A Comparative Study of Smart City vs. Smart Villages Startup, Opportunities and Challenges

Mrs. Sushma

Research Scholar, CSJM University, Kanpur

*Corresponding Author E-mail:

ABSTRACT:

“Villages rather than cities need to be made smart for the overall progress and development of the country,” “Without making the village’s smart, nation cannot become developed and progressive”. A Smart Village knows “What its Needs “and When it Needs”. It knows the requirements of its citizens, available resources, applicable services and schemes. Smart Village Initiative focuses on improved resources-use efficiency, empowered local self-governance, access to assured basic amenities and responsible citizens. The present research paper discusses about rural development in developing world for the up-liftman of livelihood of the rural villages. An emerging progressive counter-movement within Indian rural hinterlands that seeks an alternative to both smart cities and traditional village models. This movement articulates a new vision for the “Smart Village” that blends ICT-based knowledge production and community problem-solving to improve the sustainability of its agricultural production, rural institutions, and social mobility. It seeks specifically to institutionalize a different future for rural villages that reverses the new patterns of rural to urban migration, particularly among young adults, that smart city development has amplified in this region. Now the need of the hour is, Strategy, Integrated Planning and all over the above Monitoring and Execution of the activities using appropriate governance models. The present era is increase in Information and Communication Technology. This Technology has proved its potential in various sectors of development in Urban and Rural areas. Researcher has made an attempt to correlate the different factors of the smart village and its implications.

KEY WORDS: Smart Village, Smart City, Startup, Opportunities, Challenges.

COMPARATIVE STUDY:

SMART CITY

SMART VILLAGE

Definition :-

A city can be defined as ‘smart’ when investment in social and human capital, combined with investment in traditional (transport) and modern information and telecommunication infrastructure, generates sustainable economic development and a high quality of life, while promoting prudent management of natural resources, through participatory governance. This means that a ‘smart city’ is a hybrid model combining democratized open innovation with central city support, coordination, and monitoring. In a narrow perspective, ‘smart city’ might be understood as a city that uses information and communication technologies to deliver services to citizens.

Importance :

The Smart City itself becomes a genuine digital platform that maximizes the economy, society, environment and welfare of cities and facilitates the shift towards more sustainable behavior among all stakeholders: users, companies and administration. It also seeks to maximize public budgets specifically owing to the improvement of the processes of the city themselves and its inhabitants. On the other hand, it enables new business models, thus constituting an excellent platform for innovation in their environment. Smart City as a city which uses information and communication technologies so that its critical infrastructure as well as its components and public services provided are more interactive, efficient and so that citizens can be made more aware of them.

Objectives :

Ø Reduced public spending: public spending on the provision and management of public services is reduced

Ø Increases efficiency and quality of services: it makes it possible to manage resources more efficiently and improve the quality of the services provided

Ø Provides support in decision-making: facilitates the identification of the needs of the city and the approach for new services to provide them with support

Ø Promotes innovation: provides an ideal platform for innovating, incubating new business and, in general, promoting social development

Ø Provides information in real time: enhances the awareness of citizens about the environment in which they live by providing information that flows in real time and, at the same time, improves the transparency of the administration.

Ø The ideal objective of a Smart City must be to have a holistic vision of the city that allows services to be deployed based on priorities without the need for having silos of information that jeopardize the future development of the Smart City and its services.

Ø Should be energy efficient: in general, sustainable management of resources: Smart energy grid, smart metering, urban waste collection and processing, management of public parks and gardens, measuring of environmental parameters, etc.

Ø Management of the city’s infrastructures: management of public buildings and building automation, management of public infrastructures and urban facilities, reporting of incidents by citizens, etc.

Government Schemes to Promote Smart Cities:-

The Smart Cities Mission is an innovative and new initiative by the Government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens. The smart cities mission strategy are :

· Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied city-wide

· Develop areas step-by-step – three models of area-based developments

· Retrofitting,

· Redevelopment,

· Greenfield

Challenges :

The major challenges in making a city a “Smart City” are :

Ø Poor Mobility: Traffic and congestion.

