eGov December 2019 - Chandigarh Issue

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Urban Transformation Chronicle of Chandigarh

THE CITY BEAUTIFUL

Chandigarh, 12 December 2019

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Chandigarh’s evolution from Planned City to Smart City through Urban Transformation Chandigarh has won the acclaim of the first planned city in independent India. Conceptualised in 1948, the foundation stone of the city was laid in 1952 in the foothills of the Shivalik mountain range. Planned by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, the city is unique in multiple ways.

The city, which is also known as the City Beautiful, is the capital of both Haryana and Punjab. It also serves as the gateway to North Indian states, namely Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, hence an investors’ paradise.

In this light, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd in association with Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh Administration and Chandigarh Smart City Limited is organising Urban Transformation Summit Chandigarh on December 12, 2019.

The special issue of eGov magazine chronicles Chandigarh’s urban transformation over the years and gives an overview of the pertinent areas of road networks, urban mobility, housing, education, health and sanitation to name a few.

EVENT REPORTS

This special issue also brings perspectives of policymakers of Chandigarh and India, namely, Manoj Kumar Parida, Advisor to Chandigarh Administration; Kamal Kishor Yadav, Commissioner, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation; NP Sharma, General Manager, Chandigarh Smart City Limited; Dr Shaleen, Chief Administrator, Haryana Housing Board; Ankur Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of Higher & Technical Education, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Haryana; C Sibin, Director, Industries, Punjab; RS Bal, Director, Projects and Finance, PIDB and many more.

CASE STUDIES

We also bring an expert perspective on the role of smart policing in smart cities by Dr Yudhishthira Sapru, Senior Consultant with National eGovernance Division (NeGD), MeitY, Government of India. HK Sharma, Secretary of Cooperative Department, Sikkim and P Bala Kiran, CEO, Trivandrum Smart City and Director, Kerala Tourism, bring their perspectives in this special issue as well.

This segment narrates the discussions and deliberations of participants at the occasional conferences held nationally or internationally.

It deals with in-depth detail of various projects being implemented in any part of the country, worth inspiring others in providing solutions.

We hope that the bouquet of interviews and articles in this issue of eGov will keep our esteemed readers updated on the urban transformation experienced

by Chandigarh as well as progress made in multiple sectors of the country.

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INTERVIEWS This section highlights various stakeholders, bureaucrats and policy makers influencing governance in the country.

DR RAVI GUPTA Editor-in-Chief, eGov magazine, and Founder Publisher & CEO, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

CONTENTS

ARTICLES

45

AFGHANISTAN’S TRADE TRAJECTORY ON 100TH YEAR OF INDEPENDENCE

50

IIT KANPUR SPEARHEADS SMART CITY PILOT PROJECTS

08

Cover Story: Chandigarh Moving Towards Resilient and People-Friendly Smart City

12 MANOJ KUMAR

16 KAMAL KISHOR

18 NARINDER PAL

Advisor to the Administrator, UT, Chandigarh

Municipal Commissioner, Chandigarh

General Manager, Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL)

30 DR YUDHISHTHIRA

33 P BALA KIRAN

36 HEMANT KUMAR

PARIDA

SAPRU

Senior Consultant, National eGovernance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Eletctronics & IT (MeitY)

YADAV

CEO, Smart City Trivandrum Limited

SHARMA

LODHA

Managing Director, SMSEL

22 C SIBIN

24 ANKUR GUPTA

28 DR SHALEEN

Director, Industries, Punjab

Principal Secretary, Department of Higher & Technical Education, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Haryana

Chief Administrator Haryana Housing Board

38 R S BAL

40 H K SHARMA

42 P BALA KIRAN

Director, Projects and Finance PIDB

Secretary of Cooperative Department, Sikkim

Director Kerala Tourism

COVER STORY

Chandigarh Moving Towards Resilient and People-Friendly Smart City CHANDIGARH IS AN EPITOME OF URBAN TRANSFORMATION MODEL AND ACTS AS ONE OF THE CRUCIAL CASE STUDIES FOR URBAN PLANNERS AND ARCHITECTS ACROSS THE WORLD. THE CITY FOUNDED IN THE FOOTHILLS OF SHIVALIK RANGE RIGHT AFTER INDIA GAINED INDEPENDENCE IS THE FIRST AND STILL ONE OF THE BEST PLANNED CITIES IN THE COUNTRY. PRIYA YADAV AND SREETAMA DATTA OF ELETS NEWS NETWORK (ENN) CHRONICLE THE URBAN TRANSFORMATION OF THE CITY BEAUTIFUL.

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C

handigarh, also known as the city beautiful is unique in multiple ways. The Union Territory serves as the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. Ruled by Chandigarh Administration, the city is undergoing rapid urbanisation and the transformation has been holistic and allinclusive.

It is one of the greenest cities of India with 1,400 green belts, parks and gardens. According to the Chandigarh Administration, the high profile services provided by the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation are a role model for other urban cities.

INCEPTION OF THE CITY BEAUTIFUL In the year 1948, the Government of Punjab and Government of India approved a 114.59 Sq.Kms.tract of land selected by Dr MS Randhawa, the then Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, as the new capital. The location of the site was a part of the erstwhile Ambala district.

The foundation stone of the Chandigarh city was laid in 1952. Subsequently, at the time of reorganisation of the state in 1967, it assumed the unique distinction of being the capital of Punjab and Haryana and was declared as a Union Territory. Consequently, Chandigarh came under the direct control of the Central Government.

As Manoj Kumar Parida, Advisor to the Administrator, Union Territory of

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unique feature of Chandigarh is the well connected and integrated road network, which are laid in accordance with their functions.

According to Chandigarh Administration, an integrated system of seven roads was designed to ensure efficient traffic circulation.

Chandigarh says, “Chandigarh was planned in 1949 but started late in 1960s. The advantage of starting late on a project is that you can get access to better technologies in the market. It

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started like a Greenfield project. Best architects were brought to the city from all over the world; one ofwhom was the French architect Le Corbusier, a pioneer of modern architecture.

Apart from him, there were some American partners and localexperts as well. They came with the best technologies, selected the best locations and talents, keeping in mind the western knowledge and the Indian ambience andcultural needs.”

COVER STORY

Chandigarh is one of the first planned cities of India and also enjoys a unique geographical advantage of being located at the foothills of the Shivaliks. Also, the location gives easy connectivity to the major states of North India, namely, the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.

It is indeed not hard to guess that Chandigarh is the hub of investments.

HOW THE CITY PLANNING MADE CHANDIGARH STAND OUT The city’s architects gave a unique touch to Chandigarh by making the master plan of the city similar to that of the human body or anatomy. While the head is defined with Sector 1, housing the Capitol Complex, the heart is signified with Sector 17, with the City Centre. The lungs are considered to be greeneries across the city including the leisure valley, innumerable open spaces, and sector wise gardens.

On the other hand, the intellect, circulatory system, and the viscera are signified with the cultural and educational institutes, road network, and industries respectively.

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9

India, which is why it is also called an oasis of the desert.”

PRESENT SCENARIO

COVER STORY

As of 2011 India census, Chandigarh had a population of 1,055,450, making for a density of about 9,252 (7,900 in 2001) persons per square kilometre. Although the original infrastructure of the city was planned for a population of five lakh, the city has expanded rapidly over the past few decades and faced challenges of the proliferation of slums, waste disposal and garbage, traffic congestion among others.

The official emblem of Chandigarh, the open hand symbolises the city’s philosophy of ‘open to give’ and ‘open to receive’.

INTEGRATED ROAD NETWORK Another unique feature of Chandigarh is the well connected and integrated road network, which are laid in accordance with their functions. According to the Chandigarh Administration, an integrated system of seven roads was designed to ensure efficient traffic circulation. Le Corbusier, the chief architect of the city referred to these as the 7-Vs. The city’s vertical roads run northeast/ southwest (The ‘Paths’) and the horizontal roads run northwest/ southeast (‘The Margs’). They intersect at right angles, forming a grid of network for movement. This arrangement of road-use leads to a remarkable hierarchy of movement, which also ensures that the residential areas segregated from the noise and pollution of traffic.

Adding to it, Parida says, “A lot many factors combine to make Chandigarh unique. It remains the greenest capital of the country, and one of the most advanced and well-planned cities of

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The foundation stone of the Chandigarh city was laid in 1952.

Subsequently, at the time of reorganisation of the state in 1967, it assumed the unique distinction of being the capital of Punjab and Haryana and was declared as a Union Territory.

Consequently, Chandigarh came under the direct control of the Central Government.

However, the Chandigarh Administration and Chandigarh Municipal Corporation are taking optimum measures to address these issues. The challenge areas, as stated by Parida include traffic congestion, transport, and housing. He says, “A major challenge for Chandigarh is the traffic congestion. Whatever little pollution we have does not have any industrial source; it is only vehicular and dust pollution.” He also adds, “Housing is another area of concern for Chandigarh.

The carrying capacity of Chandigarh is ideally 10 lakh and we have already reached 12 lakh.”

INITIATIVES BY THE CHANDIGARH ADMINISTRATION AND CHANDIGARH MUNICIPAL CORPORATION To tackle the traffic congestion, Chandigarh Administration is constructing an outer ring road where people coming mostly from the NCT or Haryana and going to Himachal Pradesh do not have to enter Chandigarh. “This project is almost in the final stage and will be completed soon. Another ring road will be constructed after this in which the people coming from Delhi can bypass Chandigarh from even further away,” says Prarida.

To maintain the sustainable and resilient nature of Chandigarh, the Chandigarh Administration and the Chandigarh

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organisations are selected through tenders filed by them.

WAY FORWARD

Municipal Corporation have launched the following initiatives.

Water Management – There are two aspects of water management, ensuring 24*7 water supply and treating wastewater and recycling it. Kamal Kishor Yadav, Commissioner, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation says, “A pilot project has been taken up in which we will be installing a 24*7 water supply system along with smart water.

The second aspect of this water management is the treatment of the sewage for which the Municipal Chandigarh Administration and Smart City have started work on the upgrading of five Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and construction of one new STP. The recycled water is further used for irrigation and industrial usage.

Waste Management - Under the waste management project, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation along with Chandigarh Smart City is constructing three material recovery and transfer stations.

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Technology enabled security system – IT is utilised in a big way in order to enable surveillance system and ensure an Integrated Command and Control System (ICCC) and Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS).

Throwing light on this, Yadav says, “We have started the implementation of Information Technology (IT) for better service delivery and better management of our resources, traffic, co-ordination between different departments and wings of the administration. The work on an Integrated Command and Control has already started.”

Energy Conservation - Solar energy powered LED lamps have been installed on the streets of Chandigarh in place of street lights to conserve electricity and reduce power consumption.

Integrated Child Development Services - Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme enables the provision of food to infants. Through the midday meal programme, school children are given food. Several private organisations or NGOs come and give food to infants and children to ensure the basic nutrition level required for their growth and development. These

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Public Bike Sharing System Public bike sharing system and dedicated cycle tracks for clean and green environment are being implemented.

Sharma says, “Within the public bike sharing system, we will allocate as many as 5,000 cycles.

This would be one of the biggest projects in India in terms of public bike-sharing in the mobility sector.

We intend to ensure last-mile connectivity. I have personally chosen each cycle station site. The bicycles used within the project are hybrid cycles.”

COVER STORY

Banning Single-Use Plastic - The Chandigarh Administration has banned single-use plastic. The environment department has banned 11 categories of single-use plastic, with provisions to imprison and fine the defaulters. The notification has been issued under the provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The notification states that using, storing, purchasing, dealing with or distributing plastic bags, plates, glasses, and such allied items are prohibited.

“We are also purchasing vehicles for door-to-door garbage collections in order to ensure the practice of holistic waste management. Apart from this we also have a legacy dump of garbage and the work has been started on the site for clearing this dump,” states Narinder Pal Sharma, General Manager, Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL).

Urban Transport Model - Another major project which will come up is this urban transport model in the Chandigarh Smart City. We are going to install cameras all over the city. We are already very strict on traffic violations which will continue to be. Parida says, “We are also thinking of introducing a large number of electric minibuses to decrease usage of private vehicles among the residents.”

MAKING CHANDIGARH SMART CITY A PEOPLE’S CITY In a bid to engage with the people of Chandigarh, Chandigarh Smart City Limited has started a Fellowship to ensure citizen involvement. As Yadav puts it, “We involved citizens to solve the problems and take the decisions for the same in the most creative and constructive way. We did a lot of activities in the last few months.

This helped us in creating a new strategy for engagement by the public.”

