is called a smart solution,” he said. Talking about ‘Smart’ health, he said that a healthcare system becomes smart only “when everybody is able to get advice on health while sitting in the remote part of the country.” He tells Jan-Aushadhi scheme provides quality medicines available at affordable prices for all, particularly to the poor and disadvantaged, through exclusive outlets. “For diagnostics of poor patients, there is a hub and spoke model where hub is the district hospital and spoke is the diagnostic centres.”
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CREDAI Shouldering Real Estate’s Social Role CREDAI, Chhattisgarh is forming a Corporate Social Responsibility Trust Fund for the first time. It has come forward to develop the skills of children, launched various social events and provided scholarship to students so that they can afford technical studies, says Shailesh Verma, President of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), Chhattisgarh, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). Shailesh Verma
President of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), Chhattisgarh
“The objective of CREDAI 2017 is to bring a breakthrough in real estate sector by making common man’s dream come true. We aim to bring total transparency in real estate business so that the developers and buyers maintain a healthy relationship.” 48
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What is CREDAI’s vision for Raipur as a Smart City? Which initiatives are you planning to undertake? The primary vision is implementing more advanced technologies for Solid Waste Management and Sanitisation. Most of the cities in India are facing this challenge. If we are able to achieve a solution for managing these two, we will definitely go ahead in making our cities smart in Chhattisgarh. We are already in the process of developing a well-planned city with a systematic traffic system and more greenery for a Smart Raipur. How do you plan to be a part of government’s ambitious “Housing-
for-All by 2022” programme? Housing-for-all by 2022 is indeed a vital government step, although Chhattisgarh has been working on the same mission since a long time. CREDAI will always act as the prime body to implement such missions by bringing more affordable housing projects throughout Chhattisgarh and by providing subsidies under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna. How do you perceive Real Estate Regulatory Bill and GST Bill? How will it help Real Estate Sector? With Real Estate Regulatory Bill implementation, illegal constructions,
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
plotting issues, occupancy and ownership will be stopped forever. Hence, the common man will be benefited the most by getting more transparency and project evaluation will become easier for them. It will help real estate sector by increasing more avenues for better living standards from all sections of the society. However, due to stringent rules and regulations certain challenges are also raised before the developers for which CREDAI and the Regulatory body of Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) will support both developer and customers from time to time. This is the first time CREDAI Chhattisgarh is forming Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) trust fund, how do you perceive it? Yes, it is for the first time CREDAI Chhattisgarh is forming CSR trust fund. We, the developers, are actually the developers of the next advanced generation by contributing to the society. So we thought we must also come forward to develop the skills of children, launch various social events and provide scholarship to students so that they can afford technical studies. CREDAI Chhattisgarh will also initiate various social activities for the betterment of Chhattisgarh and Raipur City.
How is technology helping the real estate sector and what initiatives have been taken to ensure transparency between the buyers and developers? Technology is helping real estate sector to grow faster with a better quality each day. RERA Bill itself makes it mandatory to adopt better technology. Today, we have many technologies for a single work of construction which were earlier unheard of. CREDAI will help educate developers and buyers regarding enhanced quality-oriented technologies and RERA. So that both the parties get benefitted. CREDAI will now primarily focus on the eradication of mental blockage within buyers that developers are never transparent. What are the key objectives of CREDAI for 2017? The CREDAI 2017 aims to bring a breakthrough in real estate sector by making common man’s dream come true. We aim to bring total transparency in real estate business so that the developers and buyers maintain a healthy relationship. We hope to foster the youth of this State to construct a better nation for themselves and coming generations.
CREDAI recently launched its first all-women mason-batch under its skill development initiative for extending support to the UN’ “He For She” campaign. Please elaborate on this. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) trust fund of CREDAI which we have initiated this year in Chhattisgarh will play a major role because we will definitely provide more preference for skill development, hygiene, health and safety of women. The SBI and CREDAI had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work towards providing housing for all, how important is the collaboration with banks for future cities? This is a phenomenal achievement towards providing housing for all. I believe all financial organisations must volunteer in such MoUs nationwide. After the implementation of RERA, developer actually needs financial reinforcement to abide by the rules and regulations as well as fulfil his commitment to buyers. With such alliances, financial institutions and banks can lead to revolutionary changes in real estate sector by bringing advanced technology and skills to this industry.
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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
IL&FS Technologies: Integrating smart technologies with Infrastructure
Durga Prasad
Over years, IL&FS Technologies have formed strong partnerships and alliances to create an ecosystem of global smart infra solutions. The company’s value proposition to the city authorities is the unique ability as a System Integrator to aggregate and deploy these global solutions in Indian conditions, says Durga Prasad, Chief Executive Officer, IL&FS Technologies Ltd, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
Chief Executive Officer IL&FS Technologies Ltd
IL&FS Technologies Limited is developing Internet of Everything (IoE) based digital solutions for Smart Cities and Smart villages. What is your vision of the IoE?