Ø Unskilled workforce.

Ø Inferior city infrastructure

Ø Inclusive growth

Ø Assured Water and Electricity Availability

Ø Housing facility in the city,

Ø Safety and Security condition in City.

Ø Sanitation including Solid Waste Management Program.

Ø E-Governance and citizen participation

Ø Sustainable environment.

Ø Health and Education

Robust IT connectivity and digitalization

Definition :-

A Smart Villages access to sustainable energy services acts as a catalyst for development –enabling the provision of good education and healthcare, access to clean water, sanitation and nutrition, the growth of productive enterprises to boost incomes, and enhanced security, gender equality and democratic engagement.

Importance :

The idea of smart village in the present day context seems more reasonable as there is a limit of growth of cities which is leading to creation of urban jungles, where the population ratio per km of land is way above the desired norms. Just like smart cities, a smart village should be interactive and multi-functional; there should be active participation of people in various activities. A smart village is one which will automatically link local production with local procurement and local distribution. A smart village will also have power, knowledge, healthcare, technology, entrepreneurship and internet connectivity. A smart village will not only bring Internet connection to the rural lands, but will also provide support to sustainable agricultural practices. A network of small scale industries linked to agriculture, and a strong network of rail and road corridors with civic amenities such as education and health for all, including farmers, will transform the face of real India. Federal ministries work with state and municipal governments on the smart cities initiative, but a focus on smaller villages would probably require state government leadership. Government development initiatives should be focused on the smaller population areas to create smart villages.

Objectives :

ØSmart Village Plans for development based on People, Assets and Service Centric information and tracks its progress.

ØA smart village has 100% institutional deliveries

ØSmart Village end all preventable maternal deaths and infant deaths which means proving good basic health facilities in Health care centered

ØSmart Village Maintain its Identity, culture and Heritage

ØIt has homes with access to toilet, safe drinking water and regular power.

ØIn smart village every household has diversified livelihood opportunities and/or micro enterprise. Microenterprise a business operating on a very small scale, esp. one with a sole proprietor and fewer than six employees.

ØA Smart Village knows all information about its citizens, available resources, applicable services and schemes

ØIt has functional solid/liquid waste management system.

ØSmart Village has functional toilet, potable water electricity available in schools, health centers.

ØAwareness on new technologies that can be implemented in villages, farms and nearby places. e.g. Drip Irrigation, Solar Panels Lighting Systems on streetlights etc.

ØSmart Village Interacts with Government, NGO’s, Social Entrepreneurs, Experts for its needs.

Government Schemes to Promote Smart Villages:-

Prime Minister Modi announced the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (Parliamentarian's Model Village Scheme), under the new scheme, each parliamentarian is mandated to adopt three rural villages and ensure that these villages are transformed in to "Smart Villages" by 2019. Villages should be provisioned with the basic amenities and a social security system that are often only available in urban areas. Some smart village Schemes are :

· National Agricultural Development Program

· Bank loans, Free Electricity

· Public Distribution System

· Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

· National Food Security Bill

· Mid-Day Meal Scheme

· Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)

· Annapurna Scheme (Ministry of Rural Development) for senior citizens

· The Nutritional Program for Adolescent Girls

· Emergency feeding program (in eight districts in Orissa)

Challenges :

Ø Agricultural Development Program

Ø Street Lighting, Building of roads,

Ø Health and Education for all

Ø Toilet, Safe drinking water and regular power supply for every home.

Ø Arrange livelihood for every citizen of village

Ø Efficient mobility and public transport

Robust IT connectivity and digitalization

Why concentrate on villages?

1. Almost 70% of the Indian population lives in villages. In recent times, more cases of farmers’ suicides due to crop failure have been reported. Even after 70 years of independence, we lack a ‘support and guidance system’; nor do we have professional counseling for farmers. Many of them have no secondary source of income — this is a major lacuna.

