Emerging technologies are transforming the way people are working and living, and have untapped potential to revolutionize governance. Good governance is the cornerstone of every government and administrative agency. However, citizens are failing to give it due attention owing to a lack of policy awareness and bureaucratic complexity. In the traditional governance model, accessing a government facility involves days’ worth of follow-ups, paperwork, and technical limitations. These issues can be addressed through SMART governance.

SMART governance helps governments create a digital community involving its governing bodies, citizens, and businesses to streamline information sharing, service accessibility, and grievance redressal.

In this article, we understand what SMART governance is and the role it plays in building a Smart City.

What is SMART Governance?

SMART Governance is the application of technology to innovate, facilitate and support the planning and implementation of democratic processes and governance. This concept enables government bodies to deliver services efficiently through a sustainable and transparent approach. It is touted as the next big revolution in the national transformation after the agriculture and industrial revolutions.

In essence, SMART Governance is described as a governance model that is Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent.

Simple: Simplifying rules and processes issued by the government through emerging technologies such as ICTs (Information Communication Technologies).

Moral: Introducing ethical and moral values within the political and administrative ecosystem by removing human biases, errors, and illegal activities like corruption.

Accountable: Holding public functionaries and offices accountable for the civic services provided through an effective performance management system.

Responsive: Streamlining communication and collaboration across government bodies to accelerate service delivery through a highly responsive workflow.

Transparent: Making the entire ecosystem transparent by enforcing rule of law and making administrative agencies responsible through actions like releasing government documents to the public domain.

How does SMART Governance Solution Help in Smart City Development?

Data-Driven Policy Making

Government bodies are required to make critical decisions on a daily basis, which affect the lives of all its citizens. With SMART governance, administrators can access, process, and analyze citizen data to produce policy insights. With an inflow of data from vehicle sensors, traffic cameras, and power and water meters, government departments can identify key areas of urban planning, public amenities, and transport.

With a robust data management mechanism, you can collect a high influx of data from multiple sources and transform it to power your value-creation and decision-making machinery.

Advanced Reporting

Generating extensive reports identifying relevant metrics helps governments measure administration performance, grievance redressal TAT, and so on. SMART governance empowers agencies to analyze patterns of public expenditure on different sectors of the economy, tracking relevant sustainable development goals, reviewing trends of cropped areas, usage of public services like water, power, waste management and transportation, and civic safety measures. Further, administrators can view and remediate right from a comprehensive, single-window dashboard.

Enhanced Engagement

With SMART governance, administrators can offer on-demand services customized for the specific needs of individuals and businesses. In this age of personalization and instant gratification, real-time provisioning is crucial to delight citizens and increase their engagement with administrative agencies. The interaction between the government and its citizens is important for better governance and quality of life. Big data frameworks and real-time feedback systems can be utilized to improve citizen engagement by involving them in policy decision-making and disbursal of welfare programs.

Inter-department Cohesion

In a traditional governmental setup, you have multiple departments working for the same end goal – citizen service. Yet, the siloed operations of the government functionaries are leading to delayed services and dissatisfaction among citizens. SMART governance solves this problem by bringing every department and administration arm under one digital platform. By implementing an Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), the collaboration and communication between the departments can be improved significantly. It is possible due to the free flow of information between departments, collective ownership, and process transparency.

Challenges of Implementing SMART Governance

Public Literacy

The evident socio-economic divide leading to digital illiteracy in society poses a serious challenge for the implementation of SMART governance. Although the penetration of smartphones and the affordable rate of the internet have made things better, ease of use and smooth user journey and experience will break the barrier.

Operational Costs

SMART governance will need a considerable investment to begin operations. It includes building the hardware and software infrastructure, securing the systems, hiring and training a workforce, and educating people. However, in the long-term, the ROI makes it up for all the costs.

Lack of Awareness

Lack of trust, attention, and interest in local administration among citizens is yet another barrier to SMART governance. It falls on the governing agencies to initiate awareness campaigns to increase citizen participation leading to an empowered citizenry and better services.

SMART Governance Trends

Information Communication Technology (ICT)

Citizen engagement is one of the core tenets of  SMART governance. ICT facilitates real-time interaction between individuals and governing authorities transforming the delivery of information and services. Its immense potential in building an information-based ecosystem powering citizen-conversational services.

