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our guest today is Sita Hari heron she
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is the general manager and group head at
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the digital software and solutions group
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at Tata Consultancy Services and we are
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speaking with her today about smart
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cities a toolkit for leaders a special
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report that we produced collaboratively
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recently Siva thank you so much for
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joining us today acknowledged at Wharton
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Mikael it's so great to be here
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particularly talking about smart cities
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a topic that you and I are quite
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passionate about exactly right so again
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thanks so much for being here I know we
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can start with a very basic question
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what is a smart city what was what are
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the concept meat mean originally and how
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has it evolved over time and thank you
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for having me Moo Cole I mean it's such
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a pleasure to be here with you and let's
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look at some data if you look at smart
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cities and the number of smart cities
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between 2002 and 2015 it had quadrupled
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across the globe from approximately 21
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to 88 at the end of 2017 about hundred
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and seventy eight cities embarked on 250
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smart city projects from Melbourne to
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Copenhagen to San Francisco this data
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suggests that there is this rapid
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urbanization across the globe and there
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are leaders in the municipalities and
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cities that are trying to figure out how
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to cope with this rapid urbanization and
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as you rightly said the definition of
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smart cities has evolved over the last
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couple of decades in the first phase
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when smart cities started to be
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discussed in the public forum technology
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players looked at some of the challenges
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that were created by the urbanization so
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they said let me create point product
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solutions addressing the various
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challenges which is what technology
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players do related to parking mobility
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water management lighting and so on so
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that was the phase one how
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as many city leaders lamented technology
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players didn't quite understand how the
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city would consume those solutions so
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came the second phase when the city
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leader said let me take control of the
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technology agenda for my city and
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however there were two things that were
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lacking number one collaboration across
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the various departments of the city and
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number two
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keeping citizens at the center of
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everything that they do so collaboration
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with the citizens so now we are in the
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third phase of smart city definition I'm
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quite excited about that Mukul because
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city's leaders are saying that I want to
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create cities that are livable that
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focus on the well-being and happiness of
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my citizens so it is a citizen centric
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agenda and that is evolving and one of
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the examples that come to mind is a
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place that you visited last year for
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your vacation Iceland and the capital
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city of Iceland Reykjavik developed a
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program right after the 2008 financial
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crisis called the better Reykjavik
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program that is a platform by the way
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which gives voice to the citizens in
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policymaking and there are other
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examples in san san antonio as an
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example with your highway sign boards
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and beijing with a I love Beijing app
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that can be used by the citizens to
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report either power outages broken
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street lamps or potholes to the
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government I'm really glad you mentioned
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the idea of a platform because I was
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very curious to see how you think of
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smart cities functioning as platforms
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that enable collaboration between
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different groups groups of stakeholders
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I was wondering if you could speak about
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that a little bit more yeah so if you
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start with being citizen-centric that
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provides the right motivation to drive
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the right behaviors take the right
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action
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and collaboration yes is absolutely
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needed across the various departments of
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the city but it is also needed with the
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citizens and private enterprises as well
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so if you look at the linkage as an
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example between water management and
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traffic management or between event
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management in a city and city commerce
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it becomes quite apparent as to why such
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a collaboration is really essential as
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an example if there is water pipe
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breakage in one part of the city you
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really want to divert traffic in that
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part so as to avoid traffic jams or
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congestion in that part and similarly
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when the city is hosting let's say a
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football match or a popular music
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concert one thing that isn't obvious is
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while the city will improve its enhance
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its safety and security measures what is
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not clear is how does it relate to city
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commerce as an example the retailers
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will do well if they can increase the
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foot traffic in the areas where such
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special events happen what that does for
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the retailers is it increases the
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revenues for the retailers not just that
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it increases the revenue for the city
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because of the taxes so the
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collaboration across the various
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departments of the city is absolutely
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essential and having a unified platform
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as you said will drive that
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collaboration but as you and I know we
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also have to collaborate the city has to
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collaborate with the citizens as well as
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with private enterprises and academic
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institutions and one example that comes
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to mind is how arizona's Institute for
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digital Progress has set up the
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structure they have a unified leadership
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structure that drives collaboration
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across the various municipalities
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authorities Academy institutions like
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the Arizona State University as well as
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private sectors like Google uber Cisco
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Intel in order to tackle some of their
