E-Governance for Smart Cities

Abstract

This chapter ‘E-Governance for Smart City’ is intended to give conceptual clarity of the subject matter of the book. The chapter is expected to give broad direction to the book. Until now E-Governance literature is dominated by authors who are computer scientists and IT specialists since there are several technical issues to be solved (like, for example, big data management) but this book takes a departure and will be authored by domain specialists related to city. We are jointly working out the emerging E-Governance System for Smart City from the point of view of urban domain specialists such as specialists in urban development, urban planning, climate change, carbon accounting, water Governance, energy governance, public realm and so on. To start with definition of E-Governance and E-Government is collated from different organizations point of view. Then how consumers of Governance, such as Citizen, Government and Business benefit from E-Governance is enumerated. Further, it traces five distinct phases of E-Governance development such as Phase-1(1996–1999): Basic Web Presence, Phase-2(1997–2000): Interactive web, Phase-3(1998–2003): Transaction web, Phase-4(2000–2005): Integrative and Transformation web and Phase-5(2005+): Smart City Governance web. Prior to 2005 there has been rapid transition in phases but with the emergence of phase-5, there is a trend in stabilization of urban E-Governance. This chapter enumerates new functional specialization of E-Governance in different phases and discusses Smart City E-Governance System and its prime requirements.

1 A Voyage to the Unknown Undefined and Untested

None has until now designed and tested an appropriate E-Governance system for a Smart Cities in India. There are no universal or Indian standards of E-Governance available for Smart Cities. Is E-Governance the brain of the City under e-Democracy? Can E-Governance be automated by emerging smart city technologies with no role to humans? Can India with very low ranking of achievement in United Nations E-Government Survey of 2012 ever aspire to have an E-Governance System suited to Smart City? There are many questions, unknowns and undefined. That explains the need for this book. This book had adopted city-specific and domain-specific urban case study approaches to find out what can be E-Governance for a Smart City. Most of the literature on E-Governance is available for States in India with a strong bias towards State and predominantly rural-district level E-Governance, but focus of the book is city level studies. The case studies presented in this book are not limited to Indian cities alone. It is meant to look at many innovations in e-city Governance from world over. Some E-Governance System presented is never attempted and only a suggestion for adoption based on research and development.

This chapter introduces the subject matter of the book. We have in India, like in many countries, a National E-Governance Plan [1] and several E-Governance Mission encompassing different sectors. Under federal constitution of India, many States and Union Territories have also their own E-Governance Plans and E-Governance Missions, which need not necessarily be an exact replica of the National Plan of E-Governance. Many cities in India have their own E-City Governance system. These cities have many layers of constitutional entities with differing in different states, constitutional powers to govern them such as Ward, Municipality or Municipal Corporation and, Metropolitan Planning Committee with their own distinct domain and jurisdiction of Governance. It is not mandatory that there shall be uniformity in E-Governance under one and the same Indian Constitution. E-Governance in India is like Buddhism or Hinduism with many diverse schools of thoughts, all of which live together without violating the Indian Constitution. Hence, E-Governance in India truly represents a unity in diversity, for a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multilingual Indian Society with varying levels of development. Hence, it can be expected that unique city-specific E-Governance for Smart city can come into existence since each city is unique spatially. Many believe if you deploy all available Smart city technologies in any city we have a Smart City, which we do not agree. All components that make a Smart City shall be there along with Smart City technology which includes Smart E-Governance. This is explained below in Sect. 1.11.

This book is being written in 2014 by many authors when ‘Mangalyan’, the first Indian mission to planet Mars is very rapidly moving towards its long journey to Mars which may take many more months to reach Mars and I found a striking similarity with this book and its goal which may takes many levels of refinement in existing E-Governance systems like midway corrections on Manglayan movement before we reach an acceptable E-Governance for Smart City in the distant future. One Mangalyan is not sufficient to reach the goal but many more are required with varying objectives.

However, most of the countries had made some advancement in E-Governance. All over the world there is an attempt to make city more liveable and best performing for the benefit of people and environment. This book from India, second after Geographic Information System for Smart Cities [2] is an attempt to decipher what is largely unknown, E-Governance for Smart City and focus more on India. It can be seen here, that Indian scholars are writing about international experience of E-Governance of smart cities in this book.

Innovations in E-Governance in India mostly reach from Central or Union Government to State Government under its many Central Government Sponsored schemes. This is because more amount of tax is collected by Central Government than State Government and there are governing system to share the tax with states. While sharing the tax many centrally sponsored innovative schemes on e-city Governance are also introduced and it was mandatory to State Government to introduce some elements of E-Governance practice in their state if they accept funds for certain schemes such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) since 2005.

