SMART CITIES INITIATIVE

Feb. 25, 2019

The ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is organizing a two-day Apex Conference on Smart Cities Project in Delhi on February 26-27. The conference will deliberate on various initiative in regard of Smart Cities Mission.

About:

‘Ease of Living Index, 2018’ in August 2018:
- The Ministry released ‘Ease of Living Index, 2018’ in August 2018 to help cities assess their liveability vis-à-vis national and global benchmarks.
- The framework developed to measure ‘Ease of Living’ covers all pillars of urban development (Physical, Institutional, Social and Economic) and uses 78 indicators across 15 categories.
India Smart Cities Fellowship (ISCF):
- The India Smart Cities Fellowship (ISCF) programme was launched in July 2018.
- It seeks to engage young graduates/post-graduates and PhDs in the fields of urban planning, mobility, finance, social sector and environmental issues for a period of one-year, extendable upto three years.
India Smart Cities Internship (ISCI):
- The India Smart Cities Internship (ISCI) programmes was launched in July 2018.
- It seeks to engage students pursuing Undergraduate / Graduate / Post- Graduate Degrees from recognized Universities/Institutions from India or abroad, as "Interns" for a period of six to twelve weeks.
Smart Cities Digital Payments Awards 2018:
- It is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
- The objective of these awards is to guide, motivate, recognize and reward the Smart Cities for promoting digital payments and carrying out innovative payment initiatives in their respective cities through a two-stage Challenge process.
CITIIS (Cities Investments to Innovate Integrate and Sustain):
- An all-India Challenge named CITIIS was launched in July 2018 in partnership with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and European Union.
- A Loan of EUR 100 million will be extended by AFD, which shall be given as a grant to Smart Cities for implementation of 15 innovative projects selected through the All-India Challenge.
- The projects would be in four sectors- sustainable mobility, public open spaces, urban governance & ICT and social and organizational innovation in low-income settlements.