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traffic congestion problems I'm really
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glad you brought up leadership because
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it seems to me that the role of the
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leadership is very crucial in making a
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city smart or at least smarter
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how do mayors and other civic leaders go
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about setting priorities that define how
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a city becomes smarter across different
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dimensions of its operations you're
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right mogul mayor's play such a critical
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role I was watching a documentary
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several years ago from HP bow which is
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called the weight of the nation this
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documentary takes you through the
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neighborhoods of Columbus Ohio
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particularly Lyndhurst and huff they're
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about eight and a half miles apart and
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as you drive through these neighborhoods
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the life expectancy drops by
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approximately twenty four years and it's
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not so unique to Ohio you see when you
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take a tube ride in London from Oxford
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Circus to silver Lane which is about 15
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minutes train ride the life expectancy
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drops by approximately 15 to 20 years to
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neighborhoods that are so close to each
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other but so far apart the question is
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why an obvious answer is yes that is a
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healthcare disparity between these two
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communities but as you and I know the
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healthcare disparity doesn't come by
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itself it's also because of the
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disparities in education housing food
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access and possibly workforce
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development so mayor's as you rightly
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asked they have a crucial role role to
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play in terms of addressing some of
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these real-life challenges and balancing
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that with driving economic growth for
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the cities so they need to do that in my
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view in three steps
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number one they need to first define a
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clear vision for their city in a very
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simple manner I'll use an overused
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example here but a powerful one one of
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the former mayors of Barcelona
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mr. arrow said that his vision was to
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create a dancing Barcelona a city where
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the visitors felt welcome the streets
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were well lit the city smelled fresh and
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the citizens and the visitors were safe
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and happy
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you know this powerful simple vision
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drove the choice of choice of
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technologies for Barcelona whether it be
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in mobility parking lighting energy
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management or security and even mace
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waste management for the city right so
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to start with the mayors need to define
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in simpler terms what their vision is
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for the city the second of course as we
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discussed earlier is collaboration with
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the citizens and driving initiatives
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that are citizen-centric that becomes
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very important as a second next step and
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the third is and the mayor's need to
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understand the local and political
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context which I think they are quite
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adapted so if if let's take an example
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in San Francisco a few years ago they
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implemented a dynamic pricing for their
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parking system la is implementing a
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similar system called la Park but this
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expansive and expensive in Street
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sensors Garage sensors smart meters and
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all of the technologies that are
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required to dynamically calculate the
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pricing for the parking isn't suitable
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for smaller cities smaller cities can do
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by using data transaction data that they
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collect as well as some manual surveys
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that they could do quite occasionally
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and so it is really important for mayors
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to understand the local and political
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context instead of getting excited and
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trying to figure out these solutions
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work somewhere else can i replicate it
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in my city so those are the three steps
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I would say that the mayor's need to
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consider but also balance the resources
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that are available
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to them between serving the citizens and
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addressing some critical challenges and
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driving economic growth I'm glad you
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brought up the challenges that mayor's
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face because one of the biggest
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challenges that many of them seem to be
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facing these days is how to handle the
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influx of new people that could either
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be immigrants coming from other
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countries or it could be just an influx
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of people from the hinterlands the rural
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areas into the cities do you have any
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thoughts on how mayors and other civic
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leaders can deal with these challenges
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in a smart and also an inclusive and
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compassionate manner absolutely let's
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look at some data if we look at places
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like Asia Africa and Latin America every
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hour of every single day nearly 1,000
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people are moving from the rural areas
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to urban areas if this were to continue
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we would have to build a city as large
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as London one every month for the next
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33 years so this is what is causing the
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rapid urbanization phenomena that many
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of them are talking about and it puts a
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lot of pressure as you and I know on the
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city's limited and scarce resources but
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there is one other critical issue at
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play that many of us are overlooking
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which is the growing disparity gap
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across the various regions of a nation
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so if you look at the u.s. here the
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bigger communities today are growing at
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a much faster pace and they're also
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contributing overall to the nation's
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growth more than ever before and these
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bigger communities are being powered by
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well-educated Millennials and the
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agglomeration of trends caused by
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digital technologies right and these are
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happening as some of the smaller metros
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wayne and the rural areas are sliding
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into
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deep decline and if you just look at the
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u.s. in the last couple of years more
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than half of the jobs that have been
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created because of the digital
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technologies have gone to the bigger
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metros the top 20 metros here in u.s.