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

What makes Chandigarh, the City Beautiful Unique: Manoj Kumar Parida,

Advisor to Chandigarh Administrator MANOJ KUMAR PARIDA Advisor to the Administrator, UT, Chandigarh

Today, Chandigarh’s residents draw a very high per capita income, which is among the highest in the country. Also, we have a high literacy rate and people here are very conscious about the wellbeing and development of Chandigarh, says Manoj Kumar Parida, Advisor to the Administrator, UT, Chandigarh in an exclusive interview with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN). He gives his insights on what makes the Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh so unique and what the future holds for the joint capital of Haryana and Punjab.

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DECEMBER 2019

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

What makes Chandigarh special?

Chandigarh was planned in 1949 but started late in 1960s. The advantage of starting late on a project is that you can get access to better technologies in the market. It started like a Greenfield project and we are thankful to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, our first Prime Minister for starting it. Best architects were brought to the city from all over the world, one of whom was the French architect Le Corbusier, a pioneer of modern architecture. Apart from him, there were some American partners and local experts as well. They came with the best technologies, selected the best locations and talents, keeping in mind the western knowledge and the Indian ambience and cultural needs.

Another reason why Chandigarh is special is that, it started as a clean slate with the best of technology and experts. Also, the local people are very enterprising, particularly those who came here after the partition. After fleeing chaos, they hastened to re-build a city. They were hard-working people who had a dream.

“Chandigarh has a perfect bureaucracy.

We get our mid-level officers from Punjab and Haryana and the top-level officers come from outside the states. They have no particular pressure or influence on them. We do not have an Assembly but we have an elected MP who helps us by representing the public.”

Today, Chandigarh’s residents draw a very high per capita income, which is among the highest in the country. Also, we have a high literacy rate and people here are very conscious. Several retired Generals, judges, IAS and IPS officers and industrialists have made Chandigarh their home and they give ideas to further develop this place. They have dedicated their lives to the nation and their experience helps us build this city.

We have highly knowledgeable residents and a perfect media penetration. We have a well qualified media and their representatives who point out the problems, if any at all. This is why the city excels in everything. Whether it comes to water and electricity supply, education and health standards, law and order, all these things which are a challenge in every other state, are maintained very well in Chandigarh.

We have been nominated by the Union

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Ministry of Education to represent India in an international competition called Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) where they examine, compare and rank the knowledge of eighth and ninth class students from across the world.

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Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh, like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), is one of the premier medical institutions of the country.

Chandigarh also enjoys the advantage of the geographic location, which is in the foothills of Shivaliks and has a wonderful climate. Today, when Delhi is choked with pollution, we are fortunate to have clean air. The reason being Chandigarh is the only state capital to have two wildlife sanctuaries in it. We have 40 percent forests in this small territory of 114 sq kilometres and because owing to the size of the Union Territory, it is easier to administer.

Added to this, we have a perfect bureaucracy. We get our mid-level officers from Punjab and Haryana and the top-level officers come from outside the states. They have no particular pressure or influence on them. They act impartial and are efficient. We do not have an Assembly but we have an elected MP who helps us by representing the public.

A lot many factors combine to make Chandigarh unique. It remains the greenest capital of the country, and one of the most advanced and well-planned cities of India, which is why it is also called an oasis of the desert.

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

Now that Chandigarh has picked up speed as a Smart City, what are the challenges you are facing?

A major challenge for Chandigarh is the traffic congestion. We have a population of 12 lakh, but after adding the incoming vehicles, we reach a population of 15 lakh. Whatever little pollution we have does not have any industrial source; it is only vehicular and dust pollution. To tackle the traffic congestion, we are constructing an outer ring road where people coming mostly from Delhi and Haryana, who are on their way to Shimla or other parts of Punjab, do not have to enter Chandigarh. This project is almost in the final stage and will be completed soon. Another ring road will be constructed after this in which the people coming from Delhi can bypass Chandigarh from even further away.

The second aspect is, we need to have a public transport model covering the three cities of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. Chandigarh being a very small place cannot have a metro or a monorail.

We have to link up Panchkula in Haryana, Mohali in Punjab and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh to Chandigarh through either an underground or overground transport system.

Panchkula and Mohali are being developed by their respective state governments as future capitals. They must cooperate with us in making this public transport a success. Also, they should take up many of the ministry departments to their cities so that Chandigarh remains de-congested.

Whatever new institutions, offices, organisations, public sector offices are coming up, they should concentrate on building them in these two future capitals instead of Chandigarh.

Housing is another area of concern for Chandigarh. The carrying capacity of Chandigarh is ideally 10 lakh and we have already reached 12 lakh. Now the Le Corbusier limits or heritage limits do not allow us to go vertical. We do not want to

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make skyscrapers, multi-storeyed buildings or apartments here. Hence, accommodating the population is posing a challenge for us.

Do you see ‘not going vertical’ as an advantage or disadvantage?

To maintain the character of Chandigarh, some sectors like the nearby Sukhna lake area, have to remain as they are. In the periphery, there are some sites near our IT park area where we can go vertical, up to a limit.

We cannot kill the Shivaliks skyline by making 40 or 50 storey buildings, there has to be some limit. The housing needs of the people are justified and the government is working on it. But it would be a tragedy if the most beautiful city gets spoiled because of those needs.

There is already a fight going on regarding the height limits in the High Court vis-a-vis the heritage requirements.

In-spite all of these challenges, we will stick to our plans and remain committed to this heritage.

What other initiatives is the administration looking at?

One is this Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme where infants are given food or the midday meal programme where school children are given food. In other places, many private organisations or NGOs come and give food. These organisations are selected through tenders filed by them.

We have a Model jail, also called Burari

jail, where the prisoners are making quality food which is being supplied to school. This is a win-win situation where the children get quality food and the prisoners can feel the pride of feeding children. This is the only jail in the country where this model has been tried.

We do inoculations for under-privileged children who have to live on streets. We go to the streets and immunise them instead of waiting for these children or their mothers to bring them to hospitals.

Another major project which will come up is this urban transport model in the Chandigarh Smart City; we are going to install cameras all over the city. We are already very strict on traffic violations which will continue to be. We have already banned single use plastic.

Our sports infrastructure is one of the best in the country and we are going to have an international shooting range here, a new international centre for cultural activities and a museum of antique cars and furniture.

We have already increased the number of medical institutions in the city and we are going to increase it further. We are also thinking of introducing a large number of electric mini-buses to decrease usage of private vehicles among the residents.

These are areas where we want to experiment. We have already made it slum-free and vendor-free by removing colony 4 to Maloya. Also, Sector 17 is going to be converted into a beautiful comfort and entertainment zone.

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

In Chandigarh, we take feedbacks from people about our projects putting their grievance redressal on topmost priority giving them timely services with transparency so that there is no allegation of corruption. So, more involvement of public is the key with which we are working, says Kamal Kishor Yadav, Municipal Commissioner, Chandigarh in conversation with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN).

KAMAL KISHOR YADAV Municipal Commissioner, Chandigarh

Involvement of Public is Key to Making a City ‘Smart City’ Please tell us about the projects you are currently working on?

We are currently working on four major projects i.e. water management, waste management, developing technologyenabled surveillance system and Energy conservation.

For the water management project, we have already prepared Detailed Project Reports (DPR) and we are also going to get funds from AFD for the 24*7 water supply system.

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DECEMBER 2019

A pilot project has been taken up in which we will be installing a 24*7 water supply system along with smart water.

The second aspect of this water management is the treatment of the sewage for which the Municipal Chandigarh Administration and Smart City have started work on upgrading of five Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and construction of one new STP. We are also working on using the treated water for horticulture purposes in the

Chandigarh area. For that, we have started a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for treated water.

This whole cycle will provide better water management and conservation practices throughout the jurisdiction of Chandigarh.

How are you implementing the waste management project?

Under the waste management project, Municipal Corporation along with

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

Chandigarh Smart City is constructing three material recovery and transfer stations. This whole process is undertaken under the SCADA system.

We also are purchasing vehicles for door-to-door garbage collections in order to ensure the practice of holistic waste management.

Apart from this we also have a legacy dump of garbage and the work has been started on the site for clearing this dump.

How is technology helping you in making Chandigarh a smart city?

We have started the implementation of Information Technology (IT) for better service delivery and better management of our resources, traffic, co-ordination between different departments and wings of the administration. The work on an Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) has already been started.

We have also signed MoU with Bharat Electronics Limited and we are in advance stage of integration of controlled command system.

Our work has been allotted to EWC and eGov joint venture for eGovernance solution for Municipal Corporation under the Chandigarh Administration. Under this, we are going to deal with all services which are being provided by the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh Administration and even our internal services for which we are going to use IT services.

What steps are you taking to make Chandigarh a clean and green city?

We have implemented solar energy powered LED lamps on Chandigarh streets in place of street lights to conserve electricity and reduce power consumption.

Along with this public bike sharing

and dedicated cycle tracks for clean and green environment.

How are you envisaging Chandigarh to become Chandigarh Smart City?

It is the people and their involvement towards their city which makes it smarter. In Chandigarh, we take feedback from the people about our projects putting their grievance redressal on topmost priority, giving them timely services with transparency so that there is no allegation of corruption.

So, more involvement of the public is the key to which we are working.

I hope with support from Smart City Chandigarh we will make this city a Smart City in true sense.

How are you ensuring public involvement in making Chandigarh a Smart City?

The major boost came from one project of Smart City Mission under the Government of India. Under this Mission, we started the Smart City Fellowship. In this, we involved citizens to solve the problems and take the decisions for the same in the most creative and constructive way.

Under this project, we did a lot of activities in the last few months.

This helped us in creating a new strategy for engagement by the public.

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SPOTLIGHT: CHANDIGARH SMART CITY

CHANDIGARH SMART CITY: ENSURING LAST-MILE CONNECTIVITY TO CITIZENS Chandigarh Smart City Limited is working on multiple projects to ensure that the city’s sustainable and resilient nature is further enhanced. We are also planning to launch some projects, which would enable us to connect with the people and create an impact, says Narinder Pal Sharma, General Manager, Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL) in this exclusive interview with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN).

Water management is one of the key criteria and focus areas of urban civic bodies. What are the initiatives taken by CSCL regarding this?

Wastewater management is one of the major projects we are working on. The five existing sewerage plants - Tigiyan, Raipur Kalan, Raipur Khurd, Dhanas, and 3-BRD, which have the combined capacity of treating 53 MGD of

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wastewater, will be upgraded as per the latest norms fixed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The norms for BOD level in effluent as fixed by NGT is less than 10 mg per litre, but we are going even further to upgrade these plants as per the requirements that may arise in the next 50 years by keeping the BOD at less than 5 mg per litre, which I believe is first in India. This will be the most suitable effluent to be discharged in natural streams. We are

Narinder Pal Sharma

General Manager Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL)

also going to set up a new plant of 4.5 MGD capacity near the lake in Kishangarh, in this plant BOD level in effluent will be less than 2 mg with nil coliform because this water will be discharged into the lake when it gets dry, so it has to be of a very high standard. The latest technology will be adopted in this particular plant.

The entire water will be of tertiary use quality. From the municipal

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SPOTLIGHT: CHANDIGARH SMART CITY

corporation’s point of view, we are strengthening the tertiary water supply network. It can be used for irrigation purposes and later use it as the water used for washing vehicles at service stations and even for washing floors in industrial areas. We may later come up with double plumbing at least in industrial areas.

We have already floated the tender and are in the process of evaluating them.

We intend to complete this work by the mid of 2021. The sludge which will be formed in these treatment plants will be of Type-A, which will be free from pathogens. It can be safely used as manure anywhere.

“We are planning a solid waste management project, which is a municipal corporation project but a part of it is being done by us. It involves material recovery facilities and garbage transportation. We are going for a bin-free city.”

Which sewerage companies working on national or global level do you expect to come to Chandigarh for these projects?

We are looking at international level companies like Larsen & Toubro (L&T), VA Tech Wabag, Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited, Degemont Limited among others. These are some of the major players who are working with us in Chandigarh in waste management projects.

What is the project size?

The project is worth Rs 860 crore. It involves maintenance for 15 years by the company building the project. The Capex cost of the project is only Rs 328 crore and the rest involves the power consumption and maintenance cost.

Similarly, we are planning a 24*7 water supply project on the pilot basis that involves 865-acre area in Manimajra with a population of around 50,000 people and 13,700 water supply connections. The Request for Proposal (RFP) of this project is ready and very soon we will be floating the project tender. Although we are doing it as a pilot project, it will be extended to the

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entire city at a later stage. The size of this project is Rs 160 crore. We are seeking funds from the French Development Agency AFD to extend it to 1.5 lakh connections covering the entire city. We have prepared a DPR seeking Rs 397 crore and submitted its copy in advance to AFD. Under the 24*7 water supply project, we aim to eliminate all types of water-borne diseases and to supply water to the entire city with adequate pressure, as residents are currently

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facing the issue of inadequate water pressure and quality, especially during rains the contamination level in supplied water rises. This project will resolve all these issues along with water theft through illegal connections.

