BHOPAL : Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad ED OP Agrawal, speaking on Smart City at ISBT on Friday said, “There must be employment-oriented planning and schemes in a smart city.
Bhopal can be transformed into a smart city by making it a centre of business training, skill development and heritage Tourism.
A smart city is defined as one that is socially, environmentally and financially sustainable and which strives to minimise wastage of resources like energy and water in meeting the needs of its residents, said Agarwal.
Such a city also values its citizens’ views and adopts a practice of citizen consultation in almost everything it does and will deploy technology extensively to improve the delivery of services. The smart city initiative is one of the most important programmes of the government for the future economic development of the country,” Agarwal said.
India’s urban population is projected to reach about 820 million by 2050. While urban India constitutes only about 31 per cent of its total population, it contributes over 60 per cent of the GDP, he said.
“It is projected that it will account for nearly 75 per cent of the GDP in the next 15 years. It is for this reason that the government has decided on developing 100 smart cities in the country. The Smart City Index will support this initiative of the government,” Agrawal added.
Embark India’s Amit Bhat, WRI expert Srikumar and other urban experts expressed their views on tourism, manufacturing, educational hub, vocational training centre, food processing, agriculture based production, sports training centre, heritage, agro industries development.