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which is only home to one-third of the
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American population with the usual
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suspects of New York Boston the bay area
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Seattle Washington DC followed by the
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Sun Belt hubs of Atlanta Dallas Miami
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and Orlando so in this context the
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mayors have two key imperatives number
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one make regionally balanced growth a
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priority it's not a very difficult task
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to do it is just that the leaders have
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to consciously say that I'm going to
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drive economic cohesion and it's not a
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novel idea either because if you look
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across the pond the european union said
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that i'm going to allocate one-third of
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my budget between 2014 and 2020 to the
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cohesion policy a program that will
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allow some of the lagging regions to
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catch up so that should be a key
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imperative for the mayors the second is
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make rescaling a priority there has been
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a lot of talk about machine learning
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artificial intelligence robotics and
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automation getting to the factory floors
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the jobs of tomorrow will not be the
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same as jobs of today or yesterday even
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the white-collar jobs will get disrupted
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if you go and look at the historical
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data one thing is certain
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whenever the public sector investment is
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directed towards the human capital that
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has always led to prosperity right in
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three decades following 1910 you has
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spent a lot of its funds public sector
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funds in educating the citizens so the
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high school graduation rate in that
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period went from 17% or 18% to
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73% and the graduation rate went from 9%
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to 51% it's an amazing growth in just a
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very short period of time so what does
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what did that mean
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it meant that for us the citizens were
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highly educated and their income was
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substantially higher in comparison to
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the counterparts some of the other
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industrialized countries at that period
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of time in my view if we can do it then
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we should be able to do it now
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particularly given access to many of the
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digital tools that we have at our
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disposal
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you mentioned digital tools and one of
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the of course digital technologies
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spreading everywhere
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and one of the effects of digitalization
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is that it throws up vast amounts of
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data and I was wondering if you could
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speak a little bit about how data
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analytics and collaborative data sharing
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can enables smarter decision-making
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about you know cities so data is by far
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the most valuable asset nowadays that
