If Singapore can, so can India

A smart city is not just about accessibility and next-gen telecom networks. It is, in essence, about citizens being able to ‘talk’ to the government effortlessly, and vice-versa.

A smart city is about e-governance, the e-connect between executives and residents, efficient transportation and traffic management, and efficient civic administration, whether it’s water supply, power, waste disposal or safety. In a smart city, residents live and work in a clean, safe and healthy environment. The Centre has identified certain parameters that will help build a smart city. It is indeed an ambitious project and calls for rigorous planning and clearly defined implementation guidelines.

Singapore, over a brief period of time, has managed to transform itself into one of the most livable cities in this part of the world — and to reach there it adopted a systematic approach. India would do well to take a leaf out of Singapore’s planning books to draw up a similar smart city roadmap.

Singapore enjoys a worldwide reputation for its efficient traffic management and public transport systems. Anticipating congestion and planning in advance have resulted in the city-state being able to sustain a high level of service despite its compact size and rapid economic growth. Indian metro cities, all of which are facing severe traffic management issues, can emulate this model.

The public transport system is the most important means of travelling to work and school for Singaporeans. With a view to encouraging cycling, the Singapore government came up with a national cycling plan in November 2013. It wants to build 700 km of additional cycling tracks by 2030 and connect the entire island with walkways and cycling paths, called park connectors. Once built, residents will be able to go from one end of the city to the other via dedicated pathways that are not open to motorised traffic, thus ensuring the safety of cyclists.

All housing development board (HDB) enclaves in Singapore will have a network of dedicated paths leading to metro stations. The government is exploring automated underground parking facilities for bikes. Three statutory boards — the Land Transport Authority, which plans public roads; the town-planner the Urban Redevelopment Authority; and the National Parks Board, which builds park connectors — and at least three ministries — the national development, transport and finance ministries — have collaborated to come up with this revolutionary cycle transportation plan.

Singapore is a densely populated island-state with more than 5 million people in a land area of about 710 sq km. It has no natural aquifers or groundwater, hence water resource management is a huge challenge.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Singapore faced all the problems of rapid urbanisation that Indian cities face today — polluted rivers, water shortages and widespread flooding. By investing in water technology and adopting an integrated approach to water management in the past 50 years, Singapore has developed a diversified and sustainable water supply system. Today, it is capable of producing all the water that its industries and population require, if needed. From the days of trying to overcome its water challenges, Singapore has turned its vulnerability into a strategic asset.

Water scarcity is fast becoming urban India’s number one woe, with government’s own data revealing that residents in 22 out of 32 major cities have to deal with daily shortages. India is currently rated among the high-stress regions in the world (next only to the desert areas), according to a special report by the World Resources Institute.

India needs to look at an approach similar to the one adopted by Singapore at the city level. Rainwater harvesting needs to be made mandatory with the right incentives, instead of being merely encouraged. The authorities and residents must work in a collaborative way, where residents develop a sense of ownership towards the project and work together to achieve its objectives. Singapore is able to capture 90 per cent of the rainfall it receives. If cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai, which have been facing water scarcity for many years, take up rainwater harvesting widely, most of their urban water problems can be managed.

A smart government lies at the heart of any smart city project where citizens have easy access to government services. Transparent and effective two-way communication between the public and the administration needs to be the norm, not the exception. Every resident needs to be able to obtain information, seek redressal, and give feedback to public utilities and other government services.

India has, for over a decade, been enabling the payment of public utility bills electronically. Electronic bill payment is just the starting point of e-governance. The electronic mode of communication must become the primary mode of communication between people and the government, whether it’s for grievance redressal, collecting feedback, developing consensus or seeking public participation in governance.

We have seen a plethora of initiatives started by local bodies; the challenge has been to sustain these initiatives because of the lack of public involvement. Swachh Bharat must become an ongoing movement, involving people at different levels and sustaining interest through a variety of awareness programmes at the local level. Similarly, citizen safety must become another area where residents act as the eyes and ears of the government — and they will do so provided they are assured their voices are being heard. Today, the middle-class in Indian cities is ready and willing to play a positive role in bringing about change for the better — and the government needs to tap into this immense potential.

Today, a confluence of factors — evolving technologies, the rise of state-sponsored corporate espionage, and a talent drain of valuable IT personnel — has created an environment in which governments and the valuable personal data they store about their citizens are under constant threat from millions of cyber-attacks and intrusion attempts.

Singapore launched a five-year National Cyber Security Masterplan 2018 to further secure the nation’s cyber environment. Developed through a multi-agency effort led by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore under the guidance of the National Infocomm Security Committee, the masterplan provides an overarching strategic direction to help the government and other organisations strengthen resilience against cyber threats.

With India’s giant leap towards smart cities and e-governance, which necessitates digital communication and digitisation of citizen data, the government must plan and implement cyber security policies and put in place robust security systems to ensure the security of data and prevent any breaches.

The writer is the Regional Marketing Director at Palo Alto Networks, Asia-Pacific and Japan, and is based in Singapore