In the area of governance, we have launched an e-governance project which is being implemented by PwC for the initial period of one year at the cost of Rs 11 crore. Under this project, we are building an online plan approval system which is one of the core needs of the residents because they have to run from pillar to post to get the mandatory approvals for building maps.

It’s a joint project which involves Housing Board, UT Administration, and Municipal Corporation as well. Under this project, an umbrella app will be developed for the entire city where all kinds of services will be available online, even the payment gateways. It will enable the residents to access the information on their applications from the comfort of their homes. It will convert the internal services of the Municipal Corporation into e-office.

We expect good results from this citizen-oriented project.

In the area of surveillance and security, we have identified 40 junctions where surveillance and traffic management will be done. It will include RLVD

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SPOTLIGHT: CHANDIGARH SMART CITY

cameras for detecting traffic violations and cameras for reading registration number plates. For surveillance, there will be PTZ cameras installed at the entry and exit points of public parks, schools, community centres, markets, and government colleges. This project was given to BHEL and we have approved the technical proposal. They are now going to submit the financial proposal which after evaluation will be given the go-ahead signal by the end of December this year. To house the control and command centre, we are going to build a building in Sector 17 where Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADAs) of various departments will be integrated and all the data will converge at one centre, which will then be analysed with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Some of the concrete things evolving out of that data will be used by the administration in decision making. This project is worth Rs 200 crores.

material recovery facilities and garbage transportation. We are going for a bin-free city; nowhere will you see bins of 4.5 cubic metres lying. To achieve this we have to collect the garbage at the doorsteps of households and segregate it. Under this project, 400 vehicles are being purchased which will collect only segregated waste in the city. The rules in this regard have been notified to households by the Municipal Corporation, which makes it mandatory for them to give only segregated waste.

We have till now covered the villages and markets. We are gradually moving towards the grids. This is a combined initiative of the CSCL and the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. For

What are the initiatives taken in terms of Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC) and traffic management?

Under ICCC, we are going to install an automatic traffic control system. The signal timing will be made dynamic as all the signal systems will be able to interact with each other. They will assess the data on traffic coming from all the directions and the timing will be decided automatically by the software.

The Public address system, environmental sensors for monitoring air quality, etc, will also be part of this project.

Please throw some light on the waste management measures taken by the Chandigarh Smart City Limited?

We are planning a solid waste management project, which is a municipal corporation project but a part of it is being done by us. It involves

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DECEMBER 2019

example, CSCL is buying vehicles of 1.8 cubic metre capacity and rest is being bought by the CMC. The segregated waste materials are taken to the transfer stations, where separate capsules for dry and of 20 cubic metre are kept. The processed wet wastes are taken to compost plants and the dry wastes are taken to material recovery facility and the recyclable waste can be collected and processed further. Rest of the wastes is given to us, which we convert into Refused Dry Fuel (RDF). We utilise it further in a suitable manner. We are building three such facility plants across the city, in Phase 1 Industrial Area, 3-BRD STP site and Dadu Majra.

Another major initiative that we are about to do is the legacy waste bio-mining in Dadu Majra. Within this,

five lakh tons of legacy waste, which are more than 25 years old causing a foul smell and spreading diseases, are being eradicated through bioremediation process. This would also result in the recovery of 25 acres of land. Work has already started on this and is estimated to be completed within 1.5 years. The project is worth Rs 33 crore and the project is being dealt with by a Nagpur based company named SMS Limited.

Pollution is another area of challenge in urban development.

Are you taking any steps to boost urban mobility?

Yes, we are working on a project on a public bike-sharing system.

Within this, we will allocate as many as 5,000 cycles. This would be one of the biggest projects in India in terms of public bikesharing in the mobility sector. We intend to ensure last-mile connectivity. I have personally chosen each cycle station site.

The bicycles used within the project are hybrid cycles. This project is worth Rs 20 crore and will be executed in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.

Are there any other projects in the pipeline which are being worked upon?

There is another project, which may be small in size but would have a huge impact. The project is on providing hearing aids for the senior citizens of Chandigarh. We are designing a bus that would visit the senior citizens at their homes on call and conduct the medical tests and facilitate them with hearing aids. This project will be done in association with the ENT department of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh. The tenders of this project have been floated.

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SPOTLIGHT: PUNJAB INDUSTRIES

PUNJAB OPENING DOORS FOR INDUSTRIAL INVESTMENTS ACROSS SECTORS Punjab has a lot of potential in terms of industrial development. We have attracted investment of Rs 50,000 crore in the past 2.5 years, says C Sibin, Director, Industries, Punjab in an exclusive interview with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN). He also speaks at length about the scope and prospects of the various sectors such as food processing, IT and Textiles.

The Food Processing sector has attracted foreign investment so that has come up in a big way since Harsimrat Kaur Badal, our Punjab Minister also being the Centre Minister for Food Processing. What kind of growth has it seen in the past two and a half years?

When she was the Minister of Food Processing, new food parks have come up. One is in the public sector that is by Punjab Agro Corporation, Ludhiana. It is

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DECEMBER 2019

a 100-acre land and now it is expanding.

A lot of investment is coming in. Godrej Tyson is also there. Del Monte is also now coming and also a couple of main companies are coming in the public sector. So that’s a food park with around 100 crore investment both by the Government of India and Punjab Government also. Apart from that, there are private food parks one is in Faisalabad and the other one is in Phulwara. It is funded by the private sector but some incentives in the form of grant by the Government of India

C Sibin

Director, Industries, Punjab

worth Rs 15-20 crore for establishments of missionaries. This is another development that took place after she became the Minister of Food Processing. Apart from that, there are other schemes such as Kisan Sampada Scheme, which is mainly dealing with food processing. In that also they used to give a lot of incentives to the small investors. Now I think there is a new scheme for the promotion of self-help groups and small investors. They are

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SPOTLIGHT: PUNJAB INDUSTRIES

promoting their messages and unorganised sectors such as food processing units but that is in initial stages. That is the only development in the food processing sector but Punjab has a lot of potential. We have attracted investment of Rs 50,000 crore in the past 2.5 years. Almost 50 percent of this investment has been made by HMEL Bathinda. Pepsi and ITC have also made major investments in the food processing industry.

What is the scenario of the IT industry in Punjab?

Infosys has invested in the IT sector of the state. A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been created but as of now, it is not much active. STPI has also set up centre in Mohali.

What difference has this policy made?

There are a lot of attractive incentives such as there is fiscal incentive such as state GST but apart from that we are giving employment subsidy, security exemption, stamp duty exemption, EDC, CLU exemption so this is an attractive investment policy as far as policy is concerned. Apart from this, there are some business decisions across industries. Even if you give incentive they may be reluctant to come to the northern part of India which has its own set of challenges. So as far as logistics are concerned we are ranked the second-best in the country as we have very well developed internal roads – four ways, six ways roads, then we have two international airports, four domestic airports but with coming of this Eastern Freight Corridor and the Kolkata international industrial corridor, we will be in better position to deal with the challenge of deficiency of ports. After the Eastern Freight Corridor becomes operational, more investors are expected to come.

So it will not take much time to take containers from Punjab to the western

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ports. Land is a problem for us. Hence we are coming up with a land policy in association with the Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, Punjab.

coming up with State Ground Water Authority to permit because Central Ground Water Board has certain stringent rules but we are optimistic about getting it finalised soon.

We require some 1,000 acres of land for Amritsar- Kolkata Industrial Corridor so that is also being bugged out but the problem is that the land is very costly in Punjab. It is productive land unlike other states since Punjab is primarily an agricultural state. If you convert this cultivable land into industrial purpose there are many other social issues like people may lose their mainstay. Agriculture is their main source of income as they are cultivating the land but if you take away the land then we have to rehabilitate these people.

Please give an overview of the Textiles Sector.

There are certain pockets in Punjab where land is not very cultivable. What is the possibility to invest in those lands?

There are no barren lands except few located in the Kandi areas, which are semi-hilly in nature. These are located in areas around Ropar, Hoshiyarpur, etc.

Except for that Kandi areas, almost all the lands are cultivable land. If you use that land for industries, it is going to change the social structure also like people are who are from the agrarian background.

There are other issues also such as pollution, lack of potable and usable water scarcity. Already many restrictions on the groundwater quality has been levied in Ludhiana because of industrial exploitation. Now we are

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Previously there were many private textiles parks. Nowadays there are no takers for the textiles. There are a lot of textile schemes but our demand is less. Ludhiana is the hub of the textile of Punjab. Nowadays the challenge is that the raw materials are getting costlier. Since artisans and textile industrialists are getting raw materials from South East Asian countries and China is the main competitor that is producing not so quality material so they are getting very less prices. So this is the problem with the Textile industry. Ethical textile is a new sector which has a potential but again the industry has to shift into ethical textile. The Government of India has many schemes in the textile industry.

As far as the state government is concerned we have a special incentive. There is zero effect zero-defect scheme upgradation on the missionaries to reduce expenditure so that they are more profitable. In the policy also, we had made the provision of incentives for people who want to upgrade to the higher quality missionaries. We are also in the making of ‘Make in Punjab’ policy wherein we are giving preference to the ‘Make in Punjab’ units in all the procurement. These are some of the recent developments in the industrial sectors.

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

OUR FOCUS IS TO PORTRAY HARYANA AS KNOWLEDGE HUB OF NORTH INDIA Ankur Gupta

Principal Secretary, Department of Higher & Technical Education, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Haryana

Haryana has gradually evolved as knowledge based economy due to the abundance of capable and qualified human capital. It has immense opportunities to establish its distinctive footing not only in the country but in the world.

Empowering the students and making them educated and self- reliant has always been one of the prime concerns and focus of the Department of Higher Education, says Ankur Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of Higher & Technical Education, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Haryana in an interview with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN).

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DECEMBER 2019

What is the vision of the Department of Higher Education, Government of Haryana?

Department of Higher Education, Haryana acknowledges the importance of reforms that need to be taken overhaul education system in the state. Accordingly, the department is working on various initiatives, which will not only improve the overall education scenario but also help in portraying Haryana as an education hub in North India.

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Haryana has gradually evolved as knowledge based economy due to the abundance of capable and qualified human capital. It has immense opportunities to establish its distinctive footing not only in the country but in the world. Empowering the students and making them educated and selfreliant has always been one of the prime concerns and focus of the Department of Higher Education. The Department understands that Entrepreneurship plays a very important role in the economic development of the state and this objective can only be achieved by providing the Entrepreneurial Education to the youth, who wants to build their enterprises and become job creators of the nation.

“The Department has decided to provide an ecosystem to students where they become independent and earn by themselves through the promotion of entrepreneurship and freelancing opportunities.”

How is the Department working towards creating an ecosystem of entrepreneurship among the students?

The Department has decided to provide an ecosystem to students where they become independent and earn by themselves through the promotion of entrepreneurship and freelancing opportunities. Students will be provided those skills and technical know-how which will help them in utilising various freelancing platforms and generate income parallel to their studies. It is believed that empowering the students and making them educated and self- reliant can only be achieved by providing the Entrepreneurial Education to the youth.

We have signed a contract with an agency to execute this project.

We have also formulated a policy to establish Entrepreneurship Development Clubs (EDC) within the existing placement centres in all the State Universities, Government, aided and self-finance colleges of the state to inculcate ‘Entrepreneurial Culture’ amongst its youth and equip them with

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skills to act as job creators instead of being job seekers in future.

The EDCs are set up within the existing placement centres in all the higher educational institutions in the state.

This would be a part of the Department’s drive to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in the state. Through these EDCs, the Department of Higher Education, Haryana envisions a society of selfmotivated individuals’ kernel with a constructive and intense entrepreneurial drive leading to

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positive outcomes for the state. These EDCs would also facilitate campusindustry linkage on the higher education institutes of the state.

As per another policy, we are setting up Startup Incubators in Government colleges. At present, we have set up an incubator in Government College, Sector-1, Panchkula with overall 3,000 square feet of shell space. Various events including mentoring, pitching evenings, boot-camps, workshops for building the network of entrepreneurs are taking place which has witnessed huge responses from the students of Panchkula, Raipur Rani and Barwala colleges. The objective of these incubators is to encourage young entrepreneurs to build startups as well as create an innovation-centric atmosphere in various institutes of Higher Education, Haryana. The Department is setting up four more incubators in the Government Colleges of Karnal, Gurugram, Hisar, and Faridabad. Similarly, Incubators are set up in all State Universities.

