The government’s pet project ‘100 smart cities’ will get a huge branding and publicity boost through a competition meant to select these cities. This initiative will be aimed at generating proposals from urban local bodies based on wider citizen participation.

“Bloomberg Philanthropies, which has volunteered to help India with a ‘smart city challenge competition’, in consultation with the Ministry of Urban Development, will design and launch a website so that the competition is properly branded and effectively communicated,” a source in the Ministry told BusinessLine .

The branding should aim at inspiring pride, creating coherence and generating action through strong citizen engagement.

The challenge is meant to assess the preparedness and ability of smart-city aspirants to undertake necessary actions. The competition will be held after the smart cities scheme gets the Union Cabinet’s nod.

Representatives of Bloomberg Philanthropies on Thursday discussed the broad contours of the competition with senior officials of the Ministry.

Perception check

In designing the competition, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ research team has conducted an ethnographic survey by interviewing citizens, urban experts and planners and municipal officials in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ranchi, Bengaluru and Mangaluru about their perceptions of and expectations from the Central government’s initiative of building 100 smart cities.

“Based on the survey results, it suggested that since the assessment of smart city aspirants is an important component of the scheme, the competition needs to be properly branded and communicated to generate proposals from urban local bodies,” the source added.

The survey resulted in eight key guiding principles — a simple application process; harnessing the power of citizens; building partnerships among all stakeholders; a distinct Indian version of a smart city; demonstrating action instead of a business-as-usual approach; balancing inspiration with pragmatism; elevating municipal officials for success; and going beyond the ordinary through vision and ideas. These results will be factored in while designing the competition.

Former New York Mayor and Bloomberg chief Michael Bloomberg had discussed the smart cities project with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to India.

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