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private enterprises have as well as
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public sector has so whether you are
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driving through a traffic light or
00:16:49
paying a utility bill or browsing a
00:16:52
city's website or calling a city
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department or even dumping garbage into
00:16:57
your neighborhood dumpster the city
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collects so much of data about you if
00:17:04
the data is mined properly then the city
00:17:08
can use that of course to serve the
00:17:10
needs of the citizens better at they can
00:17:13
even anticipate the needs of the citizen
00:17:16
so if the city were to mined this data
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and develop a platform there or face
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sees that the report talks about let me
00:17:23
see if I can outline those five for our
00:17:26
listeners number one the first see is
00:17:28
all about collaboration that we talked
00:17:31
about across the various departments of
00:17:35
a city I think we spoke about an example
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of water management and traffic
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management and how they are interrelated
00:17:44
so that is the first C collaboration
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across the department's of
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city the second is how do you use the
00:17:50
platform to effectively serve the needs
00:17:53
of the citizens so the second C stands
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for the citizens
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so using that unified platform
00:18:00
how can a citizen such as you and me
00:18:02
either pay a bill or get a license for
00:18:06
starting a business and this would
00:18:08
require collaboration as we can imagine
00:18:11
across several departments of the city
00:18:13
itself the third C is about the colleges
00:18:19
and the university systems so how do you
00:18:21
collaborate with them effectively in
00:18:23
order for you to tap into the local
00:18:26
talent and the fourth C is communities a
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neighborhood how do I use the platform
00:18:33
to effectively serve the needs of a
00:18:35
community neighborhood provide them
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information related to their
00:18:39
neighborhood maybe it is related to
00:18:41
safety it is related to health about
00:18:44
that particular community and the fifth
00:18:47
season' tech space how do you open up
00:18:52
your platform publish api's that the
00:18:55
companies can use the private sector can
00:18:58
use in order to develop new applications
00:19:01
tools in support of your smart city
00:19:04
agenda so those are the five C's but
00:19:06
when it comes to data Michael I'm
00:19:08
certain you and I will say that before
00:19:13
city starts to collect your data and use
00:19:15
it they have to get explicit permission
00:19:19
from the citizens write an explicit
00:19:21
opt-in is absolutely needed not just
00:19:25
that the city needs to explain to the
00:19:27
citizens how they plan to use that data
00:19:31
in simple terms instead of throwing a 25
00:19:34
page document at us and in the end
00:19:38
cities need to be responsible guardians
00:19:42
of citizens data I I agree we couldn't
00:19:47
agree with you more about the need for
00:19:49
privacy and actually I wanted the next
00:19:51
question I have I use about a sixth C
00:19:53
and that is cost obviously you have
00:19:59
a lot of expenses involved with cities
00:20:02
trying to become smarter which brings up
00:20:05
the need for how do these initiatives
00:20:07
get funded and how do you get the costs
00:20:09
covered and I was wondering if you could
00:20:11
talk a little bit about the different
00:20:13
financing models that cities have used
00:20:16
to to fund some of these smart city
00:20:19
initiatives and what are some of the
00:20:20
pros and cons you're absolutely right
00:20:23
moving the cost and funding is by far
00:20:26
the biggest challenge when it comes to
00:20:29
funding any smart city initiatives so of
00:20:33
course you know federal grant is an
00:20:34
option philanthropic grant which is the
00:20:37
knight foundation as an example funded
00:20:40
some of the smart city roadmap study
00:20:43
that the city of Philadelphia didn't
00:20:45
publish last month as we all know but
00:20:47
these grants are not sufficient if you
00:20:50
are looking at a citywide smart city
00:20:53
program there are other couple of other
00:20:56
options that have been toyed around one
00:20:57
is possibility for possibly increase
00:21:01
taxes and thereby increase the revenues
00:21:05
of the city to fund some of these
00:21:07
programs but most of us may not be in
00:21:10
favor of getting our taxes increased the
00:21:14
second option is how do you as we just
00:21:18
discuss the city has accessed so much of
00:21:21
our data can they sell it can they
00:21:23
monetize the data I'm not actually in
00:21:25
favor of that option until we understand
00:21:28
that there are adequate privacy and
00:21:31
security measures that are in place by
00:21:33
the city so that gets us back to an
00:21:36
option that is an age old technique but
00:21:38
it has been improvised recently it is