To ignite the passion for Entrepreneurship amongst Higher Education students, the department has come up with annual startup

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

competition - Startup Pratyogita (SUPRATI) from June 2019 in all the colleges and universities in the state.

This competition is held in 31 colleges of excellence. The state-level committee will shortlist five startups and will be provided Rs 5 lakh seed money.

What is the role of Information Technology in the Department? Please share some of the major digital initiatives taken in this regard.

Haryana has recently launched its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution under IT plan intending to automate its front-end and back-end processes. Some of the modules of this ERP are online admissions, web-portal, Mobile App, Human Resource Management System (HRMS), Learning Management System (LMS), Asses Management, Complaint and Grievances, examination, scholarships, placement, Fee Management etc. Not only the department but other stakeholders (like students) are being highly benefitted with the ERP. To make information and tasks more accessible, we have developed a mobile App, Shiksha Setu, for its teachers and students. It offers features like Dashboards, Circular / News/ Events, Feedback, Notifications, Mark Attendance, Fee Detail, Health Detail, Results, Student Profile & Search, Image Gallery, Student Dashboard. Basically,

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DECEMBER 2019

Shiksha Setu is a common platform connecting teachers, students and administration for the Department of Higher Education.

To be a Door Opener for the students in a rapidly globalising world, it is important to follow the emerging Technological Trends that are shaping the future educational landscape.

Evidently, enough latest interactive teaching is changing the role of education with the introduction of multimedia, and an innovative effort of an institution helps in its academic excellence.

The technology of online education and all the digital initiatives can revolutionise higher education scenario in the near future. Accordingly, the department has devised a programme, DRISHTI (Digital Revolution in Information Studies in Haryana for Transformation and Innovation) to boost digital and e-learning in all

colleges. Department has signed an agreement with CEC for developing e-content for various subjects.

Workshop for more than 400 teachers of various subjects has been conducted in SUPVA for the use of e-content in teaching pedagogy.Â

How are you supporting the students of the state who are keen on pursuing higher education abroad?

To create awareness among students regarding premier Universities and Colleges outside India where further higher education can be explored, the department launched a project called PATANG. Principals to sensitise students of international courses and jobs and passport requirements and to appoint one teacher as Passport Officer in the college who will facilitate application procedure, appointment at the nearest passport office, faster police verification etc.

What are the major challenges of the education sector of Haryana and how are you planning to curb those?

One of the key concerns faced by our students is that the majority of them lack appropriate proficiency in soft skills and digital literacy. The lack of competence in soft skills and digital literacy is one of the major issues for

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

the students to land with better job opportunities in leading National/ Multi-National companies in the private sector.

Hence, a clear intervention is necessary to facilitate them in equipping with Industry is driven soft skill and digital literacy skills and enhance their employability to required levels. The Department is taking various initiatives to overcome these shortcomings and augment the opportunities available for students in the state by working closely with the Academia, Industry Associations and individual consultants.

The state plans to include mandatory components of soft skill and digital literacy for its degree students to enable them to face the job market in a better manner and secure gainful employment of their choice.

How do you plan to bridge the gap between skill demand and supply? What are your plans to make the students job-ready from the very first day?

The Department of Higher Education is proposing a programme for Apprenticeship in Higher Education and Learning (PAHEL) for the youth of Haryana, to align the education curriculum with the needs of industry and service sectors, and promote an On-The-Job exposure to all students in skill sets of their choice and aptitude. A combination of classroom and hands-on learning would equip students with professionally relevant skills, boost their employability, and thereby contributing immensely to their self-confidence, apart from improving the overall human resource in the country.

What are your initiatives to strengthen the skill set of academia or educators?

To address comprehensively all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation, and professional

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development, the Department is preparing a Human Resource Development programme for teachers by collaborating with the premier Center of Excellence of various Universities and Institutes. It will help in upgrading knowledge and inculcating leadership and management skills.

Accordingly, the Department has devised programme named Scheme for Academic Staff in Higher Education & Administrator for Knowledge Transfer (SASHAKT) under which faculty members will be required to mandatory training of five to six days in a year in fields of pedagogies and techniques, leadership, management, development skills, and other relevant areas. This annual training programme will be a blend of online and offline mode. The Department is in process of signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with various reputed universities, the centres of excellence and other institutes to provide training to our faculty members.

performance of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the state to improve the overall quality and enable them towards the path of excellence.

The framework has three components covering state and private universities, Government aided and self-financing colleges of the state. There are various parameters under 10 following components with a total weightage of 500 based on which the quality of the institutes are assessed: l Academic quality ( 30 Marks )

r Teaching and learning quality (95

marks)

r Research Quality and Impact (

25 Marks )

r Collaboration/Strategic Alliances

( 10 marks )

r Employability ( 80 Marks ) r Infrastructure ( 135 Marks ) r Inclusivity, Representation and

Diversity ( 20 Marks )

r Student Engagement/ Support

Services ( 40 Marks )

r Outreach activities and Social

Impact ( 30 Marks )

How does the Department ensure the quality of education provided by the institutes of the state?

r Governance and Management (

The department has developed a framework for quality Improvement in Higher Education Institutes termed as Performance Rating Yardstick for Academic Audit Standards (PRaYAAS).

The objective is to facilitate strict and continuous monitoring of the

Through PRaYAAS, we aim to identify gaps and challenges which are being faced by institutes. The overall objective of this framework is to encourage healthy competition and ensure a rewarding experience for Higher Education students.

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35 marks)

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SPOTLIGHT: HARYANA HOUSING BOARD

We are in the process of setting out a road map for future and also to assess the exact demand for houses with increasing migration. When we make houses and give these out we have to ensure that the monopolistic tendencies are kept in check, says Dr Shaleen, Chief Administrator, Haryana Housing Board in an exclusive interview with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN).

Deploying Faster Construction Model to Complete Affordable Housing Projects in Time-Bound Manner What are the challenges that Haryana Housing Board is facing in providing affordable housing to people?

Dr Shaleen, IAS Chief Administrator Haryana Housing Board

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DECEMBER 2019

In order to provide affordable housing to people, we have to understand that Urbanisation is a new phenomenon.

Haryana Housing Board has constructed about one lakh houses in past 40 years.

Migration is happening on a large scale mainly because of jobs that people are now seeking in cities for better living. The growth of migration that happened over

50-60 years spiked in past two decades and that too because developmental needs have grown exponentially.

Earlier people worked only for ‘roti, kapda and makaan’. Then the needs increased to ‘sadak, paani and bijli’. Over the past two decades the stress is on services.

Expectations have grown as now people look for a good house, quality water and other civic amenities. In a way the aspirations of people for a better standard of living have grown.

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SPOTLIGHT: HARYANA HOUSING BOARD

With this new stress on services, how has the migration led to more stress on the need for affordable housing?

By and large, we are still facing a population imbalance across the country. Even as urban population is growing, there are far more number of people who are living in the rural areas and eyeing the cities for jobs.

Urban areas are being seen as engines of growth which attract migrants with a promise of jobs and higher remuneration. This has led to our increased accountability that housing needs should be met at the right time for the right target of people -- mainly those who need it the most and can not afford the private constructions.

What is the main challenge that you face as an organisation?

The main challenge is to provide housing in urban areas in a time bound manner. This housing needs to be provided on time and at affordable and economical prices and of good quality as well.

What is the strategy that is being adopted to meet goals effectively?

We are in the process of setting out a roadmap for future and also to assess the exact demand for houses with increasing migration. When we make houses and give these houses we have to ensure that the monopolistic tendencies of people are kept in check.

Our main priority is to give houses to Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS).

We are targetting the end user.

What are the new initiatives that the Haryana Housing Board is taking?

We have finanlised a Mega Auction

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where about 5,000 properties are enlisted for sale through online mode so that cross checking of the credentials can be done to allow BPL and EWS. We have made a condition that only those living in BPL or from EWS can apply. Also, to eliminate chances of bogus applications, we have put a ban on sale of such properties for five years. As a welfare state this is our prime responsibility to promote affordable housing.

What kind of coordination is required for an organisation like Haryana Housing Board with other departments?

We have to coordinate with various departments like Town and Country Planning, Urban Local Bodies and Haryana Urban Development Authority that gives us land allotment date. After we get the land, the Housing Board is self sufficient to do all the construction activity on its own.

What are the new ways of construction that the Haryana Housing Board is trying for?

We are trying for faster construction options. As of now, we are doing the normal brick and mortar construction and the structure takes about three or more years for completion.

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Another advantage is that when you dismantle the structure there is some re-usability and the buy back option which the normal construction does not allow or afford. Due to environmental issues this is becoming the need of the hour. The perception of the people needs to be changed to bring acceptability to pre fabricated.

What is being done on the financial front to make it convenient for beneficiaries to buy a house?

We have entered into a tripartite agreement where a Higher Purchase Term Agreement of 13 years is being done to facilitate finances. We are also working on GIS platforms that will help us map the land available.

Measurements will be taken through electronic systems and it will be worked out in such a manner that payments will be made in a staggering manner. This will ensure that the beneficiary pays in installments and the contractor will also get payments on time. The Government of India scheme like Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) is also a good option where Housing Finance Companies are coming up to help poor people in realising the dream of affordable housing.

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SPOTLIGHT: TECHNOLOGY

SMART CITIES NEED SMART POLICE: TIME TO USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN POLICING

AI technologies are keeping a watchful eye on crowd control and surveillance, being increasingly used to identify criminals, and scanning video footage for anomalies. At the same time, the mere presence of such technologies can act as deterrence for crime to happen, writes Dr Yudhishthira Sapru, Senior Consultant, National eGovernance Division (NeGD), Ministry ofEletctronics & IT (MeitY), Government of India for eGov magazine.

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an smart policing be a reality in our cities? Should we wait for technology to mature? Can we handle it?Is it going to be a costly affair? - These questions might be troubling top cops who are at present at the helm of affairs in India’s growing smart cities. It is fair to ask these questions given the buzz around Artificial Intelligence (AI) but I would say the genie is already out of the bottle and there is no looking back. Artificial Intelligence technologies are entering an inexorable state and are here to stay. It is now only a

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matter of time that Police departments across the country start adopting them and make our cities more secure.

Different people may have a different meaning of smart policing. But, I am not talking about using a large number of latest night vision cameras in an area, where the video feed is being monitored by some policemen sitting in a police control room. There is no smartness involved. Human eyes have their own capacity and limitations. Earlier, there was no way out but today technology is

available which can automatically detect any untoward event and take evasive action immediately with no or minimal human intervention.

World over, police departments have started turning their attention to Artificial Intelligence technologies to undertake policing functions in an efficient and effective manner. AI technologies are keeping a watchful eye on crowd control and surveillance, being increasingly used to identify criminals, and scanning video footage for anomalies. At the same time, the mere presence of such technologies can act as deterrence for crime to happen. It is like the police are watching you always. AI offers a wide range of opportunities where technology can transform how law enforcement is done.

AI helps in keeping a watchful eye on the large crowdsand city-wide surveillance. It is essentially important in a country like India where we not only have highly populated cities but smaller cities also where the population is much higher

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SPOTLIGHT: TECHNOLOGY

compared to the global standards.

Whether it is love for a leader or devotion towards the religion, people gathering is no exception but an accepted norm.Commonly, during community events such as festivals, cricket matches, and cultural programmes we have thousands of people gathering in a very small area.

Crowd gatherings offer one of the biggest challenges to any city police and we can no longer rely on traditional ways of managing crowd. The complexities of obscuration and ambiguities in crowded scenariosmake video analysis a challenging task. Cameras at a crowd gathering and drones flying over the head do provide certain level assistance but the use of AI-based technologies, which have learned the crowd behaviour, really changes the scenario and it allows police to predict the behavior and make more informed decisions.

AI can not only help to make predictions about the footfall but can tell crowd density on a real-time basis. AI simulations allow identification of ‘choke’ points and based upon the moment patterns, it can tell where crowding is most likely to occur and, at times, can also help in averting a situation like a stampede happening.Slip and fall accidents can also be fairly accurately identified and bigger incidents can be avoided.

Also, the threat of terrorist activity at a large gathering is never ruled out. While police may put in best efforts to find suspicious or unattended objects lying, it is the AI that has the hawk-eyes to detect such objects in no time and raise an alert. It can also be effectively deployed at railway and metro stations where AI can effectively identify an object which has an owner beside it but is no one to attend after some time.

