India is experiencing unprecedented growth. In the next 20 years, 30 Indians will move every minute from rural India to the cities. To accommodate this massive urban migration, India will need about 500 new cities in the next 20 years.
Government, academic and business leaders need to quickly start demanding foresighted, comprehensive and enforceable city planning. Otherwise, cities will become stagnant oceans of poverty, choked by traffic congestion, and plagued by periodic health crises and recurring shortages of power, water and fuel.
Today, in New Delhi IBM hosted the Smarter Cities India Forum — the 6th edition in a series of Smarter Cities global events held previously in Berlin, New York City, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and Shanghai. The forum brings together the brightest brains in the public & private sector, as well as best practices learned from cities from around the world facing similar challenges.
Urbanization is a source of great hope for India. People move to cities because cities provide much greater economic opportunity than rural areas. India’s cities already provide 62% of its gross domestic product. People collaborating can produce much more value than people do on their own. In cities any individual has a better chance of finding others who are willing to pay for his skills or his labor.
Check out what happened at the Smarter Cities India Forum throughout the day
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8:56 am
[...] India is Joining the Worldwide Race to Urbanize. Share this:PrintLinkedInTwitterPinterestMoreEmailFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. [...]
Posted by: India is Joining the Worldwide Race to Urbanize | Marketing on the Road
10:02 am
[...] smarter cities forum India to discuss how to tackle the challenges and opportunities that cities in India face today, such as how they can better cope with infrastructure demands as the population continues to grow [...]
Posted by: Transforming Indian Cities: Social Sentiment and Analytics « A Smarter Planet Blog
10:50 am
People around the world better start getting more educated. Population explosions in India, China and other countries will cause water shortages and depletion sooner than they think if they keep this up. The world be at war because of it.
Posted by: MotherNature
10:15 am
Between now and 2030 most of the world middle class will be in 3 countries, Urban development and ICT will be the largest impacted industries globally.
There will be a special blend between ICT and Urban Development and we are now seeing entrepreneurs and emerging companies leading the way.
With speed of Technology Development and Human Evolution the companies of old will have to change their business model to be able to create innovation for the time we are about to live in.
Posted by: Annil Ryan