00:21:41
public-private partnerships the way it
00:21:44
has evolved lately is there is also the
00:21:47
repayment model that has been built into
00:21:49
this partnership now let's look at a
00:21:54
couple of examples one that comes to
00:21:57
mind is Kansas City with its citywide
00:22:01
IOT effort and the municipality in this
00:22:05
particular case funded approximately 3.7
00:22:08
million the private partners they for
00:22:12
about twelve point three million so
00:22:14
brought the total to about sixteen
00:22:16
million the city used sixteen million
00:22:19
dollars to install twenty five kiosks
00:22:23
around the city and the kiosks provided
00:22:27
free internet access to the citizens as
00:22:30
they are getting out and about in the
00:22:33
city through which they can also access
00:22:35
city related information the city also
00:22:39
uses these kiosks as emergency alert
00:22:42
system now the revenue model for this
00:22:46
comes through advertising on these
00:22:48
kiosks and the initial calculation has
00:22:51
shown that both the city as well as the
00:22:54
private partners that funded this
00:22:56
initiative will be able to recoup most
00:22:59
of their costs in less than five years
00:23:01
which is pretty impressive
00:23:02
right the second example is Portland
00:23:07
Portland Oregon and the initiative
00:23:11
however is a pilot instead of a
00:23:14
full-fledged smart city program like in
00:23:18
the case of cancers so the city could
00:23:20
pretty much live with the federal grant
00:23:23
for this pilot where they are using IOT
00:23:26
related sensors that go on top of the
00:23:29
traffic signals as well as many of the
00:23:32
light poles in the city the objective of
00:23:35
this project is for them to figure out
00:23:39
how they can improve some of the stalled
00:23:43
traffic they can reduce stall traffic in
00:23:46
these major intersections of the city
00:23:48
thereby improving the air quality so
00:23:51
that's the pilot scope and if it goes
00:23:54
well they want to figure out how to get
00:23:57
the funding for the entire city itself
00:23:58
so the initial funding came from NIS T
00:24:02
National Institute of Standards and
00:24:05
Technology and all of the sensors that
00:24:08
are needed for the major intersection
00:24:10
were provided by the private partners so
00:24:12
those are the funding approaches that
00:24:15
the cities have looked at but
00:24:17
predominantly it has been the
00:24:19
public-private partnerships with clear
00:24:21
repayment models so once the funding has
00:24:24
been raised
00:24:25
what are some of the best practices and
00:24:27
the way the funds can be allocated
00:24:29
across different priorities that the
00:24:32
city says McCool you're absolutely right
00:24:35
funding is by far the most challenging
00:24:38
thing for the mayor's to continue it
00:24:41
when it comes to smart city programs but
00:24:45
there are three ways at least that they
00:24:48
should consider before they go about
00:24:51
spending the money number one which is
00:24:53
pretty much a no-brainer which is to say
00:24:56
pick programs that give the maximum bang
00:25:00
for the buck or the greatest return on
00:25:03
investment let's take a example and if
00:25:08
you take a city approximately depending
00:25:11
on the size of the city you will find
00:25:13
nearly ten thousand to three hundred
00:25:17
thousand lights and this is in my
00:25:20
opinion a very valuable part of the
00:25:24
infrastructure because it already has
00:25:27
power supply built into them it said at
00:25:30
an elevation of nearly 30 feet so
00:25:32
imagine if we put some sensors on top of
00:25:35
these light poles they can be used to
00:25:39
monitor foot traffic based on that
00:25:42
determine when to turn on the lights and
00:25:45
turn off the lights it can also be used
00:25:48
to monitor the traffic detect crimes so
00:25:52
with just a few sensors on each of the
00:25:56
light poles the city can achieve at
00:25:58
least three things increase the safety
00:26:02
and security of the citizens east
00:26:04
congestion traffic condition and the
00:26:07
third thing that they can do is save
00:26:09
energy costs for the city so that is a
00:26:12
project that would provide a maximum
00:26:15
bang for the buck a good ROI so choose
00:26:18
projects that give a good bang for the
00:26:22
buck the second one I would say is
00:26:23
before spending the money think through
00:26:25
any of the regulatory changes that are
00:26:29
needed as an example Columbus Ohio plans
00:26:33
to roll out electric vehicles and
00:26:36
autonomous vehicles the question
00:26:38
that the city has to ask is how do they
00:26:41
work in the context of the existing
00:26:43
infrastructure what regular regulatory
00:26:46
changes have to be made so that is the
00:26:49
second aspect to consider the third one
00:26:51
that the cities should consider in my
00:26:54
view is the procurement process itself
00:26:57
how do I streamline procurement if
00:27:00
funding is the most difficult thing to
00:27:02
do the second most is the procurement
00:27:06
processes in the city they are pretty
00:27:08
long they're also quite laborious so
00:27:12
there are a couple of approaches that
00:27:15
have been proposed in order to ease the
00:27:18
procurement process number one consider
00:27:21
cooperative procurement as an example if
00:27:23
there is another city that is already
00:27:25
working with that vendor see if you can
00:27:27
piggyback on that contract
00:27:30
the second is consider driving the
