Modi's Smart Cities vision will catalyse new IT-driven jobs

Narendra Modi’s dream of developing ‘100 smart cities’ - which has been allocated Rs 7,060 crore in Union Budget 2014 - is a major project that will rely heavily on technology because smart cities are technology-driven. ?Market research firm IDC estimates a minimum of Rs 2,000 crores flowing into the technology sector on the back of the ‘smart cities’ initiative. It’s no wonder technology vendors are salivating in glee.

But the government pouring in money into smart cities won’t just boost the balance sheets of technology vendors. The project - which is awaiting clarity from the Modi government , if rolled out in the right manner will not just promote investments in the use of modern technology but also create new employment opportunities in the Indian IT sector, according to analysts like Ganesh Ramamoorthy of Gartner.
[caption id=“attachment_90793” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi. AFP[/caption]
Hitesh Shah, Director Channel Sales, BlackBerry says, “The expansion of urban hubs and modernisation of mid-sized cities will provide job opportunities to youth and ease the pressure off the metropolitan cities. This will bring down migration figures from rural areas to a few limited urban cities. Infrastructure revamp and development of real estate will mobilise employment opportunities. Additionally, this will spur innovation, enable economic upliftment and foster entrepreneurship.”

Well, that’s certainly seems too optimistic but there’s no reason to doubt it unless implementation goes awry.

The fact is that smart cities would be driven by modern technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine to Machine communication (M2M), mobility, and Big Data & analytics, and hence there could be an increase in demand for new specialist roles in the sector, feel industry experts.

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City CIOs

There will be new jobs created in the city, believes Ramamoorthy. The first and foremost job that’s going to come up is of a ‘City CIO’ - a role which is already in vogue in other cities that label themselves smart cities. The Smart cities initiative cannot be handled or driven by one single department, and it calls for collaboration between various government departments. To make it a success, the government needs to form a ‘Smart City Council’ and bring in all necessary stakeholders in the smart city together.?

The City CIO would be the one to spearhead the process of different departments coming together in the Smart City Council.

And, every smart city will have its own City CIO, notes Ramamoorthy. This means, India can expect at least 100 City CIOs in the next couple of years.

City Data Scientists

Secondly, there will be new jobs in analytics. And, one such job would be that of ‘Data Scientists.’ Ramamoorthy explains, “When data starts coming in from the various technology elements that make up a smart city, each and every department will have to start looking at data and perform analytics in order to offer proper services responding to those analytic requirements.”

In addition, there would also be huge demand for app developers in the Indian IT industry thanks to these smart cities. With apps being the primary interface between citizens and the smart city administration, the demand for apps is expected to go up exponentially.