Smart City Development Plan Based on Demographic and Socio-Economic Analysis

Aims & Objectives: The objective of this project was to prepare a document that would provide a list of information which can be obtained from secondary sources and suggest adjustments needed for using them in the preparation of an urban development plan. More specifically, against the backdrop of the Smart Cities initiative of Government of India, this project sought to critically appraise smart city plans and provide detailed data base and framework for a development plan using existing socio-economic, demographic and development related data.

Recommendation: This study recommended the following:

• For development planning, the economy needs to be divided into major sectors and sub-sectors in order to identify programme-specific variables and indicators. Cities need to use these indicators to identify quantifiable targets, benchmarking and achievements as well as to analyzing gaps;
• Cities should also focus on digitizing the services for development of city-level database on real-time basis;
• Socio-economic development plan needs to be formulated with proper understanding of population development relationship;
• Framework of development plan should be able to identify the contracts, expectations and outcomes based on reasonable and achievable targets;
• Socio economic and population data needs to be used to define the interventions by identifying vulnerable groups that are marginalized and excluded and understanding their distinct needs and demands;
• Local level data needs to be collected to fine tune the planning and recommendations as per specific geographical areas and population.