00:27:33
initiative at a state level as an
00:27:36
example in January 2017 the state of
00:27:40
Illinois the department of
00:27:42
transportation in the state of illinois
00:27:44
launched an RFP for smart street
00:27:48
lighting across the state now once that
00:27:53
RFP is awarded the cities can use that
00:27:56
existing contract instead of having to
00:27:59
negotiate the terms and conditions on an
00:28:02
individual basis so those are the three
00:28:05
things to consider before the cities
00:28:08
start to spend the money no cities at
00:28:12
the u.s. do you think have done a good
00:28:14
job of implementing smart city
00:28:17
initiatives I know you referred to a few
00:28:18
names early on a conversation but if
00:28:22
specially if you think like challenge
00:28:23
and like climate change which cities do
00:28:26
you think are doing a good job and what
00:28:28
kind of the cities learn from the
00:28:29
example yeah so there are quite a few
00:28:32
cities in u.s. that have been that have
00:28:36
driven several initiatives that are
00:28:37
smart that are sustainable and there are
00:28:42
some that are tackling climate changes
00:28:45
well let's take a few examples in each
00:28:48
of these areas two cities that I
00:28:51
to talk about one is Atlanta Atlanta and
00:28:54
another is Orlando in the case of
00:28:58
Atlanta
00:28:58
the reason I'm biased towards Atlanta is
00:29:00
because I met the chief operating
00:29:03
officer of Atlanta the previous one then
00:29:06
Gordon a few years ago and he had this
00:29:10
clear vision on what he wanted to do for
00:29:14
the city and thanks to him and thanks to
00:29:17
the former mayor Kasim Reed they put
00:29:19
together several smart city initiatives
00:29:23
in the areas of transportation safety I
00:29:29
would say also communication with not
00:29:32
just citizens but also the businesses so
00:29:35
there were several such initiatives and
00:29:38
Atlanta plans to use what they call as
00:29:43
the short spotter
00:29:45
IOT acoustic technology in order to
00:29:48
reduce the while violence in the cities
00:29:50
due to guns and this particular
00:29:54
technology will help them to dispatch
00:29:58
the officers to the crime scene in
00:30:00
real-time without anyone having to call
00:30:03
9-1-1 so that's that's a cool example
00:30:07
isn't it atlanta also plans to install
00:30:11
solar panels and many of the large
00:30:13
buildings in the downtown area and that
00:30:16
would be towards their sustainability
00:30:18
initiative to be used to increase their
00:30:23
renewable energy capacity as as well as
00:30:26
reduce energy waste staged as well as
00:30:29
greenhouse greenhouse gas emissions as
00:30:31
well
00:30:32
orlando is quite quite an interesting
00:30:34
city Mukul as we all know right i mean
00:30:36
with the disney world and it has about
00:30:39
75 million visitors every year and the
00:30:44
mayor says that it has the highest hotel
00:30:48
and car rental rates in the entire world
00:30:52
and the director of the smart city
00:30:54
program says that his city gets people
00:30:57
with all sorts of driving habits and and
00:31:02
what are the things he says is you know
00:31:04
you don't need x--
00:31:05
of Technology even some simple fixes
00:31:07
could go a very long way when it comes
00:31:11
to making the city smart and he gives an
00:31:14
example of this mobile parking alert
00:31:19
systems that the city has developed and
00:31:22
there was a lot of resistance I believe
00:31:24
initially because the city officials
00:31:27
would worried that revenue coming out of
00:31:29
the fines parking fines would go down it
00:31:32
did however what the city saw was
00:31:36
increase in revenues because it allowed
00:31:38
people to pay for the parking through
00:31:40
their mobile devices and of course both
00:31:43
the citizens and visitors were happy and
00:31:45
because they could avoid fines as an
00:31:48
example Orlando is also a city quite
00:31:51
unique because it's the only city in
00:31:53
Florida that has passed an ordinance
00:31:58
saying that all of its public buildings
00:32:01
will publish both their energy and water
00:32:05
consumption and the City of Orlando also
00:32:09
has committed to ensuring that all the
00:32:13
buildings will use renewable energy 100
00:32:17
percent renewable energy by 2050 and
00:32:19
what is even interesting is that the
00:32:22
municipal operation will transition to
00:32:25
renewable in another decade which is by
00:32:28
before end of 2030 so those are some of
00:32:31
the examples of cities that are not just
00:32:33
focused on infrastructure but they are
00:32:35
also focused on citizens and
00:32:37
sustainability and to your question on
00:32:40
climate change and are there any cities
00:32:42
that are tackling climate change I think
00:32:45
Atlanta with the solar panels is of
00:32:47
course an example San Francisco recently
00:32:49
received an award for its zero waste
00:32:53
program that it launched in 2002 since
00:32:58
the program was launched it has an
00:33:01
incredibly incredible reduction in the
00:33:06
error in the landfill rates
00:33:08
diversion rates of about 80 percent San
00:33:11
Francisco also every uses 100 million
00:33:16
fewer plastic bags
00:33:18
so with many of these initiatives I
00:33:20
think San Fran San Francisco is well on
00:33:23
its way to achieve the zero waste goal
00:33:27
by 2012 actually 2019 end of this year I
00:33:31
see just a couple of last things to wrap
00:33:34
up you referred earlier to