“IL&FS Technologies has an unparalleled track record when it comes to delivery of citizen services, both in India and South East Asia.” 50
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As part of one of India’s largest Infrastructure conglomerates, IL&FS Technologies (ITL) is well -poised to take advantage of the new wave of IoT based smart Infrastructure solutions. We started integrating Infrastructure with technology as early as 2011-12, through implementation of Smart Infrastructure solutions in the space of Smart Urban mobility, Public safety and Smart governance. We believe that the key to success of a Smart City depends on data based decision making and increased citizen participation. At ITL, we are investing in developing capabilities to integrate IT (Information technology) and OT (Operational Technology) to deliver an Integrated Command and Control centre for city authorities to not only monitor but take actions in real time, thus realising the dream of a true Smart City. What is your go-to-market strategy in India particularly for Smart Cities?
IL&FS group has been a pioneer in “Smart Cities”. Its commendable contributions include the creation of GIFT city Gujarat. We have leveraged on the strength of the group and are among early implementers of Smart solutions. Our Smart Infrastructure practice focuses on the Smart City initiative. Over the last few years we have formed strong partnerships with leading companies in the IoT space. In addition to this, we have created an ecosystem of partners for providing Smart solutions such as Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS), surveillance, Smart Parking, Smart Urban Mobility, Smart poles and Smart solid waste management. Our value proposition to the city authorities is our unique ability as a System Integrator to aggregate and deploy these world class solutions in Indian conditions. The nation is transforming in sync with the “Digital India” initiative and so is the delivery system of citizen services, how big is this opportunity and what plans do you have in this regard? IL&FS Technologies has an unparalleled track record when it comes to delivery
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
of citizen services, both in India and South East Asia. 90 per cent of our projects are citizen- based projects delivering a myriad of services both statewide and countrywide. Post the initiation of the Digital India programme, we are witnessing a renewed focus on using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to make a difference in everyday lives of the common citizen. We have reinvented ourselves to focus on e-governance, Smart Infrastructure and Analytics, which is the fastest growing market segment over the next three to four years. Could you tell us about your latest E-governance projects? We have delivered many interesting projects over the years but two of them are worth their mention due to its relevance. The first one is the project we delivered for Rajasthan to implement their “Bhamashah” programme. The programme influences close to 13 million families and this project helped the state government to fulfill their objective to achieve Direct Benefit Transfer and social inclusion. As
part of the project, we delivered a state resident data hub that not only ensured each and every beneficiary of the state’s welfare scheme is uniquely identified. The second programme that resonates well with the current times is delivering a single integrated portal for all citizen services for the e-district programs. We have worked with four State governments to successfully deliver this project and our experience while implementing them has been remarkable. The biggest challenge in such a program is the cross department coordination to ensure seamless transfer of information so that the citizen need not physically visit them. How are you planning to integrate smart technologies with infrastructure? We have identified two broad themes when it comes to delivering Smart Infrastructure solutions: Smart Citizen service – City authorities face everyday challenge to deliver basic services, be it traffic management,
public safety, waste management, parking, public transport, public utilities like water & electricity, etc. Integrating smart technologies with everyday public Infrastructure helps authorities overcome some of these hurdles. We believe that the benefits of enhanced infrastructure and investment on technology should reach the citizen and thus ITL is continuously enhancing and enriching its ready-to-deploy citizen service delivery framework. Smart Decision Making – A truly smart solution should not only report but should provide behavioral prediction to enable smart decision making. Our data scientists use an algorithmic approach to build analytical models that can churn large amount of data to come up with relevant insights that help authorities to make informed decisions. Data protection is a rising concern, do you think India needs a data security policy? Data protection is increasingly becoming a real cause of concern in the growing Digital world that we are creating around us. The latest “Ransomware” threat is a prime example of how a small piece of code can cripple our economy, healthcare, transportation, etc. With integrated Infrastructure, this threat will spread even to the “traditional” systems like power and water grids. Hence, a robust data security policy is need of the hour. Tell us about your future plans. ITL will continue to focus on delivering smart Infrastructure solutions across industries with a special focus on the Smart City Initiative of Government of India. We are continuously forming alliances with cutting edge technology providers in the IoT space and we are looking to build thought leadership within ITL so that we can continue to help our customers become more effective and efficient.
