The National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) has been launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on 23rd Feb. 

Several other digital initiatives of MoHUA vis. India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX), SmartCode, Smart Cities 2.0 website, and Geospatial Management Information System (GMIS) were also launched. These initiatives are among the ongoing efforts of both Ministries to realise the Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India and AtmaNirbhar Bharat, by making cities more self-reliant and enabled to meet the needs of and provide services to their citizens.

As per the government, National Urban Digital Mission will create the ideal space to harness immense synergies from the domain of urban and technology towards creating a citizen-centric governance that reflects Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘minimum government and maximum governance’.

National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM)

    • The National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) will create a shared digital infrastructure for urban India, working across the three pillars of people, process, and platform to provide holistic support to cities and towns.

    • It will institutionalise a citizen-centric and ecosystem-driven approach to urban governance and service delivery in 2022 cities by 2022, and across all cities and towns in India by 2024.

    • NUDM will create a shared digital infrastructure that can consolidate and cross-leverage the various digital initiatives of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, enabling cities and towns across India to benefit from holistic and diverse forms of support, in keeping with their needs and local challenges.

    • NUDM is citizen-centric, ecosystem-driven, and principles-based in both design and implementation.

    • It has articulated a set of governing principles, and inherits the technology design principles of the National Urban Innovation Stack (NUIS), whose strategy and approach was released by MoHUA in February, 2019. 

    • The principles in turn give rise to standards, specifications, and certifications, across the three pillars of people, process, and platforms.

India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)

    • The India Urban Data Exchange has been developed in partnership between the Smart Cities Mission and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

    • IUDX serves as a seamless interface for data providers and data users, including ULBs, to share, request, and access datasets related to cities, urban governance, and urban service delivery.

    • IUDX is an open-source software platform which facilitates the secure, authenticated, and managed exchange of data amongst various data platforms, 3rd party authenticated and authorised applications, and other sources.

    • As the number of cities on IUDX expands, this will scale up to uniform and seamless sharing between data producers and data consumers across urban India. 

    • IUDX is designed to address the problem of data silos, both within and across cities. Cities generate large volumes of data, which are recorded by a wide range of entities, both within government and across industry, academia, and civil society.

    • The combination of these datasets can enable rapid innovation, as well as a better understanding of and planning for urban needs and challenges.

    • IUDX creates a secure and reliable channel for data producers or owners to share their data, with complete control over what is shared and with whom, in order to enable sharing while addressing security and privacy protections by design.

SmartCode Platform

    • SmartCode is a platform that enables all ecosystem stakeholders to contribute to a repository of open-source code for various solutions and applications for urban governance.

    • It is designed to address the challenges that ULBs face in the development and deployment of digital applications to address urban challenges, by enabling cities to take advantage of existing codes and customising them to suit local needs, rather than having to develop new solutions from scratch. 

    • As a repository of open-source software, the source code available on the platform will be free to use without any licensing or subscription fees, thus limiting costs to those involved with customising the code and developing a locally-relevant solution.

New Smart Cities Website ver. 2.0 and GMIS

    • In order to better connect with people on the Smart Cities Missions efforts and achievements, and to make it easier for ULBs and citizens to access resources related to their work, the Smart Cities Mission website has been redesigned to serve as a single stop for all Smart Cities initiatives.

    • The Geospatial Management Information System (GMIS) is integrated with this website.

    • The website creates a single window hub for Smart Cities Mission.

    • A portal that works as a gateway to all the platforms and initiatives launched under the Mission.

    • The website, through a seamless and a unified interface, aggregates all mission related information/initiatives from the various platforms and show automated mission updates catering to the needs of a public user.

    • The website has been developed to be used as a highly effective communication and outreach tool.

Smart Cities Mission Updates

    • Since its launch in 2015, the Smart Cities Mission has made significant strides in its efforts to ensure that the benefits of technology reach all citizens. 

    • Over the last year, the Mission has seen accelerated project implementation with Smart Cities focusing on grounding and completion of projects.

    • Of the total committed investments of ₹2,05,018 crore as per approved Smart Cities Plans, as on 21.02.2021, Smart Cities under the Mission have tendered 5,445 projects worth ₹1,72,425 crore (84% of total), issued work orders to 4,687 projects worth ₹1,38,068 crore (67% of total) and completed 2,255 projects worth ₹36,652 crore (18% of total).

    • Further, 50+ smart cities have transformed their ICCCs into COVID-19 war rooms to enable collaboration with various government departments dealing with COVID response.

    • Integrated dashboards were developed in a number of smart cities to enable effective decision-making, monitoring of COVID hotspots and medical infrastructure, tracking movement of goods and services, and managing lockdown.

    • Other initiatives have reached beyond the 100 Smart Cities.

    • Outcome and performance assessment frameworks to measure quality of life and city performance were rolled out in 114 Cities via the Ease of Living Index and Municipal Performance Index.

    • Over 31 lakh citizens were engaged through the Citizen Perception Survey.

    • The Urban Learning and Internship Program (TULIP) aims to match opportunities in ULBs with learning needs of fresh graduates.

    • Over 280 ULBs have posted over 14,240 internships; so far, 932 students are undergoing internships, and 195 students have completed their internships.

    • To further make cities sustainable and resilient, The ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) was rolled out in 100 Smart Cities to help cities look at urban planning and governance from a climate change lens, with a second round of annual assessment currently underway.

    • A Climate Centre for Cities (C3) has been established in NIUA. A number of national challenges like India Cycles4Change Challenge, Streets for People Challenge, Nurturing Neighbourhoods challenge have been implemented as well.

Background

    • India’s unique pattern of urbanization is not a corollary, but a driving force of its growth story.

    • Its cities contribute about two-thirds of its economic output and are the main recipients of FDI.

    • Seventy per cent of future employment is expected to be generated in Indian cities, with emerging cities (population less than 1 million) driving consumption expenditure.

    • By 2030 urban India will contribute more than 70% of India’ GDP and house at least 40% of national population.

    • Smart Cities Mission is focused on driving economic growth and improving the quality of life of India’s urban residents through many different means, crucial among those being harnessing of the power of technology. 

    • Thus, it is well placed to catalyze transformative collaboration in the urban ecosystem through establishing a shared digital public good in the form of the National Urban Innovation Stack (NUIS). 

    • NUIS is a digital infrastructure built with a deep understanding of the urban ecosystem and its needs. 

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)