Japan’s NEC envisions smart cities as part of a sustainable society in which people live, work, and play in safety and comfort while also coexisting in harmony with the environment. NEC has been working with governments across the globe to design and roll out systems that take advantage of the latest IT & communications technologies to transform the lives of citizens.
In India, NEC is working closely with the Central and state governments to understand the need of utilising technology for tackling governance challenges and making a smart city—safe. Welcoming the government’s ambitious 100 smart cities vision, Koichiro Koide, MD, NEC India tells Sudhir Chowdhary that future smart cities projects must feature smart administration that is responsible, accountable, transparent, and efficient. Excerpts:
What is wrong with India’s urban infrastructure?
It is estimated that by 2030, about 600 million people will be residing in cities in India. As more and more people migrate from rural to urban areas, the existing urban cities would soon be crunched on resources and infrastructure. A number of major cities are already facing infrastructural, managerial, and environmental problems and the quality of life of people is bound to decline due to non-availability of adequate planning. Safety and security would become the serious issue, if these cities are not supplied sufficiently. While the government is taking measures in this direction, the complexities of growth and population continue to create challenges for planned development of cities. There is a need to develop a more efficient urban infrastructure network in order to cope with the current and future needs of the citizens.
How do you define a smart city?
NEC envisions smart cities as part of a sustainable society in which people live, work and play in safety and comfort while also coexisting in harmony with the environment—a city where transportation and distribution network, information network, energy network and social network function seamlessly via intelligent governance for the safety of its citizens. Safety from man-made and natural threats, energy efficiency, quality of life, conservation of natural resources are some of the key objectives that a smart city strives to achieve.
Safety of its citizens and resources is one of the most crucial aspects of any smart city. Components of a smart city can only work tandem if its social and physical infrastructure is safeguarded from any threats. Intelligent management integrated with information and communication technology (ICT) and active citizen participation drive the creation of smart and safe cities.
What are NEC’s offerings in the making of smart cities?
NEC defines city evolution as a three-stage process consisting of growth, maturation and reconstruction stages. And the focus-mix of these components can vary from stage to stage in smart city solutions. NEC helps realise smart cities by offering five leading NEC technologies: sensing, authentication, monitoring, control, and cloud computing.
With solutions ranging from immigration control to emergency and disaster management, NEC has established safe city related solutions for more than 480 customers in over 30 countries, in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe and the United States.
Is NEC working in India on some eGovernance initiatives?
The public safety and identity solutions business in India has tremendous potential. With the objective of developing India as a market of strategic importance for NEC globally, we are constantly engaging with the Central and state governments to drive e-governance projects in India, participating in infrastructure security projects and taking interest in national security initiatives.
What is your business strategy ?
NEC has been working for India more than 50 years and we plan to focus more on this promising country. NEC strategy is now changing from conventional box supply to a solution centric model.
What will the cities/towns infrastructure look like in 10 years?
It is too early to predict the structural development, 10 years down the line from now. However, in any city, safety is one of the essential factors for residents as well as highly demanded by many enterprises.