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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Empowering Smart City Mission Through Clean Energy
Dr Arun Kumar Verma Joint Secretary Ministry of Power Government of India
“UDAY has been introduced by the government so that DISCOMs can improve their finances and systems to become more sustainable and can provide required amount of power to its customers at reasonable cost. Not only UDAY reforms, we also have DDUGJY and IPDS to improve the conditions of DISCOMs.” 52
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Smart city is basically for driving the economic growth with qualitative life which should be enabled through local area development and technology. Power can play an important role as without electricity one cannot use technology. Thus, 24X7 power-supply is necessary, says Dr Arun Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Power, in conversation with Shivani Tyagi of Elets News Network (ENN). Smart cities are incomplete without smart energy, what role is power playing to make cities smarter? Smart City helps in driving the economic growth with quality of life through local area development and technology. All kinds of civic amenities, economic growth, infrastructure development, should be technology-assisted, so that they are easier to be accessed. One can use it to get the benefit of economic development and good quality of life for citizens. Power is playing an important role as without it, one cannot use technology. Therefore, 24X7 power supply is necessary. Our emphasis is on ‘quality’ which means adequate and reliable supply of electricity. We are also focussing on high voltage supply throughout the day without hindrance. For that, we are focusing on smart appliances and smart ambience. We are not only focusing on adequacy of energy but also looking for “Clean Energy”. Therefore, at least 10% of energy requirement of the city should be from the renewable resources like solar, wind etc. Also, services have to be technology-driven leading to reduction in transaction, ease of doing
business and ease of living in the city. For that, your appliances and devices should be adequately smart enough for example: “Smart Meter”. Such devices help a user power supply to decide the time of use to curb the extra load at peak hours of usage and also to reduce the bill. How technology is helping power ministry to turn smart power distribution a reality in smart cities? There are layers of technology to smoothen the processes but it can’t be done in a single day. Earlier, we were having electromechanical meters and then static meters, now we are thinking about smart meters. Under Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP), we started computerisation of our offices. Under R-APDRP, energy audit was automated, the consumers are geo indexed. Now, from bills to payment collections, everything is online. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system is there to analyse the electricity uses and other relevant data. Fault analysis can be done easily. Now, the consumers will be notified through an SMS in case of is any disruption or breakdown
POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE
share any information related to electricity. The systems are developed to improve the quality of supply. For that, the substations have been brought in the midst of load. We also have transformers-wise and feeder-wise energy audits in R-APDRP towns. There are 1,409 cities under R-APDRP category and more than 2600 cities are covered under IPDS category. Recently, more than 3,500 cities are also sanctioned under IPDS category to improve the systems. As uninterrupted power supply is the biggest challenge, how do you plan to provide 24×7 power supply to these Smart Cities? The country is on its way to uninterrupted power supply, as the Central Government has declared a policy of “24x7 Power to All”. It is envisaged that country would have 24x7 power supply for all in planned manner by 2021-22. However, we are trying to achieve it earlier. Till 1 May 2018, we have to connect more than 18,000 villages. Every house in the rural areas of the country must have power connection. In urban areas,
connectivity is available but the quality needs to be improved for 24x7 power supply. To upgrade DISCOMs financial health, reform like UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) has been introduced by the Central Government. Such reforms will help the government organisations to improve their finances and systems and become more sustainable to provide electricity as per the demand at a reasonable cost. Not only UDAY reforms, we also have DDUGJY and IPDS to improve the conditions of DISCOMs. The Government of India has done a joint initiative with State governments in this regard. We have created documents known as “24x7 Power to All” that has laid the roadmap for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, renewable energy and energy conservation. Renewable energy is a very important component. We have set a target of 175 gigawatt electricity production through renewable sources by 2022. Out of the proposed target, 1 lakh megawatt would be produced through solar energy and out of which 40,000 megawatt will be produced through rooftop. So rooftop of buildings will
also have its share in developing a smart city. What are the challenges in development of a smart city? As we are talking about smart cities, the biggest challenge is coordination. Power alone cannot make a city smart. If we are going to improve the quality of power, we have to lay down the new lines in coordination with the Public Works Department (PWD), drainage department, electricity department, telephone department, as lot many utilities are using at the same space. It will help us to tackle the space constraint. Resource coordination is also required for implementing the system. With a single scheme, it is not possible to do it. One has to have some kind of convergence and innovative financing systems, so that agencies have not heavy load of managing the finance. There could be some kind of mechanism that can become revenuedriven easily. To small extent, capacity building is also important when you are going to do this kind of mega changes.
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special interview
India Post – Changing With The Times India Post is trying to increase pace of delivery. As the volumetric nature of parcels tends to put unnecessary stress, causing inefficient or delayed delivery, the Department has commenced undertaking nodal mechanised delivery of parcels, says Usha Chandra Sekhar, Member (Operations), Postal Services Board, in an exclusive interview with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN). Usha Chandra Sekhar Member (Operations) Postal Services Board
What major IT initiatives have you undertaken so far?
Accounting and Human Resources and Integration with other SIs.
We have undertaken quite a few initiatives as part of our IT modernisation project to keep pace with the changing times. i.e.
Rural Hardware: Providing connectivity, hardware and solar power panels to branch post offices in rural areas.
Change Management: Preparing workforce for complete change in the Postal Department’s working after IT project’s implementation.
