| | NOVEMBER 20168Consultants ReviewBlue Star is India's leading air conditioning and commercial refrigeration company which fulfills the cooling requirements of corporate, commercial and residential customers. It also offers turnkey expertise in allied contracting activities such as electrical, plumbing and fire-fighting services, apart from execution of specialized industrial projects. Blue Star's other businesses include marketing and maintenance of imported professional electronic and industrial products and systems. ccording to a recent World Bank report on Urbanization, South Asian countries, while making some progress, have struggled to make the most of the opportunity urbanization provides them to transform their economies to join the ranks of richer nations in both prosperity and livability. While urbanization has become a common feature of Indian society, the development has not always been `smart', sacrificing quality of living and health, for instance, for greater productivity and growth.Every city has its unique sets of needs, demands, constraints and resources. A city should develop its smart initiatives on the basis of these attributes. India's advantage lies in its relatively younger population compounded with a very high rate of Smartphone and internet adoption. With greater use of digital technology and adoption of eco-friendly techniques, cities can be smartly governed and quality of services vastly improved, thus significantly enhancing and improving the quality of living. The 2015 livability index of the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked New Delhi 110 out of 140 cities, highest of the six South Asian cities in the Index. Mumbai was ranked 115. Mercer's 2015 Quality of Living survey ranks Hyderabad at 138 out of 230 cities surveyed globally. A `smart city' can result in significantly improving the livability index of these cities. In January, 2016, the Central Government unveiled the names of the first 20 cities which will be developed into smart cities in 2016. These 20 cities were shortlisted from the 98 cities earlier identified under the 'Smart Cities Mission'. So how can a smart initiative improve the livability index? Rather than looking at the basic AIN MY OPINIONBy Suresh Iyer, Chief Information Officer, Blue Star LimitedSMART CITIES -A SMART INITIATIVE TO IMPROVE LIVABILITY INDEX
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