Reinforcing Digital culture to promote Digital Public Infrastructure.
We are standing on the brink of the third digital communication age. The first was the telecom age, which enabled global voice communication anywhere, anytime. The second is the age of the Internet where information has become readily available, frequently for free, to anyone with access to a computer or a cell phone. The proliferation of both telecommunications and the Internet occurred due to the combination of technology and affordability, which lowered the entry barrier for billions of people across the globe. The third age will bridge the last physical gap between things (inanimate objects, physical assets) and the existing global communication infrastructure. These new physical asset networks will allow sensor-enabled physical objects — home appliances, factory products, infrastructure assets and cars in a city — to talk to one another, to people or to computers. Time, location and situational awareness are three important elements of context, addressing the who, what, when, where, how and why. Smart Cities will enable to monitor and undertake predictive.
Interconnected Planning and City Infrastructure
Cities have vertical development silos. Like the Master Plan or a Town Planning Scheme prepared using Remote Sensing and Geospatial Information Technology; Digital Twin, Visual 3-D representation captures a wealth of data, Building Information Management (BIM); energy networks are becoming Smart Grids with Smart Meters; Safety is through State-of-the art surveillance and Tracking systems; these digitalization has created 2 major disruptions in Smart City
First –a need to centrally host these systems in a centralized environment – a Smart City Command centre which enables improvement in design, engineering and automation process.
Second -the Integration of disparate systems (hardware, software, data) – supports simulation, prediction, end-to-end reporting and analytics.
The above disruptions enable effective Decision Control by different stakeholder of the Smart City.
Smart City – Planning and Interconnected Infrastructure
Optimizing Revenue Enhancement Strategy
Building good cities, however, is expensive. As per the 15th Finance Commission report 2019-2020, the fiscal autonomy of Indian ULBs comprising of comprising 3,682 ULBs and 247,033 rural bodies are amongst the weakest in the world – about one percent of the GDP (2017-18) and have limited effective devolution of revenue. While the74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) devolved a great deal of functional autonomy to local governments, a commensurate devolution of financial autonomy was absent. Apart from a limited capacity to generate own source of revenue such as property tax, India does not have statutory provisions defining the modalities of Central of State transfers to Municipalities. Cities are increasingly in overt competition with one another to attract business income and development investment from national and regional governments and from global corporations. Smart Cities in India provide new ways for governments, municipal authorities, and private sector to plan and build more efficient infrastructure and services.
Before cities can begin to optimize their revenues, they must first compile an inventory of existing revenue streams. Cities generally draw revenues from four types of sources
| Service Fees | Fines for Violation | Charges or Taxes | Asset Monetization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development Permits | Building License | Congestion | Naming Rights |
| Construction Permits | Gardens and Public Parks | Public Property (Municipal) | Billboards and Signs |
| Business Licenses | Public Health | Land Transfer | Land Monetization |
| Toll Roads | Residential Units and Real Estate | Vacant Land | Municipal Data |
| Land Registration | Roads and Infrastructure | Betterment Levy | Parks |
| Excavation | Advertisements | Beaches | |
| Telco Towers | Hotel Occupancy | Mountain Resorts | |
| Public parking | Municipal Sales | Housing Units | |
| Public Toilets | Recycling (Bottled Water) | Commercial Units | |
| Public Wi-fi | Municipal Vehicle (Cardon emission) | Public Markets | |
| Funeral | Polluting Industry/ units | Return from Equity and Bond Investment | |
| Per License | Other excise Taxes | Land-value appreciation | |
| Universal Municipal Services | |||
| Utilities |
Alchemy of Smart Cities ICT and Revenue Enhancement
Most Smart cities in India have yet to unlock the full potential of use of ICT to enhance their existing revenue source, despite numerous options available with long term viability and improvement in the service of their citizens.
Smart Cities can assess the ICT Strategy and set the Revenue Enhancement priority based on the following dimensions
| Dimension | ICT Factors | Assessment of Results |
|---|---|---|
| Economic Impact |
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| Social Impact |
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| Environment, Climate Change Impact |
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| Ease of Implementation |
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Smart Cities can successfully cultivate a mix of ICT implementation that can improve their fiscal health and services for their residents that will drive better economic growth and quality of life. Land use planning, building regulations and bye-laws, Infrastructure hazard risk and vulnerability assessment (HRVA), and building of Smart Cities institutional capacity to raise their own revenue, plan and execute retrofits shall be the forthcoming focus in the Urban India.