Technology also exists to detect theft in the crowd. AI can easily pinpoint a weapon or gun being flashed outside a discotheque and alert the police about the location on its own.

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technologies and enforcement could be customised to reap the benefits within the purview of law and keeping the interest of the general public in mind.

Dr Yudhishthira Sapru

Senior Consultant, National eGovernance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Eletctronics & IT (MeitY)

Another area where the technology is being increasingly deployed by the enforcement agencies in their day to day is the ‘facial recognition’ technology.

Recognising faces is a critical aspect of policing work. It has now become fairly easy to identify criminals from large gathering be it a photograph or a video clip. All that is required by the officials is a photograph of the individual which need not be the latest or of good quality.

In China, facial recognition is already being deployed in day to day policing.

For instance, a body camera on a police officer’s shoulder can let him know if the person he is talking to is on the police blacklist.

Clearly, there are privacy issues involved in facial recognition and the police should be highly judicious in using them.

While the Government of India intends to make law on privacy shortly, I believe,

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The fake news menace has left no country untouched and India is probably the worst impacted with news of incidents of mob lynching creating an uneasy environment in the country.While the use of social media and its high velocity together with the ability to edit videos and pictures with ease has propelled the fake news hazard, AI offers a big reprieve to the government agencies by providing the ability to not only identify fake news but also defend against it by predicting and containing its spread. AI can also help to identify maleficent accounts that propagate such news. Twitter, for instance, used AI algorithms to identify and closesome 3,00,000 terror-linked accounts.

Interestingly, today the latest weapon for the police forces to fight against crime is not an advanced gun but it is the data the ‘Big Data’ that we call. Predictive policing is already a reality and preventing crimes before they actually occur is what matters today. Data on the time, location, and nature of past crimes is being fed into statistical models to provide insights to police strategists concerning where, and at what times, police patrols should patrol, or maintain a presence, to have the greatest chance of deterring or preventing future crimes. In many US states and countries like the UK and Netherlands, data blended from

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SPOTLIGHT: TECHNOLOGY

population mapping and crime statistics along with current data have been effectively deployed for decision making, resulting in lower crime rates.

The primary goal of law enforcement agencies is providing society with an environment of safety and assurance by making efforts to deter and solve the crime. The changing social scenario calls for the police to become better equipped at handling crime. There are multiple ways in which AI can be applied to realise those goals and some of which I have touched in this article. It really depends upon the leadership to adopt the most suited technology for a city and implement it effectively.

We have seen police departments usually suffer from a force crunch, as permissions, approvals and long recruitment cycles impede the process of new people joining and thus impacting the effective functioning of our police forces. I believe, if things can be put into the right perspective, the police can turn their cameras, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and drones into force that is on duty 24*7, day and night, rain or dense fog, with eyes that never tire and the knowledge that is never forgotten but behavior that it learns with every frame that it captures.

There are also certain questions that need to be answered by the industry and technologists. Can the AI matchup with the Police’s unique requirements on speed, low error rates, and accurate predictions? Can we provide unique propositions to the police to save on the cost of buying technology which changes very fast? Can we deliver secure and reliable solutions that meet the requirements of our future smart cities?

AI with the coming of 5G and IoT is certainly much more capable of assisting the police but there is a caveat.

Limitations of AI such as inherent bias, opaque algorithms, and lack of complete datasets especially corresponding to the local population can result in the

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AI helps in keeping a watchful eye on the large crowds and citywide surveillance. It is essentially important in a country like India where we not only have highly populated cities but smaller cities also where the population is much higher compared to the global standards.

technology being ineffective or even harmful. On one side we see lawsuits are going on in countries against law enforcement agencies for infringing into privacy and on the other side, some countries are blindly using AI at the cost of human rights of their citizens. Thus it is imperative that before the actual deployment of AI technologies, their use and implications must be monitored and thoroughly evaluated.

To the critics of the technology, it is to say that the law enforcement agencies are mature enough to understand the technology. They understand how to reap the best out of the technology and how to be careful to not be too reliant on it. Human factors as the final decision maker should not be ruled out of the

equation. As regards reliability especially in Indian scenarios, these nevertheless are early days and models will become more predictive through machine learning as and more data of local populace is fed into them. The technology is here to stay and the only question remains to be answered is how the technology is applied by smart police to make our smart cities secure.

About the author: Dr Yudhishthira Sapru has more than 15 years of experience in e-Governance consulting, cybersecurity and IT programme management. He has a rich experience having been associated with more than 50 IT projects spanning both MNC and Government organisations. He is currently working as Senior Consultant

with National eGovernance Division (NeGD), MeitY, Government of India. He is presently part of the State eGovernance Mission Team and is associated with Chandigarh Administration for undertaking various IT and e-Governance projects. He has a doctorate degree in Management from Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is an alumnus of the prestigious IIM Lucknow and also holds a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from PEC, Chandigarh. He has also been certified by PMI-USA, UN-APCICT, and the University of Cambridge. His research papers have been published in well known national and international journals. He has received awards and accolades for various government organisations for his work in eGovernance.

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SPOTLIGHT: TRIVANDRUM SMART CITY

Trivandrum Smart City:

Introducing Smart Measures Yet Keeping Heritage Intact

Trivandrum Smart City is working on socio-economic inclusion apart from the basic urban services and development of smart roads by utilising technology. We want to give a unique identity to Trivandrum as well as keep the cultural heritage aspect intact, says P Bala Kiran, CEO, Smart City Trivandrum Limited in an exclusive interview with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN).

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Please share the progress of the Trivandrum Smart City projects that have been taken up.

Trivandrum Smart City emerged in the third round of Smart City Challenge and we have stood first in the third round.

Smart City project is extremely close to the heart of Trivandrum Municipal Corporation as well as the residents of the city. It involves a lot of stakeholder discussions, identifying and setting up projects, putting it in the format, submitting it to Smart City Mission and getting approval for it. We have got the approval in the third phase and created the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which started working in a full-fledged manner from last August. Within one year, we have made tremendous progress.Â

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P Bala Kiran

CEO, Smart City Trivandrum Limited

The project approved under the Smart City Plan is Rs 1,538 crore. As many as 43 projects under six subheadings are working for us. At present, work on 40 projects has started. Smart City project has a detailed pre-implementation phase, including Situation Analysis Report, Feasibility Report, Detailed Project Report (DPR), Request for Proposal (RFP), administrative sanction, technical sanction and tendering followed by the implementation. The Government of India has given us the target to the third round smart cities to tender 100 percent of the work by March 2020. We will be completing the whole work two months in advance to meet the target of the Government of India. At present, we have completed the DPRs for Rs 614 crore worth projects, out of which administrative sanction has been issued for Rs 560 crore worth projects. The technical sanction process is also going on and already Rs 250 crore technical

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SPOTLIGHT: TRIVANDRUM SMART CITY

sanctions have been issued. We have tendered almost 12 projects. We aim to complete the entire tendering process

by December.

What are the major highlights of Trivandrum Smart City?

We have divided the whole project into six modules – Urban Basic Services, Land Use Efficiency, Cultural Identity, and Heritage, Resilience and EcoFriendliness, Socio-Economic and Pan City Solutions. One major component in all Smart City projects is the Smart Roads Network, which is merging technology and utilities in road infrastructure. In Trivandrum Smart City also, around Rs 600 crore worth project is only for smart roads. In smart roads, all the on-ground utilities such as KSEB electricity lines, BSNL and Optical fiber lines will be moved to the shoulders of the road carriageways and will be given separate underground ducts where these will be laid together. We are also using high-end technology for ducting wherein even the small roads will be using the underground ducting.

On top of all smart roads, we will be having an excellent carriageway, a bicycle park, and a footpath. On the footpaths, we will have smart bus stops with variable messages and signs giving the GPS location of the bus and how much time it will take. Apart from these, we will build an information kiosk, drinking water kiosk, WiFi facility and an entire gamut of smart technology like smart poles and emergency call boxes across the smart roads.

Within the smart parking system, we have sensors to detect the presence of parking slots and an integrated command and control centre (ICCC).

We are also heavily deploying technology in smart city solutions wherein we are coming up with ICCC to integrate services of almost 15 to 16 departments and numerous services. It

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will also comprise of a traffic command control centre wherein we are using state of the art technology to regulate the city’s traffic. This includes red light violation cameras, over speeding cameras, automatic number plate detection and face recognition measures.

All these cameras are also being set up apart from 885 CCTV cameras wherein we want to leverage technology for traffic management. Also, we are coming up with an intelligent traffic control system at 53 junctions wherein the red light and green light will be merged in a way so that there is very little stoppage of vehicles. Wherever the traffic block is high, there will be an intelligent way to manage the duration of green light. We are also trying to get more green zones so that the vehicles will be continuously moving depending on the traffic pattern. These are some of the technologies which are being brought up in smart cities and will be going in for tender very soon.

What are the challenges you are facing in terms of integrating these plans? How do you plan to execute them and bring the citizens in confidence?

Apart from the basic urban services and development of smart roads by

utilising technology, there is a lot of socio-economic inclusion we are bringing in. Within this, we have identified three slums in Trivandrum core area and developing those as part of the slum rehabilitation plan. We are taking up anganwadis and the public health centres within this area and developing them to international standards. This has got a lot of traction.

We are also trying to make the vending zones organised and give them a heritage look. We aim to give smart cities a cultural identity.

At present, most of the cities look-alike with lots of flyovers and metros.

Whether you are in Delhi, Mumbai or Kochi, the unique identity of the cities is getting lost. If you go on a six-lane national highway, you cannot differentiate. Right from Kolkata to Chennai, the whole structure of roadways is the same. You do not know if you have reached Vishakhapatnam or Bhubaneswar because everything is being bypassed.

There is also a component called cultural heritage. We have a heritage town called East Fort where Padmanabhaswamy temple and all the palaces are located. We are taking up all these places under renovating cultural heritage project. We have already done Padmanabhaswamy temple renovation, rehabilitation, and restoration through Swadesh Darshan

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SPOTLIGHT: TRIVANDRUM SMART CITY

project, which is also part of the smart city project. Apart from that we are also building up some temple tanks and creating new heritage walks. This is the identity we want to bring back to Trivandrum which has not yet lost its charm since there is no metro or flyovers as of now. The city has its own cultural identity and we want to reinforce that.

“Trivandrum city is actually an administrative and a temple city. It is not a business city like Kochi, Mumbai or Hyderabad. It has got its own laid back, yet disciplined and organised atmosphere where organisations function within the particular working hours.

It is not as cosmopolitan as Kochi. Given this context, the smart city is concentrating more on developing urban infrastructure in a big way and tourism is an off shoot of that.”

What will be the eventual look and point of attraction in Trivandrum Smart City?

Trivandrum city is an administrative and a temple city. It is not a business city like Kochi, Mumbai or Hyderabad. It has got its own laid back, yet disciplined and organised atmosphere where organisations function within the particular working hours. It is not as cosmopolitan as Kochi. Given this context, the smart city is concentrating more on developing urban infrastructure in a big way and tourism is an offshoot of that.

As I am heading as Director for Tourism also in Kerala, we are also merging the aspect of cultural heritage within the smart city project. We are coming up with a project called Travancore Heritage Programme which looks back at various components of the Travancore dynasty and its later facets and its interaction with British Heritage and how it has now come back into a modern outlet.

Also, this is the place where Shri

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Narayan Guru had started a social renaissance movement and his birthplace is Chempazhanthy village which is located close to the city area.

He formed several temples that allowed entry of the oppressed classes in those times. Gandhiji has also come here several times which has its historic significance. We are integrating all those aspects into Travancore Heritage Programme and promoting it in a big way, especially by merging our museums, secretariats, art galleries, etc.

It has got huge roots of Travancore

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Dynasty till 1947 so we will be merging all of it into this project.

Any timeline you have set for the Travancore Heritage Project?

We are going in for the tender right now. The last date is 14 November for the tender of the consultant and we are estimating the duration of completion to be three years we will able to complete it.

Would you like to give out any message to the readers of eGovernance Magazine?

The aim of Smart City Mission is not to change the whole city. There are 100 wards in the Trivandrum Corporation but the Smart City project is happening in the Area Based Development of nine wards. We want these nine wards under the Smart City project to be imbibed with technology, state of the art infrastructure so that it becomes a model for people to adopt the practices in the smart cities and expand it to entire areas of the city. We want to bring in the concepts of technology, road infrastructure, multi-level car parking, tanks, social inclusiveness and all of these can be later expanded to the entire state. We also want to bring in a mindset change from the people.

We believe that not just urban infrastructure, we are also looking at civic mindset change and civic sense be instilled into the citizens of Trivandrum and of course the entire state.

