PricewaterhouseCoopers designing tech-savvy Indian cities

SINGAPORE: Global business consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is helping India to design tech-savvy cities like Naya Raipur, Ahmedabad, saying the country needs technology to manage development challenges.

Among the cities being designed by the multinational giant is Naya Raipur Smart City in Chhattisgarh where it is building telecom infrastructure, Hazem Galal, PwC's Doha-based Global Leader for Cities & Local Government Sector said.

"We are helping with the design of the city and how to use technology to provide more services, basically technology-enabled services for the citizens and the nation," he said yesterday.

"When we are designing new cities, we design them for 'livability'."

We want economic activities happening within the city so that they don't become places where people only sleep and work elsewhere, worsening the transportation problem."

PwC has been working on a number of projects in India, including the Mumbai Smart & Safe City initiative as the most significant one. In Gujarat, it is working on developing integrated, smart and sustainable cities with a focus on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the city of Ahmedabad with their e-Governance programme.

Galal also sounded optimistic on pro-investment Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the new government would lead India to a growth period.

It would mean that a lot of its cities could thrive as business centres, he said.

He pointed out the success of Bangalore terming it a globally recognised city for its own clusters of businesses, especially the outsourcing services.

However, Galal lamented the failure of New Delhi to encash from the Commonwealth Games as its infrastructure could not be completed on time amidst complaints from international athletes.

In contrast, London has gained from having delivered its infrastructure and transportation system in due time for the Olympic Games.

The PwC yesterday released its study for the best 30 cities in the world.

The report "Cities of Opportunities 6" rated Mumbai, the financial capital of India, at 28th position.

He said Mumbai needs to improve on its transportation and infrastructure among other services to be among the top cities of the world.

London topped the list of the 30 cities followed by New York and Singapore at second and third positions respectively.

Comparatively, Mumbai did well in PwC's report on Emerging 7 or E7 which evaluated the ratings of cities in South Africa, India, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil.

He, however, stressed that India would really need to invest hard in basic infrastructure, make it easier for doing business in the country and remove regulatory barriers that are seen as deterrent by multi-national corporations.