UKNA (Urban Knowledge Network Asia) and Faculty of Planning, CEPT University jointly organized the annual roundtable internal discussion and international conference on Saturday, 13th December, 2014 and Sunday, 14th December, 2014. UKNA is funded by a grant awarded by the Marie Curie Actions “International Research Staff Exchange Scheme” (IRSES) of the European Union.

An important recent movement is towards the “smart city”, which advances IT and technological solutions to improve urban governance and resource management. In several countries in Asia, entire new “smart cities” are being developed that aim to provide attractive master planned environments, an advanced technology infrastructure as well as the latest amenities for residents and businesses.

In India, the government has a vision to develop 100 smart cities, which are being advertised as ecologically friendly, technologically integrated and meticulously planned, with a reliance on the use of information technology to improve governance and efficiency. These new urban spaces will comprise brand new cities, satellite towns of larger cities, and newly modernized existing mid-sized cities.

The format of the event was an open “roundtable” discussion centered on the four main questions. Selected experts gave brief presentations on various case studies of existing smart cities in Asia. Roundtable participants included representatives and researchers from the 14 partner institutions of the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) and various other academics, scholars and policy makers with an interest in urbanization in India and the rest of Asia.

This conference was organized for two days session on Saturday, 13th December 2014, there was a roundtable program in which there were internal discussions with the selected experts and brief presentations on various case studies of existing smart cities in Asia. On Sunday, 14th December 2014, there was an International conference on “Smart Cities” in three sessions.

• Session 1: What are “Smart Cities” and who are they for?
• Session 2: Mobility, sustainability and livability challenges of smart cities
• Session 3: Conclusion-What is “smart” about today’s smart cities?

Lessons for policy from experiences in Asia and other parts of the world

There was a special invitation lecture on “Smart Cities” by Mr. I P Gautam IAS, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company Ltd.