1 COVID-19: An Opportunity for Smart and Sustainable …
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critical condition or die. Thus, the people, who are in critical condition, need ICU
beds with ventilator facility. However, at present, India has around 48,000 ICU beds
and ventilators. It means that India can only provide ICU beds with ventilators to
approximately 2.30% of total critical cases at a time. Therefore, the country does not
seem to be ready to combat any health emergency, especially an epidemic and/or a
pandemic (COVID-19).
1.5 Smart and Sustainable Cities
The cities are considered as the engines of economic growth along with social development [16]. The metropolitan areas around the cities have begun with a number
of initiatives aimed to upgrade the urban infrastructure and associated services, in
order to improve the environment, uplift social conditions, and enhance economic
growth. As a result of which, the new concept of smart and sustainable cities has
evolved over a period of time [14]. Smart cities improve quality of life by providing
sustainable environment with the help of efficient use of digital technology, which
follows the fundamentals of spatial intelligence [8].
The digital technology used to build a smart city also helps to innovate new
solutions to resolve the problems of everyday life, more effectively in less time,
by analysing the big data [31]. Smart city provides smart services to the residents
by converging the use of digital technology, such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Information Technology (IT) services, Internet of Things
(IoT), Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as an integrated part
of governance for development [18, 32, 43]. Whereas sustainable city focuses on
reducing the ecological footprint through environmental management. It intends to
develop a clean and healthy environment to the people along with the economic
growth of the nation. Moreover, ICT has significantly been helpful to attain sustainable development through Digital Citizen Participation (DCP), giving rise to the
concept of Smart Sustainable City [3].
In India, the total population has increased from 1.03 billion in 2001 to 1.21
billion in 2011 with a decadal growth rate of around 17.64% [6]. Out of the total
population (1.21 billion), 31% population (0.62 billion) resides in urban settlements
and contributes 63% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The urban population
is expected to be increased to 40% with the contribution of 75% of India’s GDP by
2030. It can be achieved with the overall development of physical, institutional, social,
and economic infrastructure facilities in the nation [2]. Therefore, a new concept of
Smart Cities Mission (SCM) has emerged, which is launched by the Ministry of
Urban Development (MoUD) on 25 June 2015 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme
(CSS), to achieve the desired growth and development in a city [1].
The objective of the SCM is to develop future cities with the provision of adequate
infrastructure facilities along with a sustainable environment, which in turn provides
a better quality of life through the application of smart solutions. The focus is to
create a sustainable and inclusive city development model, which can be replicated
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critical condition or die. Thus, the people, who are in critical condition, need ICU
beds with ventilator facility. However, at present, India has around 48,000 ICU beds
and ventilators. It means that India can only provide ICU beds with ventilators to
approximately 2.30% of total critical cases at a time. Therefore, the country does not
seem to be ready to combat any health emergency, especially an epidemic and/or a
pandemic (COVID-19).
1.5 Smart and Sustainable Cities
The cities are considered as the engines of economic growth along with social development [16]. The metropolitan areas around the cities have begun with a number
of initiatives aimed to upgrade the urban infrastructure and associated services, in
order to improve the environment, uplift social conditions, and enhance economic
growth. As a result of which, the new concept of smart and sustainable cities has
evolved over a period of time [14]. Smart cities improve quality of life by providing
sustainable environment with the help of efficient use of digital technology, which
follows the fundamentals of spatial intelligence [8].
The digital technology used to build a smart city also helps to innovate new
solutions to resolve the problems of everyday life, more effectively in less time,
by analysing the big data [31]. Smart city provides smart services to the residents
by converging the use of digital technology, such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Information Technology (IT) services, Internet of Things
(IoT), Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as an integrated part
of governance for development [18, 32, 43]. Whereas sustainable city focuses on
reducing the ecological footprint through environmental management. It intends to
develop a clean and healthy environment to the people along with the economic
growth of the nation. Moreover, ICT has significantly been helpful to attain sustainable development through Digital Citizen Participation (DCP), giving rise to the
concept of Smart Sustainable City [3].
In India, the total population has increased from 1.03 billion in 2001 to 1.21
billion in 2011 with a decadal growth rate of around 17.64% [6]. Out of the total
population (1.21 billion), 31% population (0.62 billion) resides in urban settlements
and contributes 63% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The urban population
is expected to be increased to 40% with the contribution of 75% of India’s GDP by
2030. It can be achieved with the overall development of physical, institutional, social,
and economic infrastructure facilities in the nation [2]. Therefore, a new concept of
Smart Cities Mission (SCM) has emerged, which is launched by the Ministry of
Urban Development (MoUD) on 25 June 2015 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme
(CSS), to achieve the desired growth and development in a city [1].
The objective of the SCM is to develop future cities with the provision of adequate
infrastructure facilities along with a sustainable environment, which in turn provides
a better quality of life through the application of smart solutions. The focus is to
create a sustainable and inclusive city development model, which can be replicated