In the last decade, we have seen the unprecedented growth of India’s financial sector and its infrastructure. The financial and economic markets have exhibited a strong growth momentum, driven by a robust economic demand, consumption and savings rate. While the economic downturn did slow down the economic growth, the financial system proved its resilience with time. Now, the Indian markets have shown quick signs of recovery, positively impacting the general global economic front. Moving ahead, we are moving towards making the Indian economy at par with the developed ones. But, for this, we need a high quality of infrastructure development in the cities in India.
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What is a smart city?
Mahatma Gandhi had once said, “The true India is to be found not in its few cities, but in its 700,000 villa-ges.” Well, that may have been true sometime, but not anymore. According to a McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study of 2011, the population in Indian cities will go up from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million by 2030, and account for 40 per cent of India’s total population. The constant migration to cities has put energy, transportation and, housing resources under strain. Little doubt, that the increasing migration of population to the urban areas has pitched up the demand for smart cities. So, what is a smart city? To begin with, it is a city which will have intelligently planned transportation and connectivity system, an efficient level of infrastructure, i.e., airport, highways and roads, ecofriendly and efficient energy supply and lastly, a well digitalised system of data centres, high speed fibre network, Internet gateways, and the like. It will also consist of efficient disaster and waste management system, which will improvise the living standard and health care factors. Basically, what separates a smart city from any other city is the way it is planned and designed to support the ever-increasing population without compromising on the living standards. GIFT city is one of the first smart cities which have been conceptualised as a global financial and IT services hub. A first of its kind in India, it is designed to be at or above par with globally benchmarked financial centres, such as Shinjuku, Tokyo; Lujiazui, Shanghai; La Defense, Paris; and London Dockyards.
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What are government’s initiatives for smart cities? The government at the centre wants to develop 100 smart cities across India to improvise the
facilities and amenities in the urban areas.
■This would lead to job opportunities in infrastructure, healthcare, IT, real estate, and tourism.
■ In the Union Budget of 2014-15, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that a sum of `7,000 crore (70 billion) will be provided to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘developing 100 smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernising the existing midsized cities’.
■ In order to allow foreign investors to have a larger role in the development of smart cities, the entry requirements for foreign direct investment (FDI) in terms of the minimum built-up area and capital conditions were reduced.
■The government is planning to look at building bylaws and floor area ratio norms closely to optimally utilise existing land.
■The government would revisit the old rules and regulations, manuals and laws towards this. A key to developing the smart cities will be the unravelling of the large number of regulations that have slowed down development over the years. The location of GIFT city It is located 18 km from Ahmedabad International Airport and 8 km from Gandhinagar, close to Gujarat National Law University. The site abuts the 4-lane National Highway (NH8), which connects Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar on the east.
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GIFT city will be built on 886 acres (3.59 sq. km) of land. Its main purpose is to provide high quality physical infrastructure (electricity, water, gas, district cooling, roads, telecom and broadband), so that finance and tech firms can relocate their operations there from Mumbai,
Bangalore and Gurgaon, where the infrastructure is either inadequate or very expensive. The promoters of GIFT city The Gujarat government has, through its agency Gujarat Urban Development Company and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited, set up a 50:50 joint venture company, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company (GIFTCL) to develop and implement the GIFT city project.
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The most important advantage of smart cities will be the change in the entire landscape of the centuryold infrastructure system within the Indian economy. No doubt, it will also improve the growth prospects of the Indian economy by increasing the standard of living in India.
