The Rashtrapati Bhavan just got a 'smart' upgrade, thanks to IBM

The Rashtrapati Bhavan was designed by  Edwin Lutyens, who is considered one of the best British architects of all time. The building looks like a mashup of Hellenistic and Indian styles. The presidential estate stretches across 320 acres, and includes staff residences, gardens, stables and other facilities. The estate is so large, that it can be considered a small township in itself. It was the largest residence for a head of state in the world till the Turkey’s Presidential complex started being operational in 2014. The entire estate just got a smart city treatment by IBM . This is a small scale implementation of the ideas that form India’s Smart Cities Mission. The approach is to retrofit or upgrade existing infrastructure with next generation digital technologies. This involves a series of sensors that can give realtime or almost realtime feedback on consumption and distribution of resources. Instead of manual guessing, machines are leveraged to better understand and handle requirements. Smart cities upgraded in this way are more environmentally friendly, use a sustainable implementation of technology, and are less wasteful on resources. All these technologies were deployed in the Rashtrapati Bhavan by IBM. There are meters for monitoring use and flow of electricity, water and waste. There is also an upgraded security system. All of this is monitored centrally at an Intelligent Operations Centre, or IOC. There is also a mobile application launched, that consolidates all of this information into a smartphone. President Pranab Mukherjee said “I’m happy to have inaugurated the Intelligent Operation centre (IOC) and launched a mobile application monitor towards the smart President’s estate. At the outset I congratulate Team Rashtrapati Bhavan and Team IBM for the conceptualization, collaboration and quick implementation of this important project aimed at converting the estate into a smart township. The smart presidential estate is a replicable model which can be replicated in other parts of the country through citizen’s engagement, public and private sector participation and deployment of intensive technologies. We are in the process of replicating our Rashtrapati Bhavan experience of smart town-ship by applying and transferring our knowledge and expertise to five villages in an adjoining state.” All the street lights in the estate use LED lamps now. There are solar panels installed for some applications. Consumption of the electricity is being monitored to identify methods to reduce the consumption. Water distribution has been mapped on a geographic informations systems layer. There is end to end tracking of the water, and this is expected to reduce use as well as reduce wastage. There is an identification system for keeping track of visitors in the estate. All these systems have alerts and notifications enabled, and the mobile application help the various departments working in the presidential estate, work closer together. The application, called “Monitor” and the Intelligent Operations Centre were launched by President Pranab Mukherjee. These technologies together are a small scale demonstration of what the Smart Cities approach can do for India. “Rashtrapati Bhavan is an iconic representation of India’s Smart City vision. It is a proud moment for all of us and the beginning of a great journey. We are honored to be their partner in enabling this transformation.” said, Vanitha Narayanan, MD, IBM India Pvt. Ltd.