Numerograph

Indian cities discuss development in the post-pandemic world

NEW DELHI: The 6th Smart City Expo 2021 was organised by India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) and Exhibitions India Group at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from March 2426. It was a 3-day event filled with various industry experts and public leaders who decimated knowledge about the vision of smart cities and the way forward. City Leaders Conclave was conducted on March 25 and was organised by ITPO, in collaboration

List of Smart Cities Awards

1. Best Academic Program – International Institute of Digital Technologies, Tirupati 2. Best Architectural Design – Sabarmati Riverfront, Ahmedabad Smart City 3. Best Digital City – Environmental Systems Research Institute India, Varanasi 4. Best Energy Efficiency Infrastructure – Solar Rooftop Plant, Jabalpur Smart City 5. Most Green and Clean City – Telangana for Haritha Haram Programme 6. Best Green Building – Apollo Gleneagles Hospital Limited 7. Best Health Project – Migrant Tracing and Health Monitoring 8. Best Heritage City – Jabalpur Smart City for Kamaniya Gate 9. Best Public-Private Partnership – Agra Smart City for Smart Health City 10. Best Real Estate Project – Riverfront Flower Park, Ahmedabad Smart City 11. Safe City Award– Sagar Smart City for Virbhaya Sagar Mobile Application and

Gujarat Police, Government of Gujarat for Vishwas Project. 12. Best Smart SPV – MO BUS, Capital Region Urban Transport 13. Smart Village – Smart Urban Village Fatehpur Chandela, Faridabad Smart City 14. Smart Waste Disposal Project – New Municipal SWM, Government of Telangana 15. Smart Start-up – WE Hub, Government of Telangana 16. Urban Mobility – Public Bike Sharing Project, Ahmedabad Smart City and ATAL (Align Transit on All Lanes), Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited 17. Best Water Project – Nagpur Municipal, Vishvaraj Environment Private Limited 18. Best Fintech Founder – Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO and Founder, Paytm 19. Best Digital Founding – Paisabazaar.com 20. Fintech Company of the Year – BharatPe 21. Fintech for Financial Inclusion – Fino Payments Bank Limited 22. Best Innovative Use of Technology – Edelweiss General Insurance Limited 23. Women in Fintech – Pria Chandrakumar, SysArc Informatix Private Limited with the All India Institute of Local SelfGovernment (AIILSG). Various leaders joined the Conclave from around the world physically and digitally to share their experiences in making our cities resilient to unforeseen circumstances like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Post-pandemic revival of the Indian cities is the next step as urban clusters faced numerous challenges in fighting the novel coronavirus as well as ensuring the safety of its citizens. While responding to an unknown crisis of this scale, cities have strived to maintain the delicate balance between life and economic well-being as both ultimately meant the same thing- precious human lives had to be saved at all costs, and the quality of life of its citizens had to be improved. The introductory session of the City Leaders Conclave was attended by Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. City Leaders discussed about the Smart Cities Mission 2.0 and how it will be different from the first phase now when the parameters have flipped. The event included a lot of informative sessions such as ‘Building Better Cities’, ‘Smart Cities Response to Pandemic’, ‘Has COVID-19 shifted the priorities of Smart-Cities?’, among others.

Ravi Ranjan Guru, Deputy Director General, AIILSG, was also part of the panel in the session on ‘How Important is to create Sister Cities concept for Smart and Sustainable Cities?’ He talked about the contribution of AIILSG in building resilient cities by working with the urban local bodies at the very core of the administrative structure. Dr Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General, UCLG ASPAC, and Hemanthi Goonasekera, CEO, Federation of Sri Lankan Local Government Authorities, were also part of the session’s panel.

The last day of the expo was dedicated to the Smart Cities Awards. The Chief Guest of the session was Jibesh Kumar, Minister of Information Technology, Government of Bihar. He lauded the ITPO and other partners for successfully organising the event in the times of pandemic.