Smart City has to be a ‘Safe City’ for attracting private investment: Verint Systems

A Smart City basically comprises of better infrastructure, upgraded public transport, self-sufficient and efficient power, water and waste management. “However in reality, all these investments need to be financed under the private public partnership (PPP) route and a private investor will invest only when the city is safe,” says Anand Navani, Country Manager, Verint Systems India.

What are the sources of finance available for cities to deploy smarter technologies and to develop new smart cities?
With the announcement of Smart Cities by the Central Government, as per the publicly available information, the States and Centre will fund the project having a majority stake and then under the PPP Model a minority stake holder will be appointed for additional funding up to a maximum of 49%.

What are some key aspects of safety, security and surveillance in smart cities?
A Smart City essentially has to be a Safe City, a secured city derives lots of investment which means more job opportunities and rapid economic growth. This, along with the modernisation of police force and enabling them to have access of latest technologies so as to increase the response time and act as a force multiplier will be the key use of technology in Smart City.

A Smart City basically comprises of better infrastructure, upgraded public transport, self-sufficient and efficient power, water and waste management. However in reality, all these investments need to be financed under the private public partnership (PPP) route and a private investor will invest only when the city is safe. Hence, a Smart City needs to be safe first.

What are some of the key initiatives taken in India to develop smarter buildings? What are the recent global advances in technologies for building smarter cities?
Modern Governments are using various tools like Cyber Security, Smarter Policing using the Situational Awareness Platform, Integration of technologies like Number Plate Identification, Face Recognition and Lawful Interception amongst others.

What is the role played by facial recognition software within the Surat Safe City? What has Verint Systems done in this regard and the need that exists for this across the country?
This technology has been currently deployed in public areas like bus stands and railway stations. The Indian Police is deploying CCTNS system across various states which by the  integrated use of face recognition with CCTNS system, identifies the blacklisted person as soon as he comes near the camera view,  post which the  Police Command and Control room can be easily notified about this activity, hastening the response process.

What role is being played by players such as Verint Systems in enabling the creation of Smart City in the country?
Verint Systems has been collaborating with police and municipal authorities to bring the state of the art situational awareness platform and making customers benefit from its global experience on implementing and running safe cities for more than 20 years.