“We have also signed up an MoU with Ministry of Labour and Employment to enable post office to function as Employment Registration Centres for rural unemployed youths and issue of Birth Certificates to EPF pensioners.” 54
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Data Centre Facility: Hosting Primary Data centre and building disaster Recovery Centre for the Department. Financial Services Integrator: Implementation of solutions for Core Banking and Core Insurance in all Post Offices. Providing multiple delivery channels: Internet banking, ATM and Interactive Voice Response and SMS etc. Others initiatives include: Network Integrator: Providing connectivity for each department post office location to ensure uninterrupted network connectivity through one single WAN. Core System Integrator: Implementation of the solutions for Mail Operation, Retail, Logistics Post, Philately, Finance and
Rural System Integrator: Implementation of the solution for integrating all the FSI/ CSI applications to the Branch Post Offices. Mail Operation Hardware: Providing hardware to mail offices and hand-held devices to postmen. The project is likely to be completed by 2017 end. In addition to the IT modernisation project, the Department has various other important projects based on IT to improve products and services of the Department i.e. Mail Network Optimisation Project, Performance Management Mechanism, Robust KPIs/ MIS and others. Then, there is Postman Mobile App or PMA, launched on the 10th June, 2016 on pilot basis at selected Post Offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna and Chhindwara. Another project is National Address Data Base Management System (NADBMS), envisaged to provide a centralised database of addresses facilitating India Post to reduce the number of undelivered mails due to wrong/incomplete address or Pin Code, facility to citizens to search/ locate for Pin Code or address and suggest
special interview
correct Pin Codes to bulk mailers for their address lists, apart from devising a standard format for address data capture. Another is Nanyatha App that essentially provides visibility to the public about the clearance of the letter boxes. A total of 5,114 letter boxes have been covered under electronic clearance. In this modern-era of internet and Digital India, how are you addressing rising demand for speedy communication? We have developed facilities such as Track and Trace of International Postal items with designated postal operators of other countries, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and Airlines conveying international mails to much greater effect. We also interact with customers through e-mails and on Twitter, Facebook etc. The Department of Posts has also hired a consultant to restructure existing parcel network, operations and delivery network under the Parcel Network Optimisation Project (PNOP) to tap the exponential growth of parcel market in e-commerce segment. To promote digital payments in a big way, the Department of Posts has signed up with SBI to provide their wallet “Buddy” to customers of Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). This service has already started in 100 post offices as a pilot project. India Post is also implementing Core Banking Solution (CBS) in all departmental post offices. Once in operational phase, the IT modernisation project shall bridge the digital divide of rural and urban India and support the “Digital India” programme. What are your major challenges? Transmission of mail between various cities is occurring by the Indian Railways and various airlines. However, due to constant increase in the numbers of mails, the department sometimes faces problem due to inadequate space. Providing stable network connectivity in remote, hilly areas is a major challenge. Action has been initiated in consultation with the network service provider to provide connectivity through alternate means like VSAT, etc.
What is your take on Aadhaar linking with government service delivery? It is an excellent move. It introduces more transparency to the entire system for delivery of government services. It will not only help address leakages and plug gaps in the delivery system but also ensure customer convenience. Tell us more about your recent financial services. With changing times, we have changed for the better. The launch of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) is a proof. This institution will offer payment solutions to customers across the country and further the cause of financial inclusion. It will focus on financial inclusion by harnessing low-cost technology-based solutions to extend access to formal banking, especially in rural areas and among the unbanked and under-banked segment of the society. It offers a multitude of services; starting with Direct Benefits Transfer of social security payments of various ministries to beneficiaries. Other benefits include Demand Deposits Savings Account of up to `1 lakh and Current Account with special focus on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), small entrepreneurs, village panchayats, self-help groups (SHGs) etc. It also provides distribution of third party financial products such as insurance, mutual funds, pensions and credit products. How has your e-Post service evolved over the years? Presently, e-Post booking facility is available in approximately 13,000 post offices and delivered through a network of over 1.54 lakh post offices across India. The Department of Posts has augmented its e-Portal with the name e-Post Office (www.epostoffice.gov.in) for online sale of postal products. We now have the facility of Track and Trace and online complaint registration Likewise, a new android mobile app for the same has also been introduced to make it more user-friendly
than ever. The e-Post mobile app is available for download from Google Play Store. What do you see as your major achievements so far? The most recent ones are setting up of India Post Payments Bank as a Public Limited Company; implementation of CBS in 23,256 post offices (including 808 HOs and 22,448 SOs) apart from 976 ATMs being installed; issuance of 14 lakh Debit/ ATM cards to Post Office Savings Bank customers; and disbursement of Rs. 5,894 crore to 6.98 crore MGNREGA account holders till December 2016. Over 20,000 Branch Post offices have been enabled with Core Banking Solutions (CBS) under our Rural Information and Communications Technology (RICT) project to bring the facility of real time banking in hands of citizens living in hinterland. We have also signed an MoU with Ministry of Labour and Employment to enable post office to function as Employment Registration Centres for rural unemployed youths and issue of Birth Certificates to EPF Pensioners. The project has been launched in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Another important achievement worth mentioning is launch of Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK). To extend passport services to citizens on a large scale and to ensure wider coverage of passport services across the country, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Posts (DOP) have agreed to utilise the Post Offices in the various states as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for delivering passport related services to the citizens.
