The concept of Smart Cities is not new. While the concept has been in discussion in India for many years, it has gained a renewed momentum since 2015 when the Central Govt. announced it’s ‘Smart Cities Mission’ with an aim to transform 100 cities into “smart” cities by 2022.
Smart Cities: A Quick Explainer
So what exactly is a Smart City? Since there is no universally accepted definition as such of a Smart City, we’ll align our understanding to the qualifying parameters laid down in the Govt.’s Smart Cities Mission.
On the basis of these parameters, we can opine that a Smart City is a one that:
A] Provides it’s citizens the core infrastructure, like:
and,
B] Harnesses “smart technology” that significantly improves it’s citizens’ quality of life by enabling local area development. For example:
In a nutshell, a Smart City is an Integrated City – a city where each and every infrastructure element is seamlessly interconnected with each other to form a unified social ecosystem that is aimed at sustainable growth.
And for an interconnected ecosystem like a Smart City, Aadhaar can play a pivotal role in ensuring that benefits are passed on to each and every bonafide citizen by eliminating ghost beneficiaries and preventing pilferages.
In this post, let’s see how Aadhaar can make a tangible impact on a Smart City’s various e-Governance services. But before that, let’s first understand a bit about e-Governance.
As per the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) formulated in 2006 by the Central Govt.’s Department of Electronics & Information Technology and Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, the core objective of any e-Governance initiative should be to “make all Government Services easily accessible to the common man through electronic media and Common Service Centres (CSCs).”
In accordance to this stated objective, the Central Government has approved 31 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) as depicted below:
All the above 31 MMPs can harness the power of Aadhaar to achieve targeted delivery of services and benefits to the rightful beneficiaries in a Smart City.
While Aadhaar is integrated in the operational processes of many of these MMPs, below are a few use cases where other MMPs can integrate Aadhaar to deliver a seamless experience to all citizens of a Smart City:
The above are just indicative use cases of Aadhaar for a Smart City. If you would like to know how Aadhaar can make a tangible difference to any specific component of a Smart City, feel free to get in touch with our colleague Amit Joshi on 09820875525 / 07208155528 or email him on amit@eastcs.com.
–
Regards
Team ECS.