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SPOTLIGHT: SMSEL

SMS Envocare Limited’s vision is to attain and retain top position in every environmental business line and enrich nature, which is achieved by constantly upgrading to the latest technologies and trends in achieving environmental sustainability, writes Hemant Kumar Lodha, Managing Director, SMSEL.

SMSEL: Striving Towards a Cleaner & Better India

“A Hemant Kumar Lodha Managing Director, SMSEL

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clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary in 2019,” said Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, India as he launched the Swachh Bharat Mission at Rajpath in New Delhi. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is the most significant cleanliness campaign by the Government of India. As India pledges for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the problems of high buildup of waste and its impact on the immediate and global environment calls for a smart handling

of waste which includes processing, disposal and recycling using the latest technology for waste management.

SMSEL with a view and a sense of responsibility towards a cleaner and better India is managing the highly hazardous, biomedical and other waste in the most scientific and advanced way.

SMSEL is a part of SMS Limited, Nagpur and is engaged in environmental infrastructure and consultancy services across the country. The parent

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company SMSL is an award-winning company and one of the best in infrastructure projects including highways, railway sliding, mining, irrigation, tunnels, power and environment.

SMSEL, with a team of passionate professionals, offers a wide range of best-in-class services which is spread across effluent treatment plant, common effluent treatment plant, sewage treatment, hazardous waste treatment, municipal waste management, biomedical & integrated waste management. We are an ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & OHSAS 18001 certified organisation with NABL accredited laboratories (ISO 17025 certified).

We are operating two state of the art facilities with NABL Accredited laboratories at Ranjangaon, Pune and Butibori in Nagpur for management and disposal of Industrial hazardous waste using the latest and one of the most environment friendly plasma technology for gasification of waste.

Our Biomedical Plant is one of Asia’s biggest BMW handling facility on the

basis of population served. We are operating India’s first and largest Sewage Treated Water Reuse Plant. We have developed Valley Secured Landfill using natural topography, first of its kind in India. We are currently working across the subcontinent with our presence across 23 cities across nine states and Union Territories.

Our consultancy division has NABET accreditation in 11 sectors and team of experts are working on EIA and EC for different sectors. We have marked our

footprint internationally with our biomedical waste management by starting a Common Biomedical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facility (CBWTF) in Uganda.

Our company’s vision is to attain and retain top position in every environmental business line wherever we are and enrich nature, and it is achieved by constantly upgrading to the latest technologies and trends in achieving environmental sustainability. We strictly adhere to world-class practices along with state-of-the-art laboratories and disposal facilities to set the right platform for SMSEL to excel in environmental and waste management.

SMSEL has been awarded the first-of-its-kind bio mining/old dump site reclamation work at Chandigarh. This is one of the flagship projects of Chandigarh Smart City.

Our future plan is to emphasise more on developing cost effective, environment friendly and innovative technologies for effective waste management and consultancy services across the country and to strive towards a cleaner and better India for our future generation.

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

R S Bal

Director Projects and Finance PIDB

PIDB - STRIVING TO IMPROVE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) is leaving no stone unturned to improve infrastructure to facilitate urban development. From healthcare to transport facility, it is working on every front, says R S Bal, Director, Projects and Finance, PIDB, in an exclusive interview with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN).

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The PIDB has undertaken many steps to make the state beautiful and smart in true sense. Tell us about some of the ongoing projects?

PIDB is making one convention centre cum hotel each at Mohali and Amritsar.

In addition, we are building one exhibition centre too in Ludhiana.

Then we have a very important project in Ranjit Sagar dam, an ecotourism destination planned over there. The project involves 77 acres of land and is waiting for the environmental clearance at the moment.

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We have built Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Jalandhar in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

A medical institute in Gurdaspur is at planning stage. The model of the project will be slightly different than the one in Jalandhar; it will be a Greenfield project.

We are working on an internal mobility plan for Patiala city. It is needed as the bus stand had to be moved out of the city to a new location which changed the entire public mobility dynamics.

The mobility plan is required so that the public do not face any inconvenience. In this light, we are planning to start a minibus service along with e-rickshaws or some other e-vehicles.

In Amritsar we are trying to stabilize Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project which we have recently implemented. Present ridership is around 30,000 and we intend to take that ridership up to 45,000 or so, in another few months.

We are making bus stations at Patiala, Roop Nagar, Raipur Kalan and Mansa; the last three are at the structuring stage; Patiala is already in the bidding stage.

This seems to be a rather big project with 77 acres of land involved. What components will it have?

It will basically have eco-huts, ecotourism, maybe a small convention centre, water sports and some trekking.

It will be made according to the eco-tourism policy of the State. The ecology of the area will not be disturbed in any manner.

We have opened a Kikar lodge; it is a first of its kind private development project in Punjab.

Tell us about Harike Wetland and Bird Sanctuary Harike holds importance from the bird watching point of view and ecological study. Earlier, resort was not there.

Project of similar scale was not planned earlier. They had planned something for the Amritsar tourists, to make them

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Then we are doing another project, which will connect four cities: Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. That is the operation and maintenance of the existing industrial focal points.

Basically the infrastructure in industrial states is not very good.

The maintenance is not of good standards. For that, we are trying to bring in a private player/partner who will be entitled to collect the property tax and maintenance charges from the plot holders, the industrial houses over there. In turn they will manage the entire area that is the road, infrastructure, street lighting, and water supply.

Shed light on Qila Mubarak project. visit Harike. That plan was there, but not a full-fledged resort where a person can go and stay. A total of Rs 450 crore is the cost of the project.

In Amritsar, which are the projects in the pipeline?

In Amritsar we are trying to stabilise Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project which we have recently implemented. Present ridership is around 30,000 and we intend to take that ridership up to 45,000 or so, in another few months. We are also leveraging local Frequency Modulated (FM) radio channels, meeting different pubic groups to make them aware of the public transport system and its usages.

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Another project in the pipeline is the Qila Mubarak, Ranbas, which is a heritage hotel. It will be completed in another six months. Tourism department is doing the restoration work. Once the restoration work gets completed, then we will be doing the bidding and getting in a private sector player.

Who will be potential bidders for the project?

All those people who are operating on similar such projects. It may be Taj, Neemrana Group, Oberoi’s, whosoever is into heritage hotels. All those will be the potential bidders in this project.

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES WORK TO UPLIFT WEAKER SECTION OF SOCIETY: H K SHARMA The vision of the Department is to bring the majority of people of the state under the cooperative fold for overall socio-economic development in a sustainable manner, says H K Sharma, Secretary of Cooperative Department, Sikkim in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the vision of the Cooperative Department, Sikkim?

The main objective for establishing the Cooperative Department was to provide impetus to the Cooperative Management in the state. As an institution based department, we work as a facilitator for cooperative societies in terms of providing legal framework under which cooperative societies are registered. We also provide guidance and financial support.

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It is the vision of the department to bring the majority of the state’s people under the cooperative fold for overall socio-economic development of the state in a sustainable manner by settling different profit making business depending upon the scope of raw materials and market so that likeminded people join hands to establish any profit oriented business through cooperative societies.

What are the major sectors or departments that come under

H K Sharma

Secretary of Cooperative Department, Sikkim

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

the purview of this department and what are the roles played by the Department to develop these sectors?

The cooperatives were registered initially for public distribution system and consumer items. Over the period of time, agriculture and allied activities, tourism have become some of the major sectors where cooperatives have been registered. Besides, cooperatives under education, health and public works (contractor and labor) have also been registered. The department also addresses the agricultural credit need of the people through cooperative banks and primary agriculture cooperative societies.

Most cooperatives in Sikkim are way behind in IT. We have a huge challenge in making our cooperative societies avail IT and at the first instance we are taking steps to computerising our cooperatives.

As the secretary of the department, what are the initiatives taken by you?

Since my posting to the department in July 2019, I have extensively toured and visited cooperatives registered in the rural areas taking stock of all the challenges faced by the cooperative societies. We have identified weak cooperatives and have taken initiatives to adopt these by our field functionaries. Initiative is also being taken to go beyond the consumer business and motivate people to register cooperatives in different sector like tourism, health, on value addition etc. We are laying emphasis on educating and spreading awareness amongst people as well. We are also taking initiatives to make cooperative programmes into government policies and making cooperative a priority policy of the state.

What are the various welfare measures taken for the development of the weaker members of the state?

Cooperative societies are basically business institutions for the upliftment of socio-economic needs of the weaker

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section of society. It is owned and managed by the members themselves and are democratically controlled by the elected board of members. Though our legally binding Act and Rules of the state governing the cooperative societies, it is ensured that there is equal representation of weaker section of members in the board enabling them to voice their opinion in management of the cooperatives. The government has also helped in subscribing share capital in the cooperatives for the weaker sections of society. Several welfare schemes of government like distribution of Public Distribution System Items have also been channelised through cooperatives.

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Rural credit needs of people have also been addressed through cooperative sector. Marketing of agricultural produce has also been to a certain extent channelised through cooperatives. Majority of the weaker section members can avail these benefits through cooperative societies.

How are you leveraging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain etc for offering seamless services to the citizens?

Since the cooperative sectors are developing in the state and is already facing challenge in terms of technology.

Most cooperatives in Sikkim are way behind in IT. We have a huge challenge in making our cooperative societies avail IT and at the first instance we are taking steps to computerising our cooperatives.

What is your message for the readers of eGov magazine?

It is the duty of every citizen of the country to support the government in its e-governance policy if we have to move ahead and be a part with the rest of the world. eGovernance magazine has been putting its sincere efforts to reach to all sections of society. I wish all the very best in their endeavour.

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SPOTLIGHT: TOURISM

KERALA WILL BE

KNOWN AS 365DAYS TOURISM

DESTINATION

Kerala, God’s Own Country has survived the wrath of nature in 2018 in the form of a disastrous flood.

Despite the negative growth in that period, the state has braved up and the Department of Tourism has launched several innovative initiatives to boost tourism in the state. P Bala Kiran IAS, Director, Kerala Tourism shares detailed insights of his vision to make Kerala a yearlong tourist destination In this exclusive interview with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN).

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DECEMBER 2019

P Bala Kiran

Director, Kerala Tourism

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SPOTLIGHT: TOURISM

You are heading the Department of Tourism in Kerala as Director for the last two years. You have taken up so many meets and roadshowsoutside India as well.

How fruitful was IT? Since the last three years, Kerala tourism has embarked on the path of ‘God’s Own Country’ version two, I would say. Kerala as a tourist destination has been attracting the majority of the tourists to the south of Kerala. However, the main tourism season is of just six months duration, from October to March. Rest of the year is lean tourism season in the state.

We have taken a large number of steps under the leadership of the Hon’ble Tourism Minister and Secretary, Government of Kerala to make the state a 365-days tourism destination. It will be known for not only leisure destination but also Ayurveda, Adventure and activity tourism, Sports, MICE tourism and Village Life Experiences (VLEs)

“We will also be expanding tourism from the southern Kerala to Northern Kerala. We have taken up huge projects and invested around Rs 350 crore in North Kerala to create new tourism products and infrastructure to attract people.”

We will also be expanding tourism from Southern Kerala to Northern Kerala.

We have taken up huge projects and invested around Rs 350 crore in North Kerala to create new tourism products and infrastructure to attract people.

We have also created a lot of new tourism products for the lean season.

For example, the most important project is the Champions Boat League wherein we have created a league of snake boat races in asimilar format as that of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

It was flagged off by none other than Cricket Legend – Sachin Tendulkar.

From 31 August to 23 November 2019, we have conducted snake boat races with nine teams with a franchisee model. Each boat has 100+ people rowing in unison. They are given points from 10 to 1 and the points keep on adding for 12 races in the League table.

A live audience of 22 lakh have visited and seen the race at the 12 venues in

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the first season. More than 18.5 million people have seen on Star Sports, Asianet, ETV and Hostar. The commentary is done in six languages Hindi, English, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil. It has generated a lot of interest in the field of water sports as it is now the world largest water team sport. It also provides a vision that every tourist visiting Kerala will be able to view at least one snake boat race by purchasing tickets and have a beautiful viewer experience.

With these products, we can make it

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into a 365-days tourist destination.

Snake Boat racing is a traditional sport. How will you invoke the excitement among people outside Kerala?

The good thing about snake boat races is that it is a visual delight. The linear shape of boats and great synchronisation with 120 rowers in unison creates a visual appeal. Hence, we are pitching it as a tourism product and not just a sports product. It has already generated a lot of interest in people and we want to project it similar to the Dragon boat race in China and Thames river festival in London.

Are the participants in the snake boat race hail from Kerala only?