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Advertorial
Dr Sandeep Dave — Master of Laparoscopic Surgery
Dr Sandeep Dave
Founder and Managing Director Ramakrishna CARE Hospital Raipur
“Before you can remove their tears your own must flow. I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person” 56
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Dr Sandeep Dave’s dream was to build a hospital, which has a dedicated posture, is meticulously designed, futuristically styled with an eco-friendly and patient-friendly bearing, unparalleled in skill and specialisation, exemplary in nursing care, and affordable to all classes of society of this region. With this vision he founded the Ramakrishna CARE Hospital in Raipur. A Master of Matchless Skill Dr Sandeep Dave is today known as the pioneer, flag bearer and stem cell of laparoscopic surgery in Chhattisgarh. He was neither born with a silver spoon in his mouth nor he has greatness thrust upon him, has achieved greatness, nobility and excellence through strife struggle and action. This Karma Yogi, works 16 to 18 hours a day, is at times seen performing even 10 to 12 surgeries and emergencies till midnight. He has performed over 35,000 laparoscopic surgical procedures, (most of them being complicated and high risk) with lower mortality rate than national average, in the initial years. There has been no mortality in the last four years. For him, there is no organ in the abdomen which is today unapproachable for him through minimal access. He performs all advanced laparoscopic surgical procedures with equal dexterity available in the metros. Concern For The Poor Dr Drave has always abided by the principle of not refusing care to those who cannot afford even the basic cost of hospitalisation Dr Dave has prepared a crucible for amalgamation of new
ideas and research for human care, concern and benevolence. A master and mentor, Dr Dave’s humility and philosophy epitomises that the ultimate healer is the Almighty, and physicians and surgeons are the mere backlash and reverberation of a patient’s hope, strength and faith. A Man of Compassion And Sympathy The advent of laparoscopic surgery in India in 1991, following the world’s first laparoscopic surgery in 1987, fascinated Dr Sandeep Dave towards this new technique which bestowed the patients with smaller wounds, early ambulation, reduced mortality, quicker recovery, reduced hospitalisation and superior cosmetic results. After being accoladed by Bharat Ratna awardee and the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa, in August 1996 for his benevolence, philanthropy and concern for the poor, Dr Dave made all these benefits available to the weaker sections of the society either at affordable costs or in charity. For him, the world looks brighter if viewed from behind a smiling face. He believes that the light that shines only in palaces burns up the joy of the people in the shadows.
Advertorial
A Bridge Between Despair And Hope Dr Dave always remains away from flamboyance. No fanfare at the outset, no drum roll at the conclusion, he has proved himself to be dedicated to the purpose and principle rather than to doctrine and definition. Patients want their healer to be human rather than robotic they want, a sensitive professional, who can laugh and cry, have fun, feel pain, as well as bleed. “Before you can remove their tears your own must flow. I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person,” says Dr Dave. Social Entrepreneurship Dr Dave, who now steers the ship of Ramkrishna Care Hospital at Raipur, and is committed to offer highly subsidised care to local people while providing highest quality of clinical services. He had commenced in 1992 his journey by planting a sapling in BudhaPara, Raipur, in the form of Ramkrishna Surgical Nursing Home, with a single speciality and only 25 beds. The seed, sown in 1992 and later transplanted, manured and watered in a more fertile soil in 2004, has now grown into a huge and robust banyan tree with over 20 specialties and super specialties-a 400 bedded hospital with a futuristic design, inherent human element with a dedicated posture, patient friendly bearing with built- in dynamism and compassion. It is an oasis of surgical diversity and brilliance and fire of clinical expertise. No one had an inkling that Dr Dave’s modest creation in Budhapara would soon grow into a larger than life phenomenon, a zest for living, a vision of hope, a quintessential manifestation, where the individuality and image of a doctor gets superimposed or embossed over the identity of the hospital to which he belongs. All this truly proves the proverbial saying, only those who believe in themselves dare to dream and only those who dare to dream can achieve.
Ramakrishna CARE Hospital, Raipur
A Team Player Dr Dave attributes his success to his team. The team of doctors at Ramakrishna Care hospital has always been as dedicated as Dr Dave. Dr Jawwad Naqvi, Dr Siddharth Tamaskar, Dr Vikram Sharma have been successfully doing surgeries along with Dr Dave. A special mention to anaesthetist Dr Ajay Saxena who is providing best care to the patients at the hospital. Behind every successful man, there is a woman and Dr Dave’s wife Samidha Dave has always stood like a pillar for her husband. Innovative Flair Chhattisgarh being mainly a rice producing state, a large segment of natives here are used to have a sort of preparation of fermented rice known as “BAASI” for their breakfast. Being acidic in nature such foods cause peptic ulcers and duodenal perforations, very common in this region. Dr Dave started closing such perforations through laparoscopic surgery and innovated some new and alternative techniques also to reduce the cost of surgery. Chhattisgarh is probably the first state in India where
even the people from inaccessible tribal areas are not only acquainted with this new technique but are also being benefited by it. A Doctor Without Borders Naxalism is an ultraviolent problem and Chhattisgarh is one of the worst affected states of the country. The helpless tribals and paramilitary combatants are the biggest casualty of naxal violence here. Non-sectarian, and a doctor without borders, Dr Dave provides humanitarian and emergency medical care to all victims of naxal violence who are referred to Ramkrishna CARE Hospitals, Raipur. Dr Dave’s 25 year old team is dedicated and committed to purpose and principle rather than to doctrine and definition. They believe in exemplifying the mission of service, devotion, generosity and charity for the needy segment of the society and provide the best and cost effective medical care, reassurance and support blended with professional ethics to every patient, through integrated clinical practice, education and research, and putting the patient first above their own interest. (This article is based on Dr Sandeep Dave’s personal inputs provided to Elets News Network (ENN)
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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
SonicWALL — Innovating to Create Secure Digital Spaces
Debasish Mukherjee Country Manager SonicWALL India & SAARC
With a focus on the opportunity to create a secure environment for digital organizations, network security solutions provider SonicWALL believes that smart cities need to have dialogue on how to embrace the digital future and share best practices to help identify the best approaches to tackle challenges and avoid mistakes, says Debasish Mukherjee, Country Manager- SonicWALL India and SAARC, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). How digitisation is paving the way for emergence of new opportunities for organisations?