Social Listening

Social media is an exceptional medium for governing agencies to reach out to citizens as almost 70 – 80% of them have their presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Further, they receive genuine and real-time feedback on the issues they’re facing through social listening i.e. through keeping a track of the conversations around governance. Maintaining a healthy social media presence makes government bodies user-friendly and easily approachable.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT implementation helps administrators remotely control facilities like street lights, waste disposal management, and the water supply chain. By setting up sensors across the city for different services and collecting data at a centralized control center and disbursing the services accordingly. However, the IoT governance model should be transparent and collaborative with shared responsibility between the agencies and citizens.

Conclusion

SMART Governance enables governments to achieve enhanced governance, social inclusion, citizen engagement, and economic growth. However, there are a few key steps that should precede before implementing the technology-led governance such as educating citizens, training authorities, setting up goals, strategizing service deliveries, and linking it with policy making.

PruTech is an industry leader in building a roadmap, designing solutions, and implementing SMART Governance. Our expertise in emerging technologies like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and IoT helps us in deploying solutions laying good governance principles. PruTech’s Solutions help administrators advance their service delivery mechanism through actionable data.

PruTech Solutions India participates in the Smart Cities India Expo 2022 held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

28 March, New Delhi – PruTech India participated in the 7th Smart Cities India Expo 2021, India’s largest technology and infrastructure event, in celebrating India’s entrepreneurial spirit and the country’s booming start-up ecosystem. Indian startups are playing a critical part in the Indian growth narrative, ranging from Fintech, SaaS, IoT, AI, ML, VR, Blockchain, and Gaming to transformational Digital Technologies.

Relaying his experience, Ambika Prasad Mohapatra, Executive Vice President, PruTech Solutions India, said, “It was a great experience to be a part of this expo after two years of virtual events. The expo was a great platform for technology companies to network, scale, and celebrate with the community in-person. Kudos to the team!”

The team at PruTech Solutions exhibited their portfolio of solutions in Smart Cities including Disaster Management, Integrated Command and Control Center, Smart Poles, Cyber Security, Cloud Solutions and Managed Services, and more.

For more updates, follow PruTech Solutions India on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

About PruTech Solutions

PruTech Solutions is an industry-leading digital transformation organization that was founded in 1998. Its umbrella of services includes digital transformation, cyber security, smart governance, disaster management solutions, cloud consulting solutions, and professional services. PruTech Solutions has more than 7 offices worldwide and an army of over 650 consultants spread across India, the United States, and Mexico.

With over 1000 successful projects, PruTech Solutions has empowered some of the most disruptive, agile businesses. As a technology expert and business partner you can rely on, the organization delivers unprecedented digital transformation, cloud, and IT solutions.

For media queries, contact us at marketing@prutech.com

Smart city initiatives aim at providing a better quality of life to its people. Though the definition of a “smart city” is evolving, a few things have become clear. Smart cities make use of the latest information and communication technologies to improve the living experience of the people. It uses data as well as technology for increasing efficiencies and improving the daily lives of citizens.

Smart cities usually rely on innovative and evolving technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, Geospatial technology, and the Global Positioning System (GPS), to make cities a better place to live.

Here are 8 ways in which smart technologies are beneficial for cities and the people.

Revamped transportation

According to a publication, the global market for smart transportation will grow to $33.6 billion from 2020 to 2028 at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 17.5% [1]. Smart transformation improves the transportation of a smart city drastically and provides facilities and tools for smart traffic management, the public’s ability to track bus and train location, and more.

The connected transport technology has the potential to enhance efficiencies in a city substantially. These technologies also help in the optimization of traffic flow with the help of intelligent traffic signals for relieving peak travel time congestion. Smart city technology for transport and traffic management can also alert citizens of high traffic times and suggest the use of public transit during those hours.

High-speed internet services

Smart city technology also makes high-speed internet and connectivity available and possible for every citizen. For ensuring digital equity in a city, people must have access to internet services, in addition to affordable devices. This is done by strategically implementing public Wi-Fi hotspots across the city to offer reliable, high-speed internet to all citizens.

Efficient & upgraded public utilities

Technologies employed in smart cities provide cities with the necessary tools for effectively conserving natural resources and reducing the waste of electricity and water. Technologies like smart sensors enable cities to identify leakages in pipes and fix damaged parts in shorter time durations, resulting in a lesser amount of lost water. Moreover, smart electric grids enable two-way communication between citizens and electricity providers to help in the identification of peak usage and outage times.

