Smart Cities CouncilThe India Readiness Guide has over 400 pages and total of fourteen chapters. There are more than 80 relevant case studies, with half of them focusing on the Indian context as well as some providing a global perspective. Case studies cited include those from Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Surat, Jabalpur, Hyderabad, Indore etc.
The Smart Cities India Readiness Guide is envisioned to help local governments and municipalities build an action plan for smart cities in India. The India Readiness Guide gives a comprehensive ‘vision’ of a smart city, to help understand how technology will transform the cities and how people will contribute in enhancing and realising the transformation.
The Readiness Guide explores the current environment and drivers of smart cities in India, and takes a holistic look at the current supporting government missions. And, then it discusses some of the barriers cities may face and benefits smart cities will bring.
The initial chapters focus on introductory, universal aspects, identifying various key responsibilities – the day-to-day services that the cities provide. A dedicated chapter deals with citizen reporting, partnership, and engagement and assists in realizing the smart cities vision. And then there are individual chapters about each responsibility, such as water, transportation, public safety, etc., which are illustrated by supporting case studies.
The Smart Cities Framework captures the relationship between a city’s responsibilities (what it needs to accomplish for citizens) and its enablers (the smart technologies that can make those tasks easier and smart citizen engagement that can make those implementations more inclusive). Then it outlines a series of objectives that, taken together, form the foundation of a citizen-centric, ICT-enabled smart city.