“SonicWALL has introduced the SonicWALL 2017 Annual Threat Report, offering clients, businesses, cyber security peers, industry, media, and analysts a detailed overview of the state of the cyber security landscape.” 58
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The move towards digital transformation will allow emergence of several opportunities for organisations. SonicWALL wants to focus on the opportunity to create a secure environment for digital organisations, so that they can focus on growth. Creating an environment for the digital economy to grow requires privacy and security of any transaction. The opportunity from SonicWALL’s perspective is to deliver on this baseline. The company offers secure mobile access, which is a flagship product for securing remote customers. With digital business growing, the company is experiencing more demand for Separately Managed Accounts. Similarly, with its advance threat protection solution, the company can offer additional protection from “Ransomware” attacks on its customers. As the digital transformation becomes more pervasive, there will be an increased need for an educated workforce that understands how to lead traditional businesses into the
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
digital world. One of the key opportunities is for the people to be able to translate traditional business requirements into digital products and services. This will create opportunities at both the translation end as well as the implementation end of the spectrum. As smart cities develop, it is absolutely imperative that a dialogue takes place between them on how to embrace the digital future. Sharing best practices can help identify the best approaches to solve challenges and avoid mistakes. In addition to having city-to-city dialogue, the business community also needs to attain clarity of vision as to what a Smart City should be like and how to get there. At the root of making cities smarter is the understanding of which services people need the most
being made on both sides of the cyber security.
that the Smart City can deliver. Communication and inclusion is the key to success. How is SonicWALL helping its customers to tackle cyber crime? In the war against cyber crime, no one can afford to remain indifferent. That’s why it’s crucial that each individual becomes proactive in understanding the innovation and advancements
SonicWALL recently introduced the SonicWALL 2017 Annual Threat Report, offering clients, businesses, cyber security peers, industry media and analysts, a detailed overview of the state of the cyber security landscape. To map the cyber security battlefield, the company studied the data gathered by SonicWALL Global Response Intelligence Defense (GRID) Threat Network throughout the year. The findings supported what we already knew to be true, that is, 2016 was a highly innovative and successful year for both security teams and cyber criminals. SonicWALL used what it learnt from the biggest cyber security threats of 2016 including “Ransomware”, encrypted communications (SSL/TLS) and email-borne attacks, and applied the information to innovate and develop new solutions. How is SonicWALL utilising research and development to create innovative products? To stay ahead of ever-evolving online threats, SonicWALL believes that a fair balance between continuous product innovations, customer and partner relationships and sustained support of core, industry-leading products is a must. SonicWALL’s continuous achievements as a driving force in cyber security innovation have helped make the company a global leader in its domain. Today, SonicWALL clients’ networks are protected by one of the most advanced tools in the market – the cloud-based Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service. SonicWALL’s team of product engineers have realised that for advanced threat protection solutions to truly stop unknown and zero-day attacks, they would have to use a multi-engine approach leveraging cloud-based sandboxing and would need to provide simple, automated remediation.
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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Ajeevi Making Citizens Life Easier While working towards bringing social and environmental reforms, Ajeevi Technologies is trying to ensure that the common man leads a relatively easier life, says Vishal Gupta, Founder and Managing Director, in conversation with Priyanka Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN). Vishal Gupta
Founder and Managing Director Ajeevi Technologies
“The solution has already been implemented in the Delhi Government cluster buses for two-and-a-half years and phenomenal results have been achieved from that. Even the solution, we provided for OddEven scheme of the Delhi government, was appreciated.� 60
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What vision for Smart Cities drives the Ajeevi Technologies? Ajeevi, as the Hindi name suggests, implies long life. We want sustainable Smart Cities. The focus is to provide technology solutions and make the life of the citizens easier. We provide all the smart solutions needed by citizens in their everyday life, starting from waste management to healthcare and Internet of Things (IoT) devices as well. Ajeevi is a company which makes IoT devices and provides mobile and web applications to make life of citizens smooth. What was the idea behind setting up of Ajeevi Technologies? The journey of the company started three years ago to provide easy solutions to the common man. With my experience of 16 years, we, at Ajeevi, are trying to make new solutions every day. For instance, waste management is easy. But some people still complain that their household waste has not been collected from their house. The citizen index ratio is pretty low. As a technology company, we can help citizens and the government so that process can be smoothened and operations can be made efficient in waste management. It has already been started in various cities of India, with Jabalpur already reaping the benefits of our waste management solution. What smart initiatives have you
undertaken in collaboration with the Government of India? Under the Smart City Mission, the Central government has set up certain benchmarks for transport in a metro city. For example, any person should reach his destination in 45 minutes maximum. We have come up with such solutions which decrease travel time. The solution has already been implemented in the Delhi Government cluster buses for the past 2.5 years and phenomenal results have been achieved from that. What other projects are you undertaking in other States? To provide clean drinking water, we have implemented a solution in Greater Noida Authority. All the water pumps reservoir in Greater Noida are using our solution. The Greater Noida Authority officer can see all the data of the reservoir at the centre and find out what is the level of the water, how much chlorine is being mixed, what is the flow of the water, how much electricity is being consumed to make this water. Due to automation through our solution, water is coming 24/7 at the Greater Noida localities.
