Smart Cities Deliver Economic Prosperity, Quality Of Life And Environmental Sustainability: Sundeep Singh, Senior Director, Accenture Strategy
On 20th December, the UN Global Compact Network India (UN GCNI) and BMW Group India jointly hosted India Sustainability Dialogue 3.0 themed ‘SDGs as Growth Drivers’, where the dialogue focused on how corporates can contribute towards three major areas of development in India- Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption & Production and Partnership.
The dialogue was hoping to build consensus within the Indian corporate sector on the measures that can be employed to expand its activities in the three key themes; the possible impact it can have on businesses and key stakeholders like local communities, employees, supply chain actors, government and civil society; the existing good practices; the role of technology and innovation as well as changes needed to the existing policy environment.
In the second plenary session about Sustainable Cities and Communities, India’s challenges and opportunities were discussed. In his keynote address, Sundeep Singh, Senior Director, Accenture Strategy, said, “Urbanization in India is increasingly putting pressure on already strained resources, creating a need for smart cities. There is a high demand-supply gap which needs to be abridged, with respect to utilities, access to sanitation facilities and so on. 20% of our population lacks access to electricity. There is an intense strain on natural resources like there are 22 Indian cities in the 50 most polluted cities, Rs 44,000 crores worth of food wasted annually. There is the need for continued capacity expansion, as India’s urban population will increase by 200 million by 2030. There is a trilemma, and it is difficult to address all three in tandem.” He also added, “Smart cities enable improved quality of life and economic prosperity through innovation and collaboration, so basically, it delivers economic prosperity, quality of life, and environmental sustainability. This can be achieved through the focus on efficient services and businesses, innovation and knowledge sharing, digital technologies and integrated infrastructure and so on. In 2015, the government of India introduced the 100 smart cities mission program, with projects partially funded through centrally sponsored schemes and a selection of cities based on a city challenge. Despite the ambitious scope of the 100 smart city program, the magnitude of India’s smart city opportunity is much broader.” Singh also went on to add, “There are several factors which are critical for the success of India’s smart city campaign, like local customization, citizen services, stakeholder collaboration, measured returns, digital and technology and execution roadmap.”
The session was chaired by Dr ShaliniSarin, SVP HR- BG Professional, CSR&BoP Leader- Lighting. “Sustainability and sustainable cities is not just about circularity and recyclability, it is much more than that. Sustainability is also about safe cities. Sustainable offices are about space optimization, and using sensors to detect when electricity is not being used. Can a happy and productive employee lead to a sustainable city? There has to be maximization of productivity and potential. We have to make cities energy efficient, by using smart devices. Our vision for the next decade is built on three pillars, the right lighting, value beyond illumination and future-proof application. Energy production won’t grow as fast energy consumption“, said Sarin. She also added, “We also need to use renewables. We need to use right lighting which is ambient and responsive, have value beyond illumination via open platforms to all stakeholders. We need to move to an OPEX model, where we use light as a service, and look at future-proof applications”.
Neville K Gandhi, Lead Country Compliance Officer, Siemens Ltd, said, “In order to have a sustainable smart city, it’s important to talk about governance, as it is essentially money being pumped in. It is important to have deliverables, which reach the bottom layer, not just the top. There needs to be transparency and accountability, which will essentially define how the smart city evolves.”
