Sustainable Smart City through Secured Governance

Smart Cities function as 'engines of economic growth' and dominate local and national economies. Urban India could house 40% of India's population and contribute 75% of its GDP by 2030 but urban sector presently constitutes 63% of India's GDP and only 31% of India's population currently urbanized. Smart Cities are also sites of economic dynamism and innovations contributing to sustainable transformations. The path towards becoming smart and sustainable will invariably require coordinated action by the multiple private and foreign stakeholders. Smart cities leverage advanced technology and utilise existing and planned infrastructure investments to provide a higher quality of living to residents, a conducive investment climate for businesses and allow maximisation of resource utilisation and transparency for governments. These projects would require huge fund mobilization that could be brought by public-private participation. The government could get the basic infrastructure development with a negligible investment through Secured Governance value and valuation fiscal mechanism. Public investment on infrastructure development results impact on private property values thus capital cost of infrastructure development could be recovered by capturing the increased land value. The objective of this approach is cost recovery, huge employment opportunities and positive investment climate for business community.