The concept of smart cities originated at a time when the entire world was facing one of the worst economic crisis. In 2008, IBM began work on a 'smarter cities' concept as part of its Smarter Planet initiative, from where this idea gained momentum and was adopted by many countries.

In India, the Smart Cities Mission was introduced in the year 2015 with the aim to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens while maintaining a clean and sustainable environment through 'smart' solutions. The government initiated scheme received the third highest allocation among all urban ministry schemes in Union Budget 2018-19.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers report states that since globalization and liberalization of the Indian economy in the '90s, Indian cities have seen accelerated economic and social growth, which has attracted more and more people from all parts of the country to an economically better lifestyle. As a result, urban India is grappling with issues like overpopulation and strained infrastructure, which have affected the quality of life.

The Hindu, a national daily, states that by the year 2050, about 70% of the population will be living in cities. It will need about 500 new cities to accommodate the influx. The idea of '100 smart cities' falls in line with this vision.

However, as per government data,

"there is no accepted definition of a smart city. It varies from country to country depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspiration of the city residents. Even within India there is no one way to define a smart city."

But what the government does indicate are the constituents of a smart city. The core infrastructure elements in a smart city would include,

• Adequate water supply
• Assured electricity supply
• Sanitation, including solid waste management
• Efficient urban mobility and public transport
• Affordable housing, especially for the poor
• Robust IT connectivity and digitization
• Good governance, especially e-governance and citizen participation
• Sustainable environment
• Safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly
• Health and education

Looking at all the above elements, what tends to run through the one's mind is the essential nature of these in the daily lives of every citizen, but a smart city needs to have more.

Information and communication technologies necessarily need to form an essential part of a smart city which help to increase operational efficiency resulting in improvisation of both the quality of government services and citizen welfare.

Around the world, smart city technology is increasingly being used to improve public safety, from monitoring areas of high crime to improving emergency preparedness with sensors.

A good example is the smart parking meter that uses an app to help drivers find available parking spaces without prolonged circling of crowded city blocks. Also in the transportation arena, smart traffic management is used to monitor and analyse traffic flows to optimize streetlights to prevent roadways from becoming too congested based on time of day or rush-hour schedules. Smart public transit is another facet of smart cities, used to ensure public transportation meets user demand.

Energy conservation and efficiency are major focuses of smart cities. Using smart sensors, smart streetlights dim when there aren't cars or pedestrians on the roadways. Smart grid technology can be used to improve operations, maintenance, and planning, and to supply power on demand and monitor energy outages.

Challenges

The concept is not without challenges, especially in India. The success of a smart city depends on residents being actively involved in energy saving, waste disposal and implementation of the technologies. Also, having no defined limits of a smart city makes it susceptible to different understandings and perceptions. This can lead to confusion.

Impact on real estate

As per reports, smart cities are expected to be catalysts for improving the quality of life and in giving a major boost to the real estate in urban locations.

Developers are expected to play a crucial role in developing the regional, social and economic infrastructure of a smart city. As the vision of building over 100 smart cities is realized, real estate's contribution to the GDP is expected to rise to 10-12% by 2022.

Smart cities will create more jobs facilitating the economic development of urban centres. Expansion of physical as well as information and communication infrastructure will generate more employment opportunities and improved standards of living for residents.

The office space market will be a direct beneficiary of improved infrastructure and connectivity promised by the Smart Cities initiative. Moreover, the development of smart cities will also push the demand for other asset classes such as hotels, serviced apartments and shopping malls.