Building 100 smart cities in India could cost $31 billion through 2020, but expected benefits in terms of gross domestic product contribution and jobs should far outweigh this huge investment.
To cope with the challenge of rapid urbanization, the government of India launched in June 2015 an investment program aiming at establishing or retrofitting 100 smart cities in India. As selected smart cities, which number has now been revised to 109, are preparing their smart city plans, management consulting firm Zinnov published a new study detailing the costs and benefits of building 100 smart cities in India between 2015 and 2020.
On an area of 3.3 million square kilometers, India has more than 500 cities with 100,000 inhabitants or more and an urbanization rate of approximately 33 percent. As a comparison, the urbanization rate of the Unites States is 82 percent, while that of China is 56 percent. But populations in India’s 500 larger cities are facing multiple challenges regarding transportation, power and energy supply, water and sanitation. According to Zinnov, crude oil imports expenditure in 2016 will be worth $62 billion but 18 percent of the total energy will be lost in distribution. Also, approximately 76 million citizens have limited access to water and 7.5 percent of the urban population uses open defecation. Technological advances including predictive analytics, smart grid and smart metering could help address these challenges.
Technology investment
Fulfilling India’s government’s smart cities vision would effectively mean a $31 billion investment between 2015 and 2020, Vinnoz estimates, with technology accounting for more than five percent of the total, or approximately $1.5-2 billion. The biggest technology cost is expected to come from transportation and power, at $870-950 million, or 33 percent of the total spend. Cumulatively, Water and Sewage (19 percent), Governance (13 percent) and Waste Management (2 percent) would account for more than $685 million.
For technology vendors, the opportunity will be mostly concentrated in tier 3 cities as Vinnoz estimates those will account for more than 60 percent of the technology spend. Cloud solutions vendors are set to benefit the most as cloud solutions should account for 50 percent of the total technology investment. Geographically, the consulting firm expects three states, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, to account for nearly 45 percent of the technology spend.
Impact of 100 smart cities in India
A total of $31 billion is by any standard a sizable investment, but Vinnoz expects a much positive impact from these new 100 smart cities in India. By 2020, selected cities after transformation are expected to contribute an additional $200 billion to India’s gross domestic product (GDP). The smart city initiative could also contribute to a growth of 10-15 percent in employment, leading to the creation of 10 million new jobs. In addition, savings in traffic congestion could reach $10 billion while a 40 percent reduction in energy consumption is expected from smarter infrastructure, leading to 15 percent savings in water losses.
This all sounds very promising, but there will also be hurdles along the way, including financing, organizational and leadership challenges. Technological choices will also have to be made in an area where standards are by and far still under development.
IIoT News Recap: Vodafone and Huawei test 5G in dense urban city scenarios; Ingenu’s IoT network goes live in Salt Lake City; Msg global integrates SAP Vehicle Insights app for usage-based insurance; Autonomous vehicles market to generate $65.3 billion in revenue in 2027
5G: Vodafone and Huawei test 5G in dense urban city scenarios
Huawei announced it had, together with Vodafone, successfully tested 5G mobile connectivity in high and low frequency bands, demonstrating 1.5 kilometers’ cell coverage in the lower C-Band and 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) peak throughput for a single user in the high band. “The results of these tests are an important development and help further our understanding of how 5G mobile connectivity performs in high and low frequency bands. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Huawei to test and evaluate emerging 5G technologies,” said Luke Ibbetson, head of Vodafone Group Research and Development.
LPWAN: Ingenu’s IoT network goes live in Salt Lake City
Ingenu announced its Random Phase Multiple Access (RPMA) Internet of Things (IoT) network is now available in Salt Lake City metropolitan area. Using nine access points, the network covers an area of more than 650 square miles, serving more than 99 percent of the population of over 1.6 million in the area, according to Ingenu. “The greater Salt Lake area has become one of the hottest technology hubs in the country and we’re thrilled to bring RPMA technology to the area in support of its rapid growth,” said Tom Gregor, president and general manager of the Machine Network at Ingenu.
UBI: Msg global integrates SAP Vehicle Insights app for usage-based insurance
Msg global, a systems integrator serving the insurance market, announced the integration of SAP Vehicle Insights application, based on SAP HANA Cloud platform, into msg IoT Analyzer (IoTA). SAP Vehicle Insights gathers data from connected cars, moving assets and other web-enabled devices. “Since it is based on SAP HANA Cloud Platform, SAP Vehicle Insights has already shown a powerful ability to collect data from multiple vehicle sensors – useful in different use cases in fleet management,” said Bob Cummings, head of SAP’s Industry Business Unit for Insurance. “Marrying this with the risk-modeling capability of the msg IoT Analyzer can help yield an even greater opportunity to make risk-based decisions and impact the bottom line for insurers.”
Today’s forecast: Autonomous vehicles market to generate $65.3 billion in revenue in 2027
India-based Market Research Future estimates that the market for autonomous vehicles will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26.2 percent between 2016 and 2027, with revenues soaring to $65.3 billion in 2017, from $3.6 billion in 2015. Google (U.S.), General Motors (U.S.), Volkswagen (Germany), BMW (Germany), Ford Motor Company (U.S.), Baidu (China), Toyota (Japan), Tesla (U.S.), Audi (Germany) and Jaguar (U.K.) Major players in this growing market have been identified as market players.
