From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Sep 22: The two-day India Advantage Summit 2017 (TIA 2017) co-hosted by Karnataka’s IT/BT Department and KBITS drew to a close in Bengaluru on Friday with a focus on Smart Cities initiative.

The conference aims to bring together key industry leaders working in the domain of “SMART Cities” in order to bring innovative practices, best case studies and globally tried and tested frameworks to India. 

With the theme of 'Global Partnerships for Building Smart Cities in India, the leaders at the Summit have signed a declaration outlining the importance of smart solutions for cities and ensuring equitable access to city services and quality of life for all of its citizens.

The declaration was committed to the following key measures:

* Support and engage in smart city initiatives, to complement the efforts of the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission. 

* Support and develop new and innovative models with the help of financial institutions to invest in smart urban infrastructure projects.

* Resolve to build the capacities of stakeholders and impart skills to the youth on specific training courses that create jobs for managing smart infrastructures.

* Felicitate site visits to develop a greater understanding of how smart solutions are put into practice.

* Disseminate, share and exchange information, make new collaborations by regularly holding conferences with the aim of improving city-to-city cooperation.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Dr A Ravindra, Chairman Smart Cities India Foundation said, “The aim of the India Advantage Summit 2017 is to address the challenges that arise due to urbanisation. We aim to come up with smart city solutions which involving the use of technology.’’

“Our focus is to get the basic structure of a smart city implemented as soon as possible which includes guaranteed water and electricity supply, hygienic sanitation and solid waste management, well-organized mobility and public transport, strong information technology connectivity, safety of citizens, reducing carbon footprint and having intelligent traffic management systems,’’ he said.

Business Head of SMART City Projects, Quess Corp Ltd, Saurav R Lenka,   said, “There is strong need to revisit the funding pattern of the strategic initiatives like smart cities. Current funding methods are counter-productive to the strategic initiatives as it increases the working capital requirements for MSI. This in turn leads to increasing the cost of capital, which ultimately drives MSI to reduce the overall cost of project by compromising on technology." 

The summit was organised by Integro Infotech and Consulting and the focus of the TIA 2017 was on Global Partnerships for Building Smart Cities in India.