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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
EcoCentric—Processing Electronics Waste The Eco-Friendly Way
Karan Thakkar
Founder EcoCentric Management Private Limited
India needs hi-tech process to recycle the electronic waste in an eco-friendly manner. Mumbai-based EcoCentric is one such company which is redefining the electronic waste recycling, says Karan Thakkar, Founder of EcoCentric Management Private Limited in conversation with Harshal Desai of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: What was the idea behind establishing EcoCentric? I was working with KPMG company after completing my graduation. There my role was to advise companies on risk and strategy. I was fortunate enough to participate in board meetings of big corporates and help them formulate and execute plans. Since I was working with metals and mining division of the company, I got opportunities to visit some of the biggest mines across the world. While working with these companies, I understood that the mining operations
“Our technology is capable of removing the hazardous substances and process the waste. We are glad to say that we can process 99% of the e-waste.” 62
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harm the environment in a big way. I also understood that we need a mechanism to replenish the entire system. Otherwise, we would face dire consequences. It was wonderful working with KPMG. But since I wanted to start my own establishment, I quit the job and started my own venture in 2011. The number of electronic products that we use on day-to-day basis is increasing every day. Electronics is also one of the areas which consumes significant amount of metals and other resources. I thought if I started my own
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
organisation, I would be able to do justice to the environment. I wanted to start a business that had a positive impact on environment. What is the relevance of such a business model in India? India has a good recycling model. You will find number of scrap dealers who collect the electronic waste. However, their processing method is an issue. Electronics is nothing but a composition of precious metal, heavy metal, plastic and glass. Now scrap dealers would extract useful metals, repair few products and dump the material which can’t be used further. It causes harm to the environment. We actually need technologies to process the electronic waste in eco-friendly manner. We started a 1,200 metric tonne plant at Khopoli, Maharashtra in 2012. The plant has a capacity to process 2,500 metric tonnes of waste. We are now in the process of setting up a 10,000 metric tonnes plant at the same location. What is the process of recycling the electronic waste? We are a pan-India company. We collect electronic waste from large corporations, bring waste to the plant and recycle it in an eco-friendly manner. We have also executed several drives to collect waste. In January 2011, e-waste codes were introduced by the Indian government. These codes have made the entire activity of sustainable recycling mandatory. Now all the big corporations are bound to give their e-waste to a registered agency for recycling and processing. We are not only registered, but also got awarded for our business by the central government. Another interesting element is that we also destruct data from the waste which ensures data privacy to our customers. We have started #IAMEcoCentric Campaign in collaboration with Café Coffee Day (CCD). E-waste bins are
installed at 10 CCD outlets across the city. Individuals can get rid of their e-waste by dropping it in the bin. Further, we also conduct lectures and campaigns to spread public awareness. We, at EcoCentric, want to empanel every citizen who is sensitive and responsible towards ecological enhancement. With this association with Cafe Coffee Day, we wish to trigger the youth’s participation in the environmental cause. We are here to bring ‘Waste Revolution’ in the country. Is the technology used in your plant capable of removing hazardous substances? Yes. Our technology is capable of removing the hazardous substances and process the waste. We believe this is the most important element of our business. We are glad to say that we can process 99% of the e-waste. We have also tied up with a Japanese group for technology transfer. What are the challenges hampering the process of e-waste management in India? Public awareness is the biggest issue. People do not actually understand when they throw or discard any electronic item, how dangerous it can be for the environment. Infrastructure
is another issue. We need good infrastructure to cater to the requirement of waste management. We need to segregate the waste efficiently. We need strong legislation and monitoring to curb pollution caused due to electronic products. There are few countries where governments are forcing manufacturers to use sustainable products in electronic products. Few laptop manufactures have indeed already started bamboo and other natural products in their equipment. What are your future plans? Waste Management is still at a nascent stage and there is much more to be done. We started our operations at a right time. Out of the two million tonnes e-waste generated in India, only five per cent is recycled formally. We are already dealing with big corporates. We are now spreading our reach across India. We plan to spread our business across top 10 cities in the country. We have closed first round of funding two months ago and we have some great partners on board. We are planning to boost our presence in different cities so that we can process individual electronic waste as well. We will be using the raised amount majorly to increase capacity and expand our reach pan-India.
april 2017 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Singapore
Beckons the World, Redefining Sustainable Living
Singapore Health Services and the State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, launching the “Enhancing Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services Programme”.
Singapore, for most of us, is a premium tourist destination. However, the place is a lot richer and extravagant as far as its urban planning and development is concerned, observes Rashi Aditi Ghosh of Elets News Network (ENN).
