From Poverty, Inequality to Smart City

The smart city concept refers to a new paradigm for urban planning and management. Based on advance use of technology, it aims at accomplishing better cities. These cities are more likely to have an integrated viewpoint which includes social, economic, and environmental aspects. Managing solid waste is among the important challenges in urban areas throughout the world. In developing countries like India where a rapid increase in population has been observed in past decades, solid waste management has become a critical issue. Of the different smart service delivery areas, solid waste management is also one of the key service areas for making a city smart. Like many fast-growing metropolitan cities in India, Jaipur is a metropolitan city having quite an inefficient, outdated, and unscientific system for handling of municipal solid waste. The lack of organized system of door-to-door collection, inefficient transportation, unscientific and uncontrolled open dumping of waste, etc. needs to be improved. This paper attempts to assess the existing status of municipal solid waste management in Jaipur City by identifying the related issues. The study concludes with select proposals to use identified best practices in planning for municipal solid waste management toward making a city smart.

Poverty in India has been a historic problem, its people being suppressed by rulers and foreign occupants for centuries, depriving them of basic rights. Poverty in India escalated and reached its peak in 1920s. Though, it has in the past remained majorly a rural problem, the trend seems to be shifting now due to migration of people into the urban areas. In the face of the fact of its emergent stature as an economy powerhouse in the world, and even almost seven decades after independence and sensitive self-governance, India has a whopping 65,494,604 of its people living in substandard conditions in slums (notified, recognized as well as identified slums) in its urban areas. This shows a decadal growth rate of 25.1 % from 2001 (Census of India 2011).

Poverty is generally understood in terms of deprivations – human, material, education, dignity, and basic rights, etc., as well as exclusions – political and social. Our country equates poverty to material deprivation and defines it in terms of level of incomes and consumptions – calorific intake. As per McKinsey report 2010, 75 % of urban population in India belongs to the bottom income segment and earns less than an average of Rs. 80, which implies that 254 million out of 341 million urban population fall in this category.

The paper looks into the causes of urban poverty and this colossal socioeconomic divide between the poorest and the rich. This paper also investigates into the various dimensions and characteristic of urban poverty like socioeconomic, demographical, and spatial aspects. The paper concludes by advocating pro-poor inclusive planning as a solution to this disparity and pitches for provision of basic physical and social infrastructures for the urban poor.

It has been observed that the supply of housing and their associated prices have been a consequence of the existing scenario of real estate markets. In fact, housing and real estate are two interdependent sectors. The growth in one sector impacts the other. However, in the mutual profit-making process, the affordability component is often neglected. It is of relevance to note that in the post-economic meltdown in 2008–2009, the focus of the real estate developers has shifted to increasing affordability in the housing sector. With the launching of the “Housing for All by 2022” campaign, many private developers have launched many projects across Indian cities, primarily focusing on the affordability segment.

The main objective of the paper is to identify and analyze the various factors responsible for the shift in the market thrust to affordable housing in the recent years. It presents the driving and limiting forces which influence the interest of the developers in mass-scale housing supply. It can be concluded from this study that the element of affordability in housing has only recently acquired attention of the real estate developers due to shifting market scenarios and currently, it forms one of the leading areas of investment due to its tremendous business potential, now and in foreseeable future.

Development of unauthorized colonies is emerging as a big issue in many large cities. In Delhi it caters to nearly 18 % of its population and acts as a major source of housing. Guru Ram Dass Nagar in East Delhi is one of the oldest unauthorized colonies in Delhi. Being unauthorized and due to many other factors, the residents are unable to avail loans from financial institutions which lead to the growth of builder floors in which a developer collaborates with the property owner to redevelop the property. These activities magnify the existing problems like the high population density and the load on the existing infrastructure. The East Delhi zone is also highly vulnerable to natural hazards. This paper explores the functioning of the real estate market of unauthorized colonies in East Delhi and looks at the impacts and influences it has on them. The study highlights the uniqueness of the market and how it contributes to the already deteriorating situation of the colonies which is an issue to be resolved rather than a problem to be solved.

