CII suggests US $1trillion to uplift urban India

Bangalore, May 5: Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister for Urban Development released the 'Intelligent Urbanization: Roadmap for India" report, on Thursday, May 6 at the International Conference on Intelligent Urbanisation organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

In his address, Reddy stressed for the need of capacity addition in a sustainable fashion, including the presence of local bodies concentrate on urban infrastructure.

Higlighting on the need to infuse technology to save water and build new urban cities. Reddy, while commending the Report particularly, Framework for Sustainable Urbanization and its focus on social, economic and environmental sustainability.

The report, which has been prepared by Booz & Company in association with Cisco Systems for CII suggested an estimated investment of around US $1 trillion from the government to uplift basic urban services by 2020.

Proposing a new framework for sustainable urbanization, the report explores the unique opportunities available in Urban India and the various obstable face by it.

An approached to Intelligent Urbanization has been defined by the CII as improving the quality of life of it citizen in every sphere asuch as social inclusion, raising economic growth and lessening environmental impact.

"India is probably the only country which needs to not only revitalize some of the densest urban agglomerations in the world but also ensure the delivery of basic services to the lesser privileged in an efficient manner during this urban transformation. The opportunities and challenges are unique to India and therefore the solutions must be transformational, not incremental. Our solutions must help cities be truly sustainable: socially, economically and environmentally. India not only requires a massive investment from the government, but also the adoption of technology to make the investments more efficient supported by next generation smart government regulations and strategic public private partnerships," said Wim Elfrink, chairman, CII Steering Committee on Intelligent Urbanisation and chief globalisation officer and executive vice president, Cisco Services.

The report prescribes Framework for Sustainable Urbanization which the country needs inorder to achieve sustainable urbainzation.

It also presses for the benefits of urbanization to be socially equitable, economically viable and environmentally sustainable and suggests three majors areas which can secure Intelligent Urbanization in India at the Urban Local Body (ULB) level.

"At CII, we believe infrastructure is the foundation for economic growth and well being of a society and accord the highest priority to infrastructure development. With over two-third of India"s GDP and 90% of the government"s revenue generated from cities and towns, it is imperative that our cities are smarter and more efficient to become more competitive enabled by the necessary infrastructure and services. CII"s recommendation is that India needs to adopt the Framework for Sustainable Urbanization to ensure the social, economic and environmental well-being of our cities. The right investments in coordination with strategic public private partnerships and technology, as the enabler, will be the engines of growth for India to achieve intelligent urbanisation," said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.

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