Our digitising India vision is one of the most exciting initiatives the country has embraced to leapfrog us to the 21st century. What was once a visionary notion is now the new normal: technology is really as essential as the three utilities: water, gas, and electricity. Our government leaders have made it clear that broadband highways are as important as national highways. Through the government’s Digital India program, infrastructure will be offered as a utility to every citizen, governance and services will be on demand and citizens will be digitally empowered. It is this Digital India vision that inspired us to unveil our Cisco Smart City today.
As part of the inauguration of the Cisco Smart City, we demonstrated the possibilities of the government’s Digital India program where infrastructure would be offered as a utility to every citizen, governance and services would be on demand and citizens would be digitally empowered. Over 150 partners and customers joined us at the launch as we showcased how our 2.6 million square foot campus-as-a-city, powered by the Internet of Everything, enables thousands of Cisco employees to work, play and learn with the physical network infrastructure securely connected to devices such as sensors, information access points and mobile devices. We showcased our latest solutions in such as Smart Buildings, Remote Expert, Connected Learning, Smart Parking and Smart Work Spaces.
Mr. R Chandrashekhar, President, The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM); Shri. Harpreet Singh, Secretary, IT, Electronics & Communications Department, Govt. of Telengana; Shri. Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary to the Government Dept. of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka; joined senior executives from Cisco including our Executive Vice President for Industry Solutions and Chief Globalisation Officer, Wim Elfrink. Government leaders from Barcelona, Spain and Canberra, the capital city of Australia, described the role of Cisco’s technologies in transforming their city into a smart city. And R.V. College of Engineering, from our home city in Bangalore, displayed the role technology will play in the future of technology.
At Cisco we really believe that the Internet of Everything can play a transformational role in enabling the Digital India. From a technology point of view, in India we are reaching an inflection point for the Internet of Everything to occur. We see 3 main technology trends that are making this possible. The first is the dramatic increase in processing power, storage and bandwidth at very low costs. It’s amazing to note that even 4 years ago, 10,000 transistors cost less than a grain of rice. The second trend is the unprecedented rise of data – the world’s data is doubling every two years. And the third trend is the rise of apps. In 2007 when we opened our Globalisation Centre East Campus in India, there were just 3,000 apps worldwide. Today there are more than 1.6 million apps. You can see the possibilities.
So, from a technology point of view the time is right. What will take to achieve success at an overall level? At Cisco, we believe that creating the next generation of smart and connected cities will depend upon five key areas: visionary leadership, global open standards, smart regulation, public private partnerships and a new ecosystem. Why do we believe this is the right time for smart cities in India? The answer is simple: India has made more progress than ever before across these 5 key areas. Now is the time to move beyond pilots to scale which is why we are really excited about the government’s 100 smart cities program and its vision of a digital India.
The opportunity to live, work, play and learn in a Digital India is finally at hand. Neither the government itself nor anyone company can do this alone – let’s make this happen together.
Credit – Cisco