I
f you walk around this Asian citystate, the abundant greenery will make you forget that you are in a densely populated metropolis of 5.3 million people. (Source: www.Singstat. gov.sg as on June 2016) Beautiful Palm tree clusters, exotic ferns and flowering plants embellish the exteriors of office complexes, government ministries and public housing, in and around the city. The lion city also adorns man-made ‘Supertrees’, towering structures, stretched upto 50 metres into the sky, having giant steel and concrete trunks and thousands of thick wire rods for branches. A City Biodiversity Index, launched in 2008, mines data on 23 indicators such as the proportion of natural versus developed areas and the amount of carbon dioxide that trees convert to oxygen to help balance development with green space. One of the indices is carbon storage – the amount of carbon dioxide plants capture during photosynthesis. The index is a self-assessment tool designed to help cities better understand how they can improve their biodiversity conservation efforts. The city’s streets have a network of sensors, cameras and GPS devices embedded in taxi cabs
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tracks traffic, predicting future congestion and alerting all downtown drivers to alternate routes. (Source: Integrated ICT and Geospatial Technologies Framework for 100 Smart Cities Mission) Singapore was the first place in the world to implement congestion pricing. Today, its advanced system utilises traffic data to adjust prices in real time; drivers’ accounts are automatically deducted as they glide beneath electronic gantries. (Source: Integrated ICT and Geospatial Technologies Framework for 100 Smart Cities Mission) The city is setting up a new benchmark in providing a safe and stable habitat, which is way progressive than the concept of “Smart City”. Within one generation, Singapore transformed itself into a modern metropolis, a city where there are no homeless people, no squatters, no poverty ghettos and no ethnic enclaves. City’s recognition as the most Liveable city • Singapore topped the list of the world’s most liveable cities, according to ECA International’s 2015 Location Rating Survey. The ranking evaluated
450 locations globally on factors including climate, availability of health services, housing, infrastructure, personal safety, political tensions and air quality. • Mercer’s Quality of Living Survey of 2011 rated Singapore as one of the few high-density cities that are able to achieve high liveability standards. Singapore and its transformation In many respects, Singapore as a city shouldn’t really exist at all. The island lacks basic resources: It has no energy deposits, no forests and farms. The country has had to import drinking water from neighboring Malaysia. To protect itself from disappearing, Singapore long ago developed its ambition to become the smartest city in the world. The government engaged itself in the meticulous task for transforming the former British colony into one of the most innovative, sustainable and tech-savvy cities in the world. Lee Kuan Yew, first Prime Minister of Singapore recognised the importance of English language education to boost economic growth and to engage in the global conversation on science and technology, and to help unite a population drawn from Chinese, Malay and Indian heritages.
He welcomed several multinational companies to Singapore in the 1960s, when many countries were doubtful about foreign investment. While his original vision was to strengthen the economy and beautify the city, over time he expanded his scope, working to foster a liveable, healthy environment for Singapore residents. Components of the Singapore’s Liveablity framework Three outcomes have been constant in how Singapore envisioned liveability: • A competitive economy in order to attract investments and provide jobs • A sustainable environment because the city has to survive with limited natural resources, especially in terms of land and water • A high quality of life, including the social and psychological well-being of the population. These three outcomes are highly visible and are policy goals There are various agencies and initiatives that contribute towards making Singapore, a liveable city. Some of them are as follows: Centre for Liveable Cities • The Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) has as its mission “to distil, create and share knowledge on liveable and sustainable cities”. CLC’s work spans four main areas – Research, Capability
Holistic Care- Dover Park Hospice, Singapore
Primary School Children learning about NEWater, Singapore
Development, Knowledge Platforms, and Advisory. • Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities is one of the partners helping Andhra Pradesh develop its new capital city and surrounding regional by providing training programmes for officials of the state government. NEWater • NEWater, a pillar of Singapore’s water sustainability strategy by PUB, is high-grade reclaimed water. Produced from treated used water that is further purified using advanced membrane technologies and ultra-violet disinfection, it is ultra-clean and safe to drink. • NEWater has passed more than 150,000 scientific tests and is well within World Health Organisation requirements. Dover Park Hospice • Dover Park Hospice was founded in 1992 as a secular, non-profit organisation to meet the growing
need in Singapore for hospice care for terminally-ill patients. It is Singapore’s first purpose-built hospice, designed to provide a serene environment close to nature. • Dover Park Hospice has been helping patients spend their last days in comfort and dignity. The institution adopts a holistic approach to total patient care, with attention not just to their physical needs, but also their social and psychological ones. Singapore International Foundation (SIF) Enhancing Maternal and Child Health Services Project in Karnataka • To reduce infant and maternal mortality and morbidity in Karnataka and create sustainable healthcare improvements for the community, the SIF in partnership with SingHealth together with the State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, launched a three-year training programme in August 2016. An estimated 100,000 pregnant women and their newborn babies in Karnataka are expected to benefit from this enhanced MCH care. This was to enable doctors and staff nurses in the State-run hospitals to handle high-risk pregnancies, obstetric and neonatal emergencies better. • Over the next three years, 200 healthcare professionals from tertiary and secondary care government hospitals in Karnataka will be trained by obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives and senior nurses from SingHealth’s flagship acute tertiary hospital, Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Edible Garden City Edible Garden City champions the “Grow Your Own Food” movement in landscarce and import-dependent Singapore. They grow food at under-utilised spaces like rooftops and sidewalks. The concept was initiated with a belief that growing food re-connects urbanites to nature, conserves natural resources, and cultivates a sense of community.
May 2017 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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