What is a smart city?
We envision smart cities as part of a sustainable society in which people live, work, and play in safety and comfort while coexisting in harmony with the environment. Overall, a city can be defined as ‘smart’ when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic development and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory action and engagement.
What are its key components?
Intelligent management integrated with information and communication technology (ICT) and active citizen participation drive the creation of smart cities. Moreover, integration and collaboration of resources and authorities is a key requirement for any city to function smartly. At the same time, giving its citizens access to smart energy and making better use of scarce resources is also a key attribute. But what forms the foundation of any smart city is the ‘safety’ of its citizens and resources.
From working closely with the central and state governments in India, what do you think are the areas where your technology can come in handy for a smart city?
We have been involved in various smart city projects across the world, including those in Singapore, Brazil, and Argentina. In India, we are working closely with the central and state governments to understand the need of utilising technology for tackling governance challenges and making a smart city safe.
We offer a variety of solutions including biometrics and fingerprinting technology for police and forensic departments. Face Recognition Solution, which transforms CCTV cameras into proactive monitoring tools, is also being used. We are also one of the biometric solution providers for India’s largest national ID project. In the future, this can be leveraged for providing smart governance in all major areas.
How does your technology translate into safety for a smart city?
We offer solutions ranging from immigration control to emergency and disaster management, and have established safer cities for more than 480 clients in over 30 countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe and the United States. For disaster management, we have various sensors needed to gather information such as surveillance cameras, water level sensor, rain gauges, and seismometers. We also provide the necessary intelligence to analyse, assess and alert relevant authorities.
Why are smart cities more relevant today than ever?
With more than 60 per cent of the world population expected to live in urban cities by 2025, urbanisation will have diverging influences on lives and mobility. By 2023, there will be 30 mega cities globally, 55 per cent of which will be in the developing countries of India, China, Russia and Latin America. Increase in population and infrastructure development would force city borders to expand and embrace the surrounding cities to form mega cities, each with a population of more than 10 million. To handle such large-scale urbanisation, we need to find new ways to manage complexity, increase efficiency, reduce expenses and simultaneously improve quality of life. Hence the need to build smart cities.
