Ever since the Centre announced the Smart Cities project, various government agencies and technology companies have announced several initiatives in trying to put together a blueprint to execute this complicated project. On the one hand there are legacy issues related to lack of adequate infrastructure and on the other there is the challenge of coordination among all stakeholders. The Maharashtra government has embarked on an ambitious plan to convert cities such as Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kalyan-Dombivli and Aurangabad into smart cities. To do this it is partnering several technology and engineering firms.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was in San Francisco to sign a memorandum of understanding with technology major Oracle, aimed at accelerating the State’s smart city programme. According to the MoU, Oracle and the Maharashtra government will create a Center of Excellence (CoE) in Mumbai. This will serve as a research platform to design, develop and test new capabilities that will deliver better government-to-citizen and government-to-business services. BusinessLine spoke exclusively with Fadnavis and Oracle’s CEOSafra Catz via telephone to know more about this agreement. Excerpts:

How will this MoU benefit the citizens of Mumbai?

Fadnavis: Together with Oracle, we want to build a new, efficient, transparent and inclusive system that benefits our people. The CoE is a step in that direction and will make more government services available at the click of a button. This is not just for Mumbai. Whatever we do is scalable and we can take it to other parts of the State as well.

Globally, there are a number of countries and cities that are in various stages of deploying tech that would make their cities smarter. Some, such as Barcelona and Songdo (South Korea), are way ahead. Do you think India can quickly catch up with the rest of the world in bridging this gap or will this be a slow progression with smaller projects?

Catz: I think India is going to leapfrog these other cities. You have visionary leadership that is intent on leveraging the newest technology, not recreating the wheel. They are absolutely intent on doing things quickly. The Chief Minister has set a timeline to do this differently and not the old-fashioned, slow way. The opportunity is enormous in a nation of over a billion and Maharashtra with over 113 million people — a young population embracing new technology and doing things in new ways. This is an enormous opportunity that’s why Oracle and I are so focussed on it. It’s going to be a success.

You have asked Safra Catz to be part of a tech advisory committee. Are you going to rope in other global leaders?

Fadnavis: We would like to have more tech leaders to be part of this committee. They can advise us on how to take this initiative forward, how we can leverage disruptive tech. Yes you are right, this would act as an umbrella body.

India has specific problems so will you need to tweak solutions, especially to make them cost effective?

Catz: First of all when you are using the cloud its already so much less costly right out of the box. You are leveraging the scale of a global operation and India alone is a massive market for us. So, pricing is not an issue.

Historically, deployment of technology could be costly and slow. But with the cloud you are talking about massive economies of scale, the costs go down and its fast to deploy. It allows for easy entry. It’s one of the reasons why this is such a perfect fit for needs for India.

What will Oracle bring? Does this mean things like local data centres?

Catz: Yes, of course, this will involve local data centres, local know-how but it’s also about leveraging global capabilities. We have a lot of experience in delivering in different parts of the world. We have many development centres in India and some of the most talented people in the world are in our Indian operations.

We will also bring all technology developed globally. So we bring tech investments and knowhow.

Are you looking at similar deals with other Indian States?

Catz: This is our first MoU with Maharashtra. This is an opportunity to lead. We will be successful if everyone wants to copy us.

There are many challenges related to smart cities and implementation of projects at the government level. How will you overcome them?

Fadnavis: We do have some challenges but I have created a war room where I am personally monitoring 30 projects directly.

In this war room, we sort out every problem, and all stakeholders are present. So many projects that were stuck for the last 20-30 years have been cleared in one year.

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