Rurban, i.e. rural–urban, communities are strong webs having the megacities, metro cities, towns of various levels and the most important basic settlement units – the villages – as its nodes. These nodes have a strong interdependence and interlinking amongst themselves, so a comprehensive, integrated and regional approach is required to make these nodes smarter by the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in planning, implementation of development proposals, enforcement of laws and monitoring. Thus smart communities with smart villages and cities are envisaged to have smart infrastructure, energy and governance with rich and diversified economy including innovative ideas like corporate villages, rural tourism, etc. creating a better climate for investment and sustainable environment for a healthy and quality life for present and future generations.

The intent of the paper is to analyse major factors that influence the making of a smart city. In today’s global networking scenario where everything is technology driven, the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) cannot be undermined. They offer swift and real-time information and are easily accessible. However, can the cities be labelled as smart just by improvising ICTs or there might be other parameters involved in making a city truly smart? The paper henceforth explores such possibilities of making a city smart by taking case studies of known cities/neighbourhoods who have optimised these standards for success. People’s participation in using these technologies and the user experience is one of the important consideration so that they are ready to experience a livable smart and organised city. Smart governance, smart planning, smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment and smart living are also the main highlights of the paper on which the case studies are based to analyse smart cities and provide important basis to emphasise if the proposed 100 smart cites in India can really rise up to the level of smart city parameters and tell a success story.

Urbanisation as a phenomenon has existed since long. By 2050 almost 70 % of world’s population will live in cities, hence a demand for more efficient urban systems. With many trends coming up on the urbanisation front, from ‘liveable cities’ to ‘inclusive urban growth’, the latest concern is of ‘smart cities’. As an umbrella concept, smart cities have three subparts: human intelligence, collective intelligence and artificial intelligence (ICT), of which the latter is taking up the major limelight. While assessing India’s urban conditions, it can be gauged out that there are various prerequisites before embedding ICT into the system. This paper attempts to redefine the smart city concept in Indian perspective reviewed through the lens of human + collective intelligence. Varanasi which has been proposed as one of the smart cities to be developed would be taken as a case study.

Varanasi, being synonymous to living continuity of traditions and deep culture, possesses a legacy of institutions for learning and innovation. However, rapid and haphazard urbanisation has disturbed the delicate balance between the city’s various facets thereby making it a living laboratory for carrying out the ‘smart’ urban experiments. The paper takes up a holistic approach for evolving the smart city criteria and intends to define it on the basis of prioritisation models. The approach used in this paper for the purpose of analytics is ‘interpretive structural modelling (ISM)’.

Most of the present cities are characterized by low-density urban sprawl, fragile infrastructure, low resilience, and people’s poor coping capability to disasters. Further with the increasing unplanned rapid urbanization, the disasters (in terms of frequency and numbers) and their impacts are increasing, which is primarily associated with badly planned and managed urban development, degraded ecosystems, and poverty. According to a study by the United Nations, almost 890 million people (60 %) across the globe live in cities that are at risk from at least one major natural disaster, including floods, droughts, cyclones, or earthquakes. Disasters eventually wipe off years of development and cause death, injury, economic losses, and environmental and urban systems’ degradation. Since a city is an integration of complicated urban systems like transportation, water supply, sanitation, housing, and other urban infrastructure and services, strengthening these systems will increase the resilience and help in disaster management in urban areas. On the other hand, smart cities use information and communications technology (ICT) to involve people, improve city services, and enhance urban systems which in turn will improve disaster resilience. To make cities disaster resilient right at the inception stage, the efficiency in urban planning can have a major impact on communities’ preparedness and capacities to recover. Smart growth strategies like creating flexible land-use policies, targeting public investment, and engaging the entire community in making decisions can help communities recover from a disaster, rebuild according to a shared community vision, and be better prepared for a disaster. This paper tries to explore through various examples those aspects of smart cities which build and assist in disaster resilience of cities. The study clearly indicates that the relation between smart development and disaster resilience is strong, where the smart growth, smart urbanization (smart grids, eco-cities, compact development), and low-carbon footprint strategies have been used and are some of the most needed consideration to deal with the present scale of disasters in urban areas.

