Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting program with clear mission to develop select cities across the country making them sustainable as well as citizen friendly. Smart Cities India is set to become the most populated by 2030, making it home to the most untapped market for global manufacturers & service providers to leverage upon. This exponentially growing population is shifting to top tier cities giving rise to new megacities estimated to generate four-fifth of nation’s economic growth, with potential to apply modern technologies & infrastructure. With this impetus, over 800 million citizens are estimated to reside in urban areas by 2050. To house this enormous urbanization, India surely needs to figure out smarter means to handle challenges, increase efficiency, reduce expenditure and improve quality of life. GOI under Prime Minister Narendra Modi thus planned to develop 100 smart cities as satellite towns of bigger cities by remodelling the present mid-sized cities. Of them, 24 are capital cities, 25 are industrial &; business centres, 19 are tourism influenced places, 5 are port cities and 3 are health care &; education areas. The first lot of 20 Indian smart cities are Ahmedabad, Belagavi, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Davangere, Guwahati, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Kakinada, Kochi, Ludhiana, New Delhi, Pune, Solapur, Surat, Udaipur and Vizag. Amount of ₹980 billion (US$15 billion) has been approved by the Government to develop the smart cities and renovate 500 others. For the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT), total allocation of ₹50,000 crore (US$7.4 billion) and for the smart cities mission, ₹48,000 crore (US$7.1 billion) has been sanctioned. First group of 20 cities each to be provided with assistance of ₹2 billion (US$30 million) during current financial year followed by ₹1 billion (US$15 million) each year over next 3 years. Authored by Kalyan Banga, Founder & Principal Analytics Consultant @Fusion Analytics World (http://fusionanalyticsworld.com) Best Regards, Kalyan Banga Founder & Principal Analytics Consultant Hello: +91-9433948532 Web: http://fusionanalyticsworld.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/fusion-analytics-world Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnalyticsFusion Twitter: http://twitter.com/analyticsfusion

1. SMART CITIES
November/December 2016 25Valve World Indiavalve-world-india.com
A smart city uses digital technologies to en-
hance performance and wellbeing, to reduce
costs and resource consumption, and to engage
more effectively and actively with its citizens.
The definition underscores the Government of
India’s most ambitious smart cities mission to
develop 100 cities (the target has been revised
to 109 cities) all over the country making them
citizen friendly and sustainable. They key sec-
tors include transport, energy, health care,
building management and water and waste.
Some vital stats:
Sustainability Outlook that has developed a Smart
Cities Opportunity Assessment Model (SCOAM),
pegs the opportunity for smart cities in India over
the next 5 years at $45 billion-$50 billion.
The Opportunity Assessment model focuses
on four key focus areas namely smart energy,
smart water management, smart transportation
and smart waste management.
According to estimates, the potential business
opportunity for smart water management and
smart energy in India is pegged to be $14.4 bil-
lion and $23.4 billion respectively, followed by
smart transportation at $6.3 billion-$11.6 billion
and smart waste management at $0.9 billion.
By 2030, the smart cities in India will be the
most populated regions—especially in tier-1
and tier-2 cities and towns. These megacities
are expected to generate four-fifth of the na-
tion’s economic growth.
Impetus:
With this impetus, more than 800 million citizens
are estimated to reside in the urban areas by 2050.
The GoI has earmarked 980 billion ($15 bil-
lion) to develop the smart cities and renovate
500 others. For the Atal Mission for Rejuve-
nation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT), it
has allocated 50,000 crore ($7.4 billion) and
sanctioned 48,000 crore ($7.1 billion) for the
smart cities mission. For each city, the govern-
ment has announced assistance of 2 billion
($30 million) during current financial year
followed by 1 billion ($15 million) each year
over next 3 years.
Opportunities:
While I have offered a macro view of the invest-
ments in the impetus, let us look at the oppor-
tunities for various stakeholders.
At the onset, I believe that the mega-pie of the
investments will be diverted to the planners and
the IT vendors, who will play a crucial role in
providing the best software, hardware, analyt-
ics and other services required to sustain the
smart cities. Newer concepts such as big data,
IIoT, sensors, mobility, machine learning and
deep learning will be all the more pervasive as
the smart networks will not only closely monitor,
but will also talk to all the stakeholder to ensure
zero downtime or zero tolerance to failure.
A case in point is the management of key
resources like water and wastewater. Instead
of the regular plumbers, the stake holders
will certainly at vendors who are part of the
infrastructure, and can offer smart solutions
to make water supply intelligent, control the
water pressure, streamline the operation, main-
tain and increase safety of the supply net and
water quality as also prevent wastage through
thefts, leakage and other inaccuracies.
Also, in the last two years, there has been a
major shift toward energy-efficient solutions.
This is primarily due to greater awareness
amongst users on the importance of saving
power; as well as increased understanding of
environmental balance.
The newest trend is focus on energy efficiency
and rising demand of solar valves. With Indian
Government heavily focusing on smart cities,
this will eventually result in substantial de-
mand for intelligent valve solutions.
What’s in it for the valve industry?
One of the most prominent features on the GOI’s
agenda is the mega project of developing 100
smart cities with modern amenities encompass-
es urban infrastructure and technology integra-
tion on a city-wide scale, the Rs 70.6-billion
project will essentially entail modernisation of
existing infrastructure, integration of technology
in infrastructure management, and development
of civic amenities to provide contemporary sys-
tems of integrated transport, continuous water
supply, and solid waste management.
Little wonder then that the EPC sector is rolling
up its sleeves to tap opportunities in smart cit-
ies. Since large valve vendors in India work with
domestic and foreign EPCs and consultants for
major infrastructure projects, the collaboration
will certainly come handy even in smart cities.
On its own, the valve industry is also gearing
up—it is announcing newer product and en-
hancing the existing ones with features such as
automation for safe operations. The industry is
observing more aggressive use of modern de-
sign and technology.
Also, the valves manufacturers are key suppliers
to the process industry as well as to other sec-
tors such discrete manufacturing, power, water,
desalination and waste water, fertilizer, etc. They
alongwith the EPCs will certainly leverage on the
vast opportunities in smart cities.
Another important step, I believe that will
enable them to tap he opportunity is the fact
that With key manufacturers are setting up
manufacturing units in India or are in the pro-
cess of doing so through local partners. While
this will play a key differentiator in terms
such as turn-around-time, service and prod-
uct delivery, it will also act as a confidence
booster among the government agencies while
identifying the valve vendors for their ap-
proved vendor lists.
Overall, I believe that the smart cities will be a
major opportunity for the valve vendors who
can offer right products and solutions at com-
petitive rates. While it is still too early for a fur-
ther comment, I am of the view that the time is
right for the valve bodies
to put their pen on pa-
per and start penning a
smart city strategy!
The article is authored by
Kalyan Banga, Founder &
Chief Data Scientist,
Fusion Analytics World
Smart cities: what’s in it for
valve manufacturers?
The Government of India’s smart cities mission is an urban
renewal and retrofitting program with clear mission to develop
select cities across the country making them sustainable as well
as citizen friendly.
By Kalyan Banga
Picture Source: Ministry of Urban Development, GOI
Kalyan Banga