Although the majority of the rowers are from Kerala, there are rowers from Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, and some other states as well.

Owing to the diversity, we are calling it ‘India on a Boat’. The snake boat race or rowing is pure team effort and the understanding between rowers is very important to win the race. Hence, the concept of unity is also highlighted through this race.

What are the venues for the snake boat race?

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SPOTLIGHT: TOURISM

There are 12 venues in six districts of the Champions Boat League and all these venues are world-famous tourist destinations. The venues include Alappuzha, Kollam, Kumarakom, Kochi and Thrissur, where every weekend from 2pm-5pm, snake boat races were conducted.

Could the recent floods affect tourist footfall?

The recent Kerala floods in 2018 have been the worst in a century. Though physical tourism infrastructure has not been greatly damaged but we have faced severe business loss inthe tourism sector. There was a perception that Kerala was under water. For four months, from August to November 2018, there was negative growth and a huge loss of business worth more than Rs 1,000 crore. But we had countered it with a strong positive narrative of Kerala Tourism, ‘Kerala Tourism is back’.

The Hon’ble Minister, Secretary and Ihave gone to various cities in India and abroad and have shown Facebook Live videos of each of the destination. We have conducted destination audit and presented it in front of the Media.

We have also organised Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) in September wherein we invited 1,650 tour operators from almost 100 countries and all the states in India and arranged FAM trips for them. It generatedhuge confidence in them that Kerala has recovered. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale which took

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place in Kochi in December 2018 till February 2019 has been such a roaring success that people forgot that those areas were flooded six months back. By December 2019 we saw positive growth in tourist arrivals. The first quarter this year saw around seven percent growth and in the second quarter, we doubled it to 15 percent and third quarter of 2019, we have achieved 23 percent growth. CNN Travel declared that Kerala is one of the must-visit 19 destinations in 2019 and Lonely Planet magazine has said that Kochi is among top 10 must see cities in 2020. Thus, our sustained tourism promotion campaign has been a resounding success.

Now you have many plans in place covering northern Kerala.

Are there any new campaigns like Kerala Reloaded?

In north Kerala, we have launched Rs 325 crore “Malabar River Cruise Project” covering eight rivers and coming with various Village life experiences along the River cruise route. Thalassery Heritage project amounting to Rs 155 crores, will conserve, preserve and showcase the rich cultural history of Arakkal, Chirakkal dynasty along with Portugese, Dutch, French & British influences in the region. The Kerala Government has come up with a new campaign called ‘Human by Nature’ wherein we are presenting not just our backwaters, hills, rivers, beaches, waterfalls but we are presenting our

people and cultureat the forefront. We project the people of Kerala as ambassadors of tourism and we want to underline the rich heritage that Kerala possesses. Kerala government has now started four huge heritage projects in Kerala - Thalassery Heritage project in North, Muziris Heritage ProjectandAlappuzha Heritage Projectsin Central Kerala and Travancore Heritage Project in Trivandrum. These four heritage projectsare going to give a strong fillip to this campaign called ‘Human by Nature’ and it is now being presented everywhere including TV channels, newspapers, radio, cinema halls, hoardings, etc. We are running this campaign not just in India but across the world.

As the Director of Kerala Tourism, would you like to give any message to the readers of eGov Magazine?

Our message is that all the nature lovers, students of heritage and travelers should come to Kerala. We have hugely reinvented many tourism products and we promise that you will have a great time visiting Kerala. We are now showcasing village life experiences, our rich cultural heritage through our heritage development projects, and our new addition to Kerala Tourism product, the Champions Snake Boat League, the IPL style snake boat races. I would promise that you will have a great gala time cherishing the surreal beauty of Kerala.

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SPOTLIGHT: AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN IS AT AN INTERESTING CROSSROADS DUE TO ITS IMPORTANT STRATEGIC LOCATION CONNECTING SOUTH ASIA WITH CENTRAL ASIA, WHICH IS GREATER ASSIMILATION AMONGST THE WORLD, WRITES NEELAPU SHANTI FOR ELETS NEWS NETWORK (ENN) IN THIS SPECIAL ARTICLE ON AFGHANISTAN’S 100TH YEAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

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Afghanistan’s Trade Trajectory on 100th year of Independence

M

arking Afghanistan’s 100th year of Independence, it is important to understand the enthusiastic drivers that are constantly elevating the country’s stand with the fast-growing economies and acknowledging Afghanistan in the new world order. Given the ongoing challenges backed by the development steps, Afghanistan will be etched in the history of the world as an epoch event bringing the government’s thrust on education, improved trade and investment, skill development measures.

Afghanistan’s reform primarily in trade and investment sector has been trying to untangle their economy affected by war and conflict. Afghanistan is at the interesting crossroads due to its important strategic location connecting

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South Asia with Central Asia which is greater assimilation amongst the world.

Afghanistan’s position can be regained by creating levers that will ensure equanimity and equal opportunity in the world.

Facing strong headwinds Afghanistan stands tall, concurrently mitigating the factors for growth and development.

The prism of inclusive growth of Afghanistan is manifesting in myriad ways. Reflecting on trade and investment, Afghanistan’s progress shows a marked improvement by securing 164th position at Doing Business Index (DBI) in 2018 of the World Bank.

More importantly, this index reflects Afghanistan’s potential to change the business landscape over the years for enduring welfare of its people.

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SPOTLIGHT: AFGHANISTAN

Completing 100th years of Independence, Afghanistan aspires for inclusive development, rejuvenate, and recalibrate its historical legacy and taking pride about the progress, the country has made in spite troubled times.

Afghanistan’s trade and investment has accelerated at a considerable rate. As per the World Bank Report 2017, Afghanistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 2.8 billion USD. In 2018 ,Afghanistan’s export accounted for 824 Million USD. Afghanistan has the immense calibre to become an economic force in the world.

exploited. The revival of cottage industry and micro, small and medium enterprises related to food and dairy processing, textile, handicrafts, carpet, leather, animal meat and fibre, semiprecious stones and marbles.

Afghanistan’s trade and investment Strengths The uniqueness of Afghanistan’s trade dimensions is intensifying the regional market demands. Afghanistan’s connectivity potential has been improving tremendously for the past two years.

growth inclusive, equitable and participative. Afghanistan’s main crops include wheat, corn, barley, rice, grapes, fruits (apples, pears, pomegranate, almond, pistachios, apricots), vegetables, potatoes, onions, saffron, oil seeds including cotton, soybean and canola.

The Agricultural sector contributes to about a quarter of the country’s GDP. Under the ambit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MAIL) has announced eight projects for investment for which the government is encouraging to provide required support and cooperation which include saffron value chain development, Afghan Dairy Industry Development (ADID), Agricultural Cold Storage project, establishment of fruit packing and storage complex, establishment of pine nut processing centre, modern slaughterhouses, operation and maintenance of established modern slaughterhouses.

Afghanistan’s fresh and dried fruits have an outstanding reputation in a region that creates a large market of Afghani goods.

Energy

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The mammoth task is achievable by bringing peace and regional cooperation. While the aspiration levels of Afghanistan have been going up through successive projects to name a few are air corridor programme, Chabahar port, Salma Dam Irrigation project, small development projects among others which are in the pipeline include CASA-1000, TAPI, TUTAP and TAP.

Agriculture

Afghanistan’s greatest potential is in the mining sector and has immense oil and gas reserves which are yet to be

Around 80 percent of the country’s population is involved in Agricultural activity which is paramount making

DECEMBER 2019

Agriculture sector lies at the heart of socio-economic change and empowerment aims to place the country at a valuable platform with relatively well-functioning marketsexports as well as domestic value chains. Afghanistan’s horticultural crops and intensive livestock are profitable in the market.

Incentivising robust investment in the energy sector, Afghanistan has the potential to produce 3,10,000 megawatts of electricity as per the Ministry of Energy and Water of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has investment an opportunity of about 4834.42 million USD. Afghanistan is endowed with natural resources and its capacity to produce energy is extremely high and undaunted.

Incentivising robust investment in the energy sector, Afghanistan has the potential to produce 310,000 megawatts of electricity as per the Ministry of Energy and Water of Afghanistan while currently, it imports 75 percent of its electricity from abroad and produces very little

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SPOTLIGHT: AFGHANISTAN

domestically. Afghanistan needs 6,000 megawatts of electricity annually, and if it reaches its full potential of production (3,10,000 megawatts), there will be a large amount of surplus energy ready to be exported to the neighboring countries. Afghanistan has investment opportunity of about 4834.42 million USD. Afghanistan’s energy market provides an excellent investment opportunity because so far there is lack of competition in this area. Furthermore, solar energy is another investment opportunity in Afghanistan. The country has more than 300 sunny days in a year, therefore, making the solar energy a cheap, obtainable and renewable source of energy.

providing equal opportunities for all investors.

Connectivity Potential

Mining A huge untapped potential exists in the mining sector of Afghanistan as the country holds a capacity of more than 1 trillion USD worth of mineral deposits.

The country has world class deposits of iron ore, copper, gold rare earth minerals and a host of other natural resources. The High Economic Council has approved 38 mining project for investment in Afghanistan and soon the tendering schedule will be announced.

Telecommunication At present, Afghanistan’s mobile telecommunication market is served by four private companies and one public company, with private firm investment up to USD 2 billion. With more than 25 million subscribers, mobile phone networks cover about 90 percent of the total population. The ministry of Information technology has prepared an “open access” policy. This policy provides investment opportunities for domestic and foreign companies in establishing optic fibre network and internet service providing.

Furthermore, the policy works toward proper regulation of the industry and

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Afghanistan’s transport system consists of road transport, civil aviation, railways and inland waterways. In 2014- 2015 road transport generated 7.344 million ton-Km, while fledgling railways with its short 75 km line produced about 100 million ton-Km. Afghanistan’s connectivity potential has been improving tremendously for the past two years.

Air Corridor programme The key to connectivity is launched with the operationalisation of the air corridor programme between Afghanistan and India since 2017, connecting to Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Kolkata with Kabul and Kandahar. The country also connects with UAE, China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. With the increasing frequency of the Afghanistan air corridor programme reflects a positive overview of the broader economic dimension between different nations and very soon Afghanistan will be connected to Indonesia through this air corridor programme.

Chabahar Port The Chabahar port connectivity is an

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important milestone in connecting Afghanistan with India in particular. As per the Afghan Ministry of Economy strategy on productive Afghanistan is proposed to elevate by commercialisation with new modalities that strengthen the competitive advantage of the private sector, including a gear shift towards largerscale commercial activities.

Five Nations Railway Project Afghanistan’s three dry ports which are linked with railways to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and the fourth railway linkage with Iran is underway to connect with Afghanistan, India, Central Asia and China to the port of Chabahar.

Afghanistan is consistently supporting its active participation in regional linkages and cooperation mechanisms.

Economic and trade cooperation is growing dramatically in Afghanistan.

Development cooperation and joint efforts in trade and investment including education training, culture, and people-to-people exchanges are deepening, creating an enduring social foundation enduring ties in the region.

Afghanistan has entered in the new period of development and this requires renewed efforts and determination from the regional countries to realise always greater achievements and live up to the expectations.

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SUCCESS STORY

SUPARNA SYSTEMS

S

SUPARNA SYSTEMS: two eGov A SUCCESS STORY OF tAsKs At hAnD SUCCESSFUL E-GOVERNANCE uccessful E-Governance projects has transformed the lives of citizens of India by making the government services available through online and mobile applications.

E-Governance remains the major thrust area of Government leaders and it can Curb revenue leakages—as high as 35 percent in some be judged by the large scale campaigns states—and electrify all of rural India by 2012 and initiatives lunched by Government.

TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

By Vidur sehgal E-Governance projects are usually large in scope, high in complexity and requires extensive process engineering.

Across countries, technology and change management is the biggest enabler of successful implementations.

World Bank has outlined three phases of E-Government. (a) Phase 1 - Publish - Using ICT to Expand Access to Government Information (b) Phase 2 - Interact - Broadening Civic Participation in the Government (c) Phase 3 - Transact - Making SATISH KUMAR Government Services available CEO, Suparna Systems online. he recent decade More recently, information industry bears a strong

T

or so has witnessed

technology has been playing a

overview of two of highly successful E-Governance projects. These projects are implemented by Suparna Systems, which has developed a unique ability to understand government processes, citizen interaction models and coming up with an IT implementation. Along with the technology, it has mastered the art of hand holding and change management.

Suparna Systems was founded by Satish Kumar, who had earlier worked at Cisco Systems San Jose California and while working took few courses at Stanford University.issues when considered along

correlation with the growth of

with the fact that power is the

Gartner has also outlined four key phases Citizen Services the project tremendous growth role of in transforming busi- By Satish the economy.