The extant international literature on smart cities, which are conceptualized and designed to enhance the quality of well-being, fails to provide a homogeneously unifying definition of smart city. This lack of comprehensive knowledge manifests into a critical policy challenge to policy managers responsible for creating and managing complex contours of evolution of smart cities. Smart cities, however, are increasingly becoming a subject to public debate worldwide, which appears to be a strong value-enhancing approach to managing future cities. This paper critically reviews the existing definitional conceptualization of smart cities and their changing frames in global setting across a range of criteria borrowed from literature. Further, the research maps a potential Indian smart city (case of GIFT City) on comparable framework of global smart cities with an objective of developing insights into planned efficiency of smart cities in India. The study also examines different strategies of smart city development with a spatial approach and understanding the way in which these strategies can fit into India’s urban scenario. The second part of the paper delves into financing of smart cities in India. Having taken into account India’s budgetary plans to develop 100 smart cities, we assess the scale and effectiveness of the plans. Given the potential economic profiles of such cities and associated financial outlays, we also explore likely sources of financing for smart cities with a strong focus on risk-return trade-offs.

Buildings are the major component of built environment. Creating comfortable indoor living environment for users is the primary objective of building design. The building envelope plays a crucial role of both protecting its occupants from external environment and controlling the indoor environment. Hence, selection of building envelope materials is critical in maintaining indoor thermal comfort condition and its energy performance. The main aim of present-day building design should be eliminating the need for mechanical heating and cooling equipment. The climate in Himachal Pradesh, India, varies with increasing altitude from “subtropical” to “cold-desert” climatic condition. The study area, Hamirpur town of Himachal Pradesh, has “subtropical” climate with hot summers and cold winters. Field studies of naturally ventilated residential buildings with different building envelope materials found in Hamirpur were conducted in winter months of 2013 and 2014 to evaluate their impact on indoor thermal condition. The optimum indoor comfort temperature in winter months for naturally ventilated residential buildings in Hamirpur (HP) is found as 16.5 °C, with thermal comfort temperature range 15.7–16.9 °C. Based on this study, suitable building envelope materials for houses are recommended to maintain indoor thermal comfort and energy efficiency for holistic sustainability of built environment.

Urban population in India stands at 31.16 % as per the 2011 census. Today India has the world’s second largest urban population after China. The urban population is expected to grow by another 400 million by 2050 (United Nations 2014). This would manifest majorly in two ways: organic growth of megacities and emergence of new urban areas. These megacities demand huge infrastructural investment on basic services. On the contrary the new growth centers emerge due to various economic, political, and institutional incentives. Infrastructure development around these new growth centers remains largely neglected to a point in time where proper planning is very difficult.

This paper tries to highlight the initiative of the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) to address the issue of disorganized development in potential growth centers and preset the vision, process, outcomes, and limitations of the initiative over the last 5 years.

The “sustainable village” initiative by the GoM focused on the development of a comprehensive “environmental development plan” based on predetermined parameters. The selected villages were categorized as nodal villages or potential urban centers with population ranging from 5000 to 35,000 (GoM, GR Dated 24 August 2011, Preparation of EDP for villages with population greater than 5000 people. Rural Development and Watershed Management Department, Mumbai, 2011) per village. The primary objective of the project was to address development-related issues at microlevel, at the stage when it is still manageable (terms of reference for preparation of environmental development plan. Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Mumbai, 2011).

The building sector consumes about one third of the total energy consumed in India. Moreover, the commercial building sector is the fastest growing sector. Only 33 % of the commercial floor area that would exist by 2030 is currently (2010) built. This presents a huge potential of energy saving in the commercial building sector. A study to calculate the probable saving potential would help decision-makers to further exploit it.

The research attempts to estimate the current energy consumption pattern in the commercial building sector at the city level along with a broad study of the predominant building characteristics. Consequently, it tries to assess future energy consumption patterns, based on business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and two energy-efficient (EE) scenarios. The results show that by employing EE building envelope, an annual maximum saving of 202 MWh can be achieved for Ahmedabad city. Also, it should be noted that the difference in savings between the two EE scenarios is not significant. The study proves, with hard numbers, the possibility of significant future energy-saving potential that the building sector holds. It also puts light on the fact that delay in implementation of EE measures locks-in a considerable amount of energy-saving potential.