00:33:36
public-private partnerships being so
00:33:38
critical
00:33:39
I was wondering if you have any examples
00:33:42
of cities that are doing a good job
00:33:44
working with the talent in the companies
00:33:47
in the in in in in their geographic
00:33:51
boundaries so as to enhance the impact
00:33:54
of their smart city initiatives are
00:33:57
there any examples of that kind that you
00:33:59
you can think of and what can companies
00:34:01
learn truck
00:34:02
cities and companies learn from those in
00:34:04
yes absolutely local I think
00:34:08
collaboration with the private
00:34:10
enterprises and the University's
00:34:12
academic institution is a way by which
00:34:16
the cities can tap into local talent one
00:34:21
of the new concepts
00:34:22
thanks to Brookings Institution is this
00:34:26
concept of innovation districts think of
00:34:29
them as geography clusters that brings
00:34:31
together academic and scientific
00:34:34
research institutions private sector and
00:34:39
small and big right small
00:34:42
entrepreneurial organizations
00:34:45
enterprises that are large and then
00:34:48
public incubators that are focused on
00:34:51
doing research and all of these
00:34:54
Geographic clusters that are placed in
00:34:56
amenity rich urban cores mixed use urban
00:35:00
cores and simply put these or geographic
00:35:03
areas that drive the economic
00:35:06
development for a particular city
00:35:08
there are several example the one that I
00:35:11
will mention is by Mayor Andy Berke and
00:35:15
his initiative in Chattanooga he set up
00:35:18
the Chattanooga innovation district that
00:35:20
has helped the city drive the growth -
00:35:23
absolutely the next level it's one of
00:35:25
the best places to live in the country
00:35:27
top hundred places to live nowadays and
00:35:30
some of the example
00:35:31
of companies that have been successful
00:35:33
that were built in that innovation
00:35:36
district that come to mind is access
00:35:39
America transport which was eventually
00:35:41
bought over by UPS and the same founders
00:35:44
also created another startup called the
00:35:46
lamppost group so these innovation
00:35:48
districts are a way for companies to
00:35:52
create the clusters to drive economic
00:35:55
growth but also dry partnership across
00:35:59
the various entities in the city one
00:36:02
last question Sita and that is will
00:36:04
focus quite a lot in this conversation
00:36:06
on the American experience of making
00:36:09
cities smarter I wonder if we could
00:36:13
compare take a look now cross the pond
00:36:15
at Europe and see how does the American
00:36:18
approach Rebecca lapping smart cities
00:36:21
differ from the approach you see in
00:36:23
Europe and are there lessons that each
00:36:25
continent can learn from the other in
00:36:28
terms of how to make the world more
00:36:30
sustainable and more inclusive and you
00:36:34
and I know Mukul that Europe has been at
00:36:37
this Smart City program and initiatives
00:36:41
I would say for some time a little bit
00:36:44
longer than us has been in u.s. the
00:36:49
Smart City programs typically have been
00:36:51
tied to infrastructure and economic
00:36:55
development and Europe being at it for a
00:36:58
little bit longer they are now focused
00:37:00
on creating citizen-centric initiatives
00:37:04
how do I make my cities more livable how
00:37:06
do I make my cities where the citizens
00:37:09
are happy and sustainability is one of
00:37:12
the key initiatives that Europe has been
00:37:15
focused on but I think Europe is also
00:37:17
unique in the sense that it has smaller
00:37:19
countries then you have the European
00:37:22
Union so there is a concerted effort
00:37:25
between across communities cities and
00:37:28
the European Union itself to drive some
00:37:32
of these smart city programs and and
00:37:35
that I think is going to help them
00:37:38
achieve their goal of 300 smart cities
00:37:41
by end of 2020 and so which is an ambush
00:37:45
just goal and I think they are on the
00:37:47
way to do that but you and I know
00:37:49
sometimes it is never late or it is
00:37:53
sometimes good to be late to a party
00:37:55
because then that allows you to learn
00:37:57
from the lessons that someone else has
00:38:02
had so in my opinion I think us can take
00:38:07
a lot of lessons from how Europe has
00:38:10
approached some of the smart city
00:38:11
programs but with several of the
00:38:15
initiatives across us and the investment
00:38:18
that the cities are making I sincerely
00:38:20
believe that us is well on its way to
00:38:24
drive growth across major metros as well
00:38:29
as the smaller metros as well I want to
00:38:32
conclude with this Mukul if I may as we
00:38:36
look at some of these programs that are
00:38:38
happening I believe that it is the
00:38:41
responsibility of the leaders in the
00:38:44
private and public sector and academic
00:38:48
institution to collaborate effectively
00:38:51
with the city leaders as well as with
00:38:54
the communities to figure out how to
00:38:57
make Digital Inclusion part of the
00:39:00
agenda when it comes to smart city
00:39:03
programs see that thank you so much for
00:39:05
speaking with knowledge at word and so
00:39:07
here the pleasure speaking with you
00:39:08
thank you very much Michael it always is
00:39:11
a pleasure for more insight from
00:39:13
knowledge at Wharton please visit
00:39:15
knowledge Wharton
00:39:17
pen edu
00:39:21
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