Chief Minister of Rajasthan proudly welcomed the international and Indian participants for BRICS SMART CITY CONFERENCE 2016. BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. There’s a lot that these countries have in common. They are populous, large and diverse. India is one among the developing countries of the world which is rapidly moving towards becoming a developed country with the hard work, efforts, plans, strategies, and developmental projects undertaken by the governments- central and state. BRICS Smart City Conference 2016 was held in the capital city of Jaipur, Rajasthan. Jaipur warmly welcomed various international and Indian delegates for BRICS. Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that, “BRICS acts as a pillar of hope for this world full of political challenges, safety related challenges and economic challenges.”
Sincere thanks to Hon. PM @narendramodi for the visionary step of ensuring exchange of experiences & solutions amongst BRICS & Indian States
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
Rajasthan welcomes distinguished Delegates from the #BRICS nations for the #SmartCitiesConference. #BRICS2016 pic.twitter.com/j7bAhWA5JL
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
BRICS are home to a significant majority of humanity on earth–from South Africa to India, from Russia to Rio, is quite a distance. #BRICS
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
Urbanization is at the heart of any conversation about the planet’s future. We need to first understand what is a SMART CITY? A smart city is in the intersection between competitiveness, capital and sustainability. To be more precise, smart cities should be able to provide good infrastructure such as water, sanitation, reliable utility services, and healthcare, attract investments, transparent processes that make it easy to run commercial activities, simple and online processes for obtaining approvals and various citizen centric services to make citizens feel safe and happy. It should offer easy access to public transport with minimum motor-vehicular movement.
CM Raje believed that coming together to share experiences and ideas will help all in many ways. The best way to predict the future is to design it. Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, mainly when they are created by everyone.
During the conference, Vasundhara Raje emphasized that Smart city projects would allow everyone to bring together the understanding of urban development, preserving heritage and yet becoming global. Chief Minister Raje while addressing the delegates from the five countries said, “As population has grown, so have cities. Every second, the total population of the cities of the world grows by two persons. From 3.9 billion in 2015, this population will increase to 6.4 billion in 2050.” She emphasized that the five countries collectively yet individually are very important for the world and its growth. So, not only shall these countries focus on country’s development respectively but must also contribute towards making every city a SMART CITY. Focusing on some statistics, CM Raje said, “In India, at the beginning of the 20th century (1901), the absolute urban population was estimated at 26 million. By 1951, it had more than doubled to 62 million. In 2001, the figure had gone up 5 times and reached 286 million. By 2030, India expects to house 40% of its population in its urban centres. In all likelihood, by 2050, the absolute urban population in India will cross 800 million. The decades to come shall be the urban decades.”
In all likelihood, by 2050, the absolute urban population in India will cross 800 million – the decades to come shall be the urban decades.
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
Story of #BRICS partners mirrors the story of India. We may be culturally diverse yet cohesive under the agenda of sustainable growth & dev.
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
There are different categories of people in every city. Some on one hand are wealthy and show high level of consumption whereas on the other hand some struggle to eat a meal in a day. CM Raje in her speech focused on the development of all to create a balance between both. She said that the five countries in BRICS can learn from each-other’s development. She believes that urban environmental management practices made in Saint Petersburg in Russia, Rio and Sao Paulo of Brazil, Cape Town and Johannesburg of South Africa, Shanghai and Beijing of China could be implemented in India keeping in view the conditions here.
She said that when solutions and experiences shared among urban development managers and scholars, it will only result in smarter, safer and more resilient cities. More technological and infrastructure development is needed in order to make life of the residents easier and safer as we approach our future. CM Raje said a smart city is the one which is clean, organized, well lit, safe and encourages non-motorised transport and together we all must move towards building these. Focusing on the development of smart cities in the state of Rajasthan, CM Raje said, “With support from Govt. of India we are developing Jaipur, Ajmer, Kota and Udaipur as smart cities. Jaipur with its effort in smart lighting, IT enabled services, interactive kiosks, remote e-Governance solutions, Parking Management Systems and increasing wi-fi connectivity is moving ahead to become a smart city. Jaipur has been declared first Light House City in South Asia. UNESCO has nominated Jaipur as the City of Crafts and Folk Art while the World Crafts Council has also declared Jaipur as a Crafts City.”
Clean, organized, well-lit, safe, encouraging non-motorized transport–some components that could define a city being #Smart. #BRICS2016
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
While looking at making our Cities smarter, we’re also trying to create a scenario where young people are enabled & help enable our Country.
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
The Indian and international delegates for BRICS included Bernardo Alves Furtado , Ana Paula Bruno, Bárbara Oliveira Marguti, Carlos Henrique Ribeiro de Carvalho, Daniel Ferreira Pereira Gonçalves da Mata, Rute Imanishi Rodrigues from Brazil, Simphiwe Mini, Kedebone Phago, Cheri Green, Rozena Maart from South Africa, Vladimir KOROVKIN, Ksenia MOKRUSHINA, Alexey PARNYAKOV, Alessio Russo, Belozerov Andrey Sergeevich from Russia, Li Yang, XU Zhengqiang, Ning Jiajun, Yifan Yu, CHEN Jijun, Jie Xu from China, Asmita Bhardwaj, Shaleen Singhal, V.N. Alok, Kanchan Gandhi from India.
Collaborations within #BRICS shall strengthen ties and improve our appreciation of each other’s cultures and peoples.
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) August 19, 2016
