IIT Delhi hosted an international conference on ‘Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the Smart Cities of India’
New Delhi: The Department of Management Studies (DMS) of IIT Delhi hosted an international conference on ‘Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the Smart Cities of India’ at IIT Delhi on December 11, 2018.
The conference was organised by Ureka Education Group, UK and UVC Institute, and saw speakers from the government, private sector, academic leaders from emerging learning space and start-ups from the Delhi NCR entrepreneurial ecosystem, who presented their thoughts on Smart Cities.
In his opening address, Prof M.P. Gupta, Head, DMS, IIT Delhi stated, “A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses ICT and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations.”
Prof P.S.N. Rao, Director, School of Planning & Architecture (New Delhi) and Chairman, Delhi Urban Art Commission in his keynote speech sensitised the delegates about the wide and varied requirements of Indian cities stating that private investment in Smart Cities can realise the challenge of their expected returns on “public good” with innovative models.
The visiting French expert Prof Philippe Bouvier of the Urban Value Creation Institute emphasised that to be truly sustainable, a Smart City of tomorrow should move from being in silos to collaborative modes of engagement. The whole city is more than the sum of its departments and true solutions can become visible with education of citizens to deeper issues.
Prof Sanjeev Sanghi, Dean Alumni Affairs & International Programs, IIT Delhi, shared the readiness of IIT Delhi to play a significant role in Indian Smart Cities by looking at the current IIT Delhi campus to become a pilot project and by integrating their various emerging research, technology and expertise available in-house.
Prof Ashutosh Pastor shared the ongoing initiatives of FITT, the IIT Delhi incubator, which promotes tech-entrepreneurs to solve market challenges.
Prof Harsh Mishra of DMS, IIT Delhi emphasized the need for a Strategic Management approach for managing the growth and performance projects on Smart Cities through a strategic, innovative and enterprising mindset shared among engaged stakeholders.
Several representatives of the French Embassy: Mr. Maxime Du Bois (Director, India Smart City Club); Aurelien Sostaponti (Head of Industries & cleantech department, Business France India) & Mr. Thibault Montaron talked about various initiatives in India that the French Government is supporting in the realm of smart cities.