For a target Among GDP enabler for all industries point Founded Kumar, E-Government.

In phase three which stands out is Online in several key sectors of the nesses. Corporations around growth rate of 8 - 10 percent, to the need for thisNoida sector to Suparna Sytems Has Been transactions arethe covered phase Charter a government tomajor citizen Indian economy. As world’sand inthe world are embracing IT the power industry needs Citizen to be a key thrust area for four transformations are covered.

If we (G2C) electronic delivery of city In largest democracy continues with an objective Instrumental to reduce grow by nearly a similar margin. e-Governance initiatives. go in detail, phaseisthree bank municipal services.

The project to march along, there a clearof world cost, increase productivity, India’s energy requirement by Government policies helped and Implementing Several more or less overlaps with phase three city of NOIDA achieve the spot in and urgent need to address streamline operations, improve 2030 is projected to be nearly reforms can have atop positive phase for foursustained of Gartner model. online services Projects. the and challenges customer serviceE-Governance and gain six times of what it currently is. citizen impact on anydelivery sector ofamong the cities in India.

Almost a year later the growth. One of the key areas a competitive advantage.

A lack ofBrings focus on the distribueconomy. An analysis of the This Special Article In India if we see at most state city became the first city in India to requiring attention is the ability The enabling of government tion side over the years has telecom sector shows how An Overview Of Successful government departments public using technology offer closethe to opening 50 mobile governance of the government to deliver and functions is resulted in energy losses as up of the sector sector undertakings, they are past services, taking the lead spot quality and reliable public gaining importance through the highOf as 35 percent in several to private players hasamong led to all Implementation Third phase one and more or less past phase cities in Mobile Governance. services to citizens in a manner concept of e-Governance. states whereas the world averincreased competition, reduced Phase Of World Bank (Most of has social media thattwo is efficient andthem transparent.

The growth of the power age is about 10 percent. These tariffs and improvement in accounts of Facebook and Twitter and NOIDA asservice. a city and burgeoning IT E-Governance Model.

The apower sector too engage in active participation with and startup hub, having close to a is in the process of undergoing Key benefits the R-APDRP citizens) and are inof third phase of world PRoject million population, online structural delivering changes driven by • Improved voltage profile of the consumer bank model. It is in this phase where and change management. As an citizen services was a key governance reforms. The ecosystem of the • Practically zero theft of energy goals of process reforms, statistics, close to 15 percent goal and priority citythrough government.

•key Negligible failure of distribution transformers sector isfor going a phase and enhanced transparency E-Governance projects succeeds and Suparna Systems was selected as IT •automation Drastic reduction in LT line losses. of transition and is seeing the •are Elimination of chances of adding illegal motors achieved. among those there are very few implementation agency this compaproject introduction of for several • Considerable reduction in peak power losses due to reduction in KVA capacity and better voltage profile (countable on finger) which are highly through a nies competitive bid process in with different capabilities.

• Consumer involvement in safety and upkeep of distribution transformers due to dedicated installation Execution of E-Governance projects successful.

March 2014.Opportunities Pleased withfor the previous • Improvement in overall system efficiency remains a major challenge in both track record of successful of e-Governance aredelivery present in dimensions of technology enablement In this article, we are covering a brief E-Governance projects and work profile

54 egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2010 48 DECEMBER 2019

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SUCCESS STORY

SUPARNA SYSTEMS

of Satish Kumar, city entrusted the solution and its field testing for solution WORLD BANK most important and crucial works of to handle the basic tenet of the scheme RECOMMENDATIONS eGovernance - “Development of . With a number of field trials and reformed process models, its IT iterations the team led by Satish Kumar FOR PHASE 3 implementation and change developed an Android Mobile management” to Suparna Systems.

Application. The mobile application was l Target audiences that will After studying the various city able to seamlessly switch over offline to have immediate use for the To bring in efficiency in the governance models of western world, online mode with storing the data distribution sector, the act has online services. provision for: their citizen interfaces and city mobile required for particular villages for l Enlist the support of those applications (citizen interfaces and 311 offline access.(A) oPEN ACCEss: There is a non The work measurement who will be using the site and mobile applications of Houston, Los in the fields (including agricultural discriminatory provision for use address the concerns of of transmission lines, distribution Angeles, Baltimore and Edmonton was fields) with geographic co-ordinates Government workers and system and associated facility by publicly available on their websites and (Lat, Long wherever it was available in any consumer or the licensee to whose role will change as a mobile applications on google play offline mode and every time when wheel power from any available result of the innovation. store), the team lead by Satish Kumar, mobile signal source to the desired destination is there) was able to be l Integrate e-government with did the process re-engineering and IT captured along with photo and for its use. process reform, streamlining implementation within six months. A seamlessly pushed to state servers (b) DIsTrIbuTIoN FrANChIsEE: year later a mobile application was when the mobile came into area where and consolidating processes There can be appointment of delivered by same team which served signal was there.

The application was a person or a body corporate before putting them online. authorised by distribution as example for other cities. The project able to fulfil the basic tenet of scheme l Recognise that initial licensee to distribute electricity was a outstanding example of team and was cutting edge in terms of user investment in transact systems on its behalf in the designated collaboration between city government interface and usability.

The technology the distribution segment. The total length ofcan transmission and in distribution pay off over time terms of electricity. area within his area of supply. and IT vendor, with vendor delivering enablement was par excellence.

The distribution utility has been and distribution 6.6 are due to technical of lines costissavings andThese increased (C) PArALLEL DIsTrIbuTIoN on IT enablement and switchover to application bridged the Digital Divide of evolving over the years from million circuitrevenue. km (cKm)—the losses, unmetered or unbilled LICENsEE: The regulatory application. poor network connectivity in villages manual processes to standalone third largest inlthe world, a asportal per supplies, theft or pilferage. commission can appoint a second Create for online andasrural areas for allotment and licensee in any specified area IT applications. e-Governance Investment Commission of India.

These losses are as high services.

As the news of successful measurement of work. provided the new licensee is ready can take this a step forward by It is estimated that India will 35 percent in some of the to create a separate distribution implementations start spreading among transforming the utility into a need 315 -335 GW by 2017 and states. To curb these losses, the network to evacuate power for Government leaders, Suparna Systems to2030. travel there. The actual work The mobile application drew the customer-centric organisation.

800 GW ofneeded power by Accelerated Power Distribution consumers in that area. was approached by Mahatma GandhiThe government locationshas where geo-stamped photos attention of government leaders in set and Reforms Program (APDRP) National Rural Employment Guarantee has to be taken were spread across central government.

Impressed with the Growth and reforms a target to add an installed was introduced during the 10th scheme (MGNREGA) commissionerate several kilometers. work, the Government of India invite INPuT-bAsED DIsTrIbuTIoN Availability of power is one of capacity of 90,000 MW during Plan. The program is scheduled in at Bangalore in end ofthe 11th Plan (2007-12). This commissionerate in FrANChIsEE moDEL theKarnataka most important ingredients to continue during thethe 11thMGNREGA plan 2015.

MGNREGA is a welfare scheme For a small startup, CEO does the most Bangalore to demonstrate the for industrial growth. It is an growing demand for power as the Restructured-APDRP The franchisee and utility need to run by Government of India through of the work and same was true with functioning and working of application. enter into a commercial contract important infrastructure facility has worsened the demand(R-APDRP). The government with an objective to establish the state governments and in Karnataka Suparna Systems.

The solution was to To observe the working of the without which no industrial supply gap over the years. It has allocated Rs. 50,000 crore following: state over of in beneficiaries develop a mobile application can with application, Government of India sent a activity canten be millions thought of has reached a level where peak underwhich this scheme the were getting guaranteed employment work both in offline (no network team of officials to study the Mobile • u

ndertake all commercial modern times. deficit of power is 13 percent. To primary objective of reducing activities relating to issue through that.

The basic tenet of scheme connectivity) and online mode and Application developed so that similar Thermal, hydro and nuclear overcome this, India’s energy AT&C losses. of new service connections, was allotting the work to the eligible seamlessly transition between online/ concepts can be implemented in the are three major sources of sector will require an investGovernment of India has metering, billing, collection, beneficiaries in villages and rural area offline mode and push the data and Mobile Applications across the country. power generation. Installed ment of US$ 120 billion to US$ proposed R-APDRP program as disconnection, reconnections and measuring the work done photographs transparently to state The Applicationand customer complaint brought the capacity has increased from justby them 150 billion over the next five a central sector scheme.

The through geo-stamped photographs for servers.

Technical solution to online/ commissionerate in Karnataka state at handling within the franchise 1,362 MW in 1947 to 97,000 MW years and around US$ 600 focus of the program will be on area. the payment.

To manage these, there offline transparent switchover were not the forefront of cutting edge IT in March 2000, and has crossed billion over the next ten years. actual, demonstrable perforwas a common web solution developed available in Bangalore in early 2016 and implementations in basic governance of • undertake all investments 150,000 MW at the end of Two key considerations, apart mance in terms of sustained at Government of India level for all there was no existing implementation scheme across the states in India. that might be required to June 2009. India has become from the growing demandloss reduction. Establishment of enhance the operations or indian states and UTs. This solution was of such a solution.

There were too many the sixth largest producer and supply deficit, are: reliable and automated systems meet the specified standards of available unknownstechnical including InofE-Governance applications, Suparna consumerinofpanchayat electricity offices in the where l High aggregate & if the forsolution sustaineditself collection performance of the distribution computer and network connectivity was is feasible.

To make sure solution gets Systems has repeatedly shown success world, equalling the capacities commercial (AT&C) losses accurate base line data, and the business within the franchise available.

(For a cluster of four to six evolved to a usable level, Government the crucial steps of process area. of UK and France combined. l Low penetration of adoption of information technolvillages there was a panchayat office). officers demanded direct day transformations and their successful The number of consumers electricity in rural areas ogy in to theday areas of metering, • The franchisee will be the link involvement ofenergy Satish accounting technology enablement and connected to Indian power AT&C losses are lossesand thatleadership billing, and for utility and users association For allotment of work beneficiaries Kumar in developing the technical switchover. at the local level. grids exceeds 75 million. The occur during transmission customer care will be essential

FrANChIsE moDEL For PowEr DIsTrIbuTIoN

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SPOTLIGHT: IIT KANPUR

have hybrid inverters with battery storage of 24 kWh installed, so that a part of the excess solar energy can be stored in the battery, which can be used at night to feed the loads, when solar is not available. Remaining houses have grid-tied inverters without battery storage.

IIT Kanpur Spearheads Smart City Pilot Projects Indian Institute of Kanpur, in collaboration with the Ministry of Power, Government of India has launched a Smart City Pilot project. Elets News Network (ENN) brings snapshots of the various initiatives undertaken by the premier institute.

I

ndian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, under the aegis of the Ministry of Power, Government of India, has launched a Smart City Pilot Project, which has been executed within the campus of the premier institute.

All the sub-stations of IITK are monitored and controlled via Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. Single phase smart meters are installed in several houses, and three phase smart meters are installed in student hostels and academic buildings. Advanced

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DECEMBER 2019

Metering Infrastructure integrates these smart meters with the help of dedicated ICT infrastructure. Meter Data Acquisition System (MDAS) and Meter Data Management System (MDMS) are in place to collect, process, analyse, visualise, and take further actions based on the meter data.

Generating Solar Energy Solar PV panels of capacity 5 kWpare have been installed on the rooftops of a number of houses, for feeding the local load; the surplus is fed to the Grid. Out of these houses, four houses

ZigBee, Z-wave, and Wi-Fi enabled devices and smart plugs are installed inside these houses. Essential loads, such as lights and fans, and nonessential loads, such as air conditioners and geysers, are monitored and controlled through mobile apps and system integration software present at the central control centre, allowing the consumers to actively participate in Demand Response.

Smart Grid Control Centre At the control centre, the software for receiving and storing all the data from SCADA, smart meters, solar PV inverters, and smart home devices are installed on servers. The operator can run various monitoring and control applications with the help of this integrated platform.

The key benefit is that the prototype will act as a test bed for smart-city related research, development, and training activities for industries, research institutes, and academicians in India. The key achievements/impact include implementing network reconfiguration, distribution system state estimation algorithm usable by typical Indian utilities, improvement in the overall power quality, reduction in the duration of outages by implementing fast restoration techniques, implementing demand response algorithms, savings on electricity bills for households with renewable solar PV and battery storage, improvement in overall customer DR participation, and satisfaction, the design of hybrid solar inverter suitable for the Indian condition.

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