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Creating skilled talent will determine the success of smart cities

smart cities

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Rashi Varshney
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Kabir Chadha

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Honorable Prime Minster Narendra Modi recently announced his government’s vision to set up 100 smart cities across the country. Since then a race has been on to land on the listof cities that the ministry of urban development will support in this endeavor to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficient use of resources and infrastructure. The completion of this project would be a huge step towards achieving India’s digital dream and transforming lives of citizens in the country.

Smart cities would enable information and communications technologies to deliver sustainable economic development and a higher quality of life, while engaging citizens and effectively managing natural resources. In a country which is rapidly moving towards urbanization and with a large number of rural populace migrating towards towns for better job prospects, the success of smart cities become even more important. As per recent studies, 350 million Indians are expected to move to cities by 2030 and this number is likely to double to 700 million by 2050.

The success of smart citieshowever will not just depend on building great infrastructure and connecting cities with the best technologies. Their success will depend on building a workforcewith the skills necessary to build those cities.

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A case in point is the growing demand for big data analytics. We all recognize that big data holds thepotential of unlocking a better understanding of cities and implementing the right solutions. For example in a healthcare scenario, having all medical tests, lab reports and prescribed medications for patients on one electronic dashboard can significantly improve the way clinicians make decisions about their patients. Similarly data analytics can help solve traffic congestion issues, enhancing security and helping citizens make the right choices in every aspect of their daily lives.

But India today has a huge shortage of professionals who have the right skillset for data analytics. As per industry reports, there will be a shortage of two lakh data scientists in the country over the next few years.

Similarly there is an overall scarcity ofthe skilled talent neededin many other fields that can make India’s ‘Smart Cities’ dream come true. Qualified engineers who can tap high-end business opportunities such as mobile applications and cloud computing are also hard to find. Randstad predicts that in the next two-three years, India will account for 20-25 percent of the worldwide demand for analytics and cloud computing talent. But India will trail behind the US and China as those two countries combined will account for 70-75 percent of the talent demand.

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Thus, creating a pool of ready professionals who not only understand the concept of smart cities but also know howto create smart cities becomes imperative.Government, academia and other industry stakeholders need to look at different initiatives that can address these needs. One of the ways to achieve this is by introducing a course in combining urban planning with technology solutions in India’s leading technical education institutes. The Indian government is perhaps already thinking on these lines with the recommendation to make it mandatory for all premier institutes to have a course onIoT (Internet of Things) in the government’s policy paper on IoT.

Further, to make it more convenient for people to acquire the requisite skillset in this space, open online education platforms can also play a key role. There are many free and low cost online courses available today, which technology professionals or anyone looking at making a career in this field or simply wanting to learn more can avail. At Coursera too we have courses from top universities around the world in a range of high demand topics. A few of the most popular courses among Indians right now are on data science, digital marketing, and programming for Android – all teaching skills with immediate applications for helping build advanced, connected communities.

The concept of ‘Smart Cities’ is a fabulous vision and with rapid advancements in technology, greater penetration of broadband, we are well on our way. But what is important to ensure their success and sustainability is to empower citizens with the skills to make them a reality. The way to do this is to create low cost, high quality education opportunities for people to gain the latest, most high demand skills both in school and throughout their careers.

The author is Coursera’s India Country Manager

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