Smart-Tech‘ing’ Indian cities — How ‘liveable’ are Indian cities?
by ShalineeDutt Prakash (B.Arch, M.UDD, UIM)
Almost a century back, only one third of the global population lived in cities. By 2050, almost three-quarters of the world population would be living in urban areas of the world! This exponential increase in footprints of expanding and new cities cannot be curbed as it is, and the adverse impacts on the environment especially upon rural and other untouched areas of the world are obvious. One of the approaches, to contain this rapid spread of urban development with rising demographics, lies in — improving liveability in rural and other sub-urban areas. Once, rural and other sub-urban cities become more self-reliant and self-sustainable and fulfil liveability standards, they reduce the strain on cities and may help existing cities to become more stable, mature and hence more liveable. This approach is especially relevant for a country like India.
What is a liveable city?
As per some studies at National University of Singapore and University of California, Davis, and Curtin University, in Bentley, “a city’s “value” to its citizens from the economic, aesthetic, environmental and other perspectives… needs a more balanced perspective.” Published in the ScienceDaily back in November 2014, a combined study by the universities have shown that ‘liveable cities’ need, “the implicit ethical values of a balance between work and play, and of a balance between thinking globally and acting locally are values which we are comfortable in advocating to any city, and which we think most people could accept. The factors they take into account in their measure include (in no particular order of merit): economic vibrancy and competitiveness, domestic security and stability, socio-cultural conditions, public governance, environmental friendliness and sustainability.” When these aspects of a city and their weightage against benchmarks, got organized into a conceptual framework, the concept of liveability index for cities was developed.
Now that globalization and rapid urban development have made Indian cities top the list of ‘dynamic cities’, many cities in India are facing the flux of densification, traffic congestion, massive pressure on infrastructure and strained lifestyles. It is gradually making Indian cities stressful and inconvenient to live in. If we take a look at the City liveability Indexes in India, this picture becomes factually endorsed.
Whilst Indian cities (like many other global cities) are “complex systems”, some with stronger cultural or local inheritance, the challenge had been to identify broad categories and benchmarks to check their liveability indexes. Conceptualized in June 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, India (MoHUA) released the “Ease of living Index (ELI)” in 2018. The Endeavor was to help Indian cities assess their liveability vis a vis international and national standards and persuade urban planning and management sector to drive city developments with an ‘outcome-based’ approach. The exercise covered 111 cities, including declared 99 Smart cities and categorized performance indicators as 4 pillars of liveability index with 15 set of criteria and 78 indicators.
Some take-aways that need to be highlighted:
- Indian cities like Pune and Mumbai (Navi and Greater Mumbai) rank in top three positions , making the South-west Indian cities most favourable for city-living.
- Whilst, other megacities fall far behind in middle order, newer capital cities like Raipur and Vijayawada are in the Top10. Clearly, urban development and design of new cities are being implemented with liveability and smartness in mind.
- Unfortunately, most of the cities that have lowest rankings or are categorized as worst cities for ‘ease of living’ are in North-east India. Although, many smart cities have been identified in this region under India’s smart-city Mission one is hopeful that the cities in this region catch up soon on the fronts they lag behind with the help of central funds, planning and efficient management.
Although a comprehensive version of how cities and megacities are ranking, the Liveability Index has been criticized for its short falls in few reviews that suggest that its scope must be made more comprehensive.
- City liveability needs actual data from its ‘users’ and information needs to be collected from informed citizens (instead of local governing bodies, as mentioned source of Ease of Living Index publication). In a progressive interpretation suggested over ELI is scorecard-based work done by NGO Lakeer foundation (https://lakeer.org).I agree, that a more inclusive approach for data collection shall be true reflection of urban living comfort in Indian cities.
- Rightfully, the Index needs additional pillars to ensure liveability on par with benchmarks and for actual ‘ease’ of its citizens. Two additional performance indicators suggested are Foresightedness and Environment.
- Ina public debate that arose about ‘Ease of Living Index (EOI), 2018’ not being in tandem with the Global Livability Index rankings of the Economic Intelligent Unit for Indian cities. On 19 August 2018 MoHUA released a public clarification stating, why ranking of megapolises like Delhi and Greater Mumbai, were much higher in EOI compared to Global ranking positions. It clarified, that both studies had used drastically different regional context –spatially. Evidently, even the weightage given to various performance indicators; differ between global and national liveability indexes.
Hence, EOI indicators may need to be revisited in the need for cities to be ‘smarter’. An additional technology-driven communication or connectivity index (especially needed for socio-technological interface between city governance and its citizens) and separate indexes for Water and Waste (where source, segregation and output indicators inform both Indexes) may need to be included.
“As a crosscutting concept, liveability contributes to the assessment of the cumulative impacts of public and private actions and failures to act, and helps capture some of the externalities ignored or inaccurately valued by market mechanisms. These mechanisms include lending and investment policies, risk/reward assessments, and consumer, business, and government purchasing decisions.” Community and Quality of Life: Data Needs for Informed Decision Making,2002 (A Consensus Study Report)
My conclusions: City smartness, liveability and longevity go hand in hand:
1. Growth of some Indian megacities has been fast, but will they sustain!? Recent rapid urban growth and its pace is relatively high in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and a few megacities, as highlighted in my previous blog. However, there needs to be a balance between city development and liveability.
2. The need for future-readiness of Indian cities, another relevant highlight from my previous blog. Along with this future-proofing approach required for Indian cities, they need to inculcate maturity, stability and resilience. This may ensure longevity or long-term sustenance of cities as well as improve liveability quotient of cities.
3. Most Indian cities can improve their liveability quotient by introducing more holistic urban development approach to existing and new (greenfield and brownfield) developments. And more importantly future-proof with outlining flexible yet comprehensive city guidelines for all future urban developments.
4. Urban development in Indian cities may need to address and trend with focus on all its six liveability pillars, that is Social, Infrastructure, Environment, Economic, Political or Governance and Farsightedness; along with Technological and holistic planning and management support under STEEPS framework (Source: ARUP publications) for future-readiness. This approach will ensure liveability and longevity.
5. Each Indian city with their own versions of basic ‘Urban development guidelines’ can collectively and holistically tread the path of India’s smart-city mission and ultimately aim with longevity and liveability towards becoming cognitive cities.
With rising awareness about city liveability and associated benefits for its citizen, Indian cities are gradually witnessing government, PPP*, NGOs** and even private initiatives for community development and other initiatives in the urban terrain. Some of these projects that are directly catering to ‘lifestyle needs’ (like senior community living or child-centric neighbourhoods) or socio-economic requirements of a city (self-contained mixed-use blocks, co-living complexes, shared office complexes, micro units with smart parking)or even systems of SmartHoods (self-sustainable neighbourhoods). Let’s hope that best practices in urban design, development execution and operation, bring these ventures towards a successful and sustainable outcome.
*PPP (private public partnerships)
**NGOs (non-government organizations)