2. The lack of job opportunities in villages coupled with less remunerative farming (except in the case of large land holdings) compels village youth to migrate to cities. There, many of them do not enjoy a reasonable quality of life because they manage to get only subsistence jobs.

3. The migration is also unidirectional as they continue to live in cities in the hope of landing better jobs. In the long term, this leads to desertion from villages, dilution of village culture, reduced land under cultivation and, consequently, farm output.

4. In the cities, uncontrolled migration adds to pollution, traffic problems, crime, and over-burdening of civic amenities and infrastructure. Therefore it is natural that for ‘inclusive’ development, the Government must focus on them.

Present scenario:

· According to the most recent socioeconomic and caste census data, a third of India’s rural households are landless and dependent on manual labour for an income.

· About 13% of rural households are still only one-room tenements built with mud walls and fragile roofs.

· There is not even basic health insurance in case of serious illnesses. Rural health centers are not easily reachable, and even if they are, they don’t have either the facilities or the medicines to treat anything other than diarrhea and bacterial infections.

· Malnutrition is widespread and one of India’s most enduring enigmas.

· Roads in the interiors are also not in good condition. They are difficult even to walk, not to speak of travelling by carts, and have been in that condition for years.

CONCLUSION:

KnokKonk – “ Forget Cities, think about Smart Villages”

Smart Villages are the need of the hour as development is needed for both rural and urban areas for better livelihood and technology will offer effective solution. The technological support already exists at the urban side and there is a tremendous pressure on urban landscapes due to migration of rural people for livelihood. Smart Villages will not only reduce this migration but also irrigate the population flow from urban to rural area as well.

Taking education, skill for vocations etc. to villages can well channelize the energies of the youth as a powerful tool for the nation. An educated rural youth will be an asset to the country and even if he shifts to a city he shall prove to be an asset rather than a burden as is happening now. And at most the overall development of the country can be possible with the development of the villages only. To conclude, building smart villages are equally in fact more important than building smart cities,

RECOMMENDATIONS:

At this stage of study on the topic following recommendations should be taken into account to achieve the goal of Smart Villages:

1. The top priority should be the creation of opportunities for youths in villages, thereby discouraging migration to cities. We must create an eco-system that makes youth interested in working from their villages. BPOs/KPOs can operate from villages and young people can be encouraged to take up IT jobs there. Many jobs require computer skills instead of degrees. The digitization of post offices, rural banks, and IT-enabled services provide excellent opportunities.

2. Farming should be made a remunerative occupation, with guidance and mentoring to small farmers on how to get the best yield and market at remunerative prices. It’s important to train them to develop a secondary source of income.

3. The benefits of schemes such as crop insurance, soil health card, and neem pesticides must reach the grassroots. Proper implementation is key. A helpdesk set up in every village and manned by trained individuals to handle farmers’ queries and provide solutions would be most useful.

4. Projects supported by Digital India and Skill India should be integrated through a unified agency to reach villages. For instance, Skill India can empower youths to start their own small businesses after training as masons, mechanics, electricians, and drivers or to run repair shops, poultry and dairy farms, kirana stores, tea-shops, dhabas and so on.

5. India’s crafts thrive in villages, especially as cooperative ventures. Pottery, metal craft, weaving, jewelry making, wood craft, shell craft, cane craft, embroidery, ivory craft, glass craft and paper craft could be sources of income. The arts and crafts ecosystem of villages is impossible to recreate in cities. A great deal of export potential is hidden here. Senior/elderly artisans can be employed as ‘trainers’.

6. Villages traditionally preserve large number of water bodies like ponds, wells, bawadis, canals etc. Training villagers in water harvesting methods, rejuvenating ponds/wells to improve water storage and sharing these good practices systematically with others, would help mitigate hardships.

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Received on 26.06.2017 Modified on 02.08.2017

Asian J. Management; 2017; 8(4):1315-1321.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2017.00199.8