Increased safety of the citizens

There are smart city technologies that help in making cities safer. These technologies, when employed through private or public partnerships, help in the significant reduction of criminal activities in a city. Smart technologies, such as emergency call centers, gunshot detectors, license plate recognition, bodycams, and connected crime centers, help law enforcement immensely in doing what they do best – protecting the city. Investing in groundbreaking smart technologies like these can help promote a safer city for its people.

Identification of infrastructure that needs improvement

Old city infrastructure, like bridges, roads, and even buildings, requires maintenance from time to time. Predictive analytics and other smart technologies can help in the identification of such roads, buildings, and bridges (and more) that need to be fixed before they face irrevocable damage. Additionally, smart sensors transmit data showing unfavorable structural changes, discover cracks and tilt in bridges and buildings, and notify personnel about the need for inspection, maintenance, or repairs. Smart technology for infrastructure maintenance presents a great opportunity for smart cities to save taxpayers money on preventable infrastructure failures.

Minimized carbon footprint

The technology used in smart cities also helps in tackling pollution. Through smart cities, governments aim at creating cities with air quality sensors, renewable energy sources, and energy-efficient buildings. Smart cities equipped with such technologies get access to data regarding low air quality and main sources and causes of air pollution. It also provides additional data needed by officials to develop plans to fight pollution.

More opportunities for economic development

When considerable investments are made in improvements of a city, a tremendous expansion in the gross domestic product is seen. Numerous private sector organizations also collaborate with local governments and invest massive amounts of money in smart city initiatives. Smart cities investments play a crucial role in improving a city’s local and global competitiveness for attracting new businesses and residents. Open data platforms with easily accessible city information provide businesses with the right information to make informed decisions regarding where they want to set up base.

Improved government-citizen relationship

In today’s tech-driven world, citizens also expect their cities to deliver digital services, like intuitive self-service portals, websites, and mobile apps. The deployment of modern digital services for citizens makes the living experience of people in smart cities even more attractive and promotes a better, more connected citizen experience.

Smart cities result in overall enhanced civic engagement and increased trust in city officials. Things like interactive maps, government data and performance dashboards, budget transparency, and live streaming of city hall meetings help in forging better relationships with residents.

PruTech Solutions has collaborated with multiple agencies to create smart cities and urban transformation solutions. Click here to know more about our smart city and smart governance solutions.

Sources

[1] Meticulous Research® (2021) “SMART TRANSPORTATION MARKET WORTH $33.6 BILLION BY 2028” [Online] Available from: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/pressrelease/418/smart-transportation-market-2028 [Accessed December 2021]

The Opportunity

The Smart City Mission in India covers 100 cities in the country, Thanjavur being one of them.

The opportunity was to develop Thanjavur as a people-centric city with a good living and working environment, along with being a knitwear hub of India. This required a holistic approach based on pragmatic solutions to provide a better quality of life through amenities such as improved transportation, housing situation, SWM, energy & water availability, safety, and security in the city.

The impact of this e-governance solution for Thanjavur Smart City has been the real-time monitoring, data collation, and response management of the various facets of the smart city.

About Thanjavur Smart City   

Thanjavur, a city in Tamil Nadu’s central region, is known for its culture and architecture. The Ministry of Urban Development shortlisted the city as one of India’s 100 smart cities.

Smart City Mission (SCM) is the flagship initiative of the Government of India in the urban development sector, under which 100 cities are to be developed under this centrally sponsored scheme in collaboration with State Governments.

Since Thanjavur is a city of rich cultural and historical importance, the vision for a smart city emphasizes enhancing the identity of the city as the “Cultural Capital of Tamil Nadu”, along with being the provision of resilient infrastructure and a sustainable environment.

Download our complete case study to learn more about the solutions offered and the impact of the Thanjavur Smart City project.

For more case studies, visit here.

The Opportunity

The Smart City Mission by the Government of India covers a hundred cities in India, and Thoothukudi is one of them. The vision for the city of Thoothukudi was to ‘be a city where the local government is in-sync with the citizenry that is, in turn, aware and has a sense of ownership for the city’.

There was an opportunity to design and implement sustainable, technology-oriented solutions to usher in a paradigm shift in how the city functions, engages with citizens, delivers services, mobility, safety and revives the economic character around heritage & culture to benefit the citizens and administration on the lines of “doing more with less”.

The impact of this e-governance solution for Thoothukudi Smart City has been the real-time monitoring, data collation, and response management of the various facets of the smart city.

Download our case study to learn more about the solution and impact of Thoothukudi Smart City.

For more updates, follow PruTech Solutions India on LinkedIn.