The term E-Governance and E-Government is understood in many ways emphasizing its different aspects which will be discussed.

1.1 Electronic Governance or E-Governance

The concept of governance has a duality built into that even when it moved from autocracy to oligarchy and then to democracy. In the scheme of this duality, there is one or a group of people who are given legal powers to govern called competent authority and there are another large group who are recipient of governance. They can be, in a democracy for example, the elected politicians and appointed bureaucrats and electorate which need not necessarily 100 % population. This duality gets gradually dissolved to a non-duality in an evolving and progressive e-democracy. It is the constitution of a country that hasten the dissolution of this non-duality to one in which the democracy wants people to be totally involved in all aspects of governance whether you are elected, appointed or electorate who need to act beyond voting once in every 5 years. This is considered a minimum requirement in Smart City. India is striving to reach that non-duality by a series of constitutional amendment such as 74th constitutional amendment and innovative models of public involvement designed by different cities and states at their own initiatives.

Electronic Governance or E-Governance is a movement towards ‘government online’ to deliver their services and programs, to provide government information and to interact with the citizen. This results in a user friendly relationship with citizen, business and state/government. E-Governance includes the vision, strategies, planning, leadership and resources to organize political and social powers within the framework of National constitution. This may call for a different governance frame for all governmental action than practiced today by dissolving the duality mentioned. This means E-Governance by all.

1.2 Definitions of E-Government

Municipal, State and Union Government uses information technology and internet to support government operations, engage citizens and provide government services. The interaction may be in the form of obtaining information, filings, or making payments and a host of other activities via the World Wide Web [3–5].

World Bank Definition of E-Government: In their website it is given that ‘E-Government’ refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth and/or cost reductions.

Traditionally, the interaction between a citizen or business and a government agency took place in a government office. With emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) it is possible to locate service centres closer to the clients. Such centres may consist of an unattended kiosk in the government agency, a service kiosk located close to the client in the neighbourhood, or the use of a personal computer in the home or office or mobile phone.

Analogous to e-commerce, which allows businesses to transact with each other more efficiently (B2B) and brings customers closer to businesses (B2C); E-Government aims to make the interaction between government and citizens (G2C), government and business enterprises (G2B) and inter-agency relationships (G2G) more friendly, convenient, transparent and inexpensive.

WikiBooks definition of E-Governance: Definitions of E-Government range from ‘the use of information technology to free movement of information to overcome the physical bounds of traditional paper-and physical-based systems’ to ‘the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees’. The common theme behind these definitions is that E-Government involves the automation or computerization of existing paper-based procedures that will prompt new styles of leadership, new ways of debating and deciding strategies, new ways of transacting business, new ways of listening to citizens and communities and new ways of organizing and delivering information.

Ultimately, E-Government aims to enhance access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens. More important, it aims to help strengthen government’s drive towards effective governance and increased transparency to better manage a country’s social and economic resources for development. The key to E-Government is the establishment of a long-term, organization-wide strategy to constantly improve operations with the end in view of fulfilling citizen needs by transforming internal operations such as staffing, technology, processes and work flow management. Thus, E-Government should result in the efficient and swift delivery of goods and services to citizens, businesses, government employees and agencies. To citizens and businesses, E-Government would mean the simplification of procedures and streamlining of the approval process. To government employees and agencies, it would mean the facilitation of cross-agency coordination and collaboration to ensure appropriate and timely decision-making.

United Nations definition [6]: ‘E-Government is defined as utilizing the Internet and the worldwide web for delivering government information and services to citizens’.

Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce—Gibed [7] definition ‘Electronic government (E-Government) refers to a situation in which administrative, legislative and judicial agencies (including both central and local governments) digitize their internal and external operations and utilize networked systems efficiently to realize better quality in the provision of public services’.

Gartner Group’s definition: According to Gartner Group e Government is ‘the continuous optimization of service delivery, constituency participation and governance by transforming internal and external relationships through technology, the Internet and new media’.

Definition of the Working Group on E-Government in the Developing World [8]: ‘E-Government is the use of ICTs to promote more efficient and effective government, facilitate more accessible government services, allow greater public access to information and make government more accountable to citizens. E-Government might involve delivering services via the Internet, telephone, community centres (self-service or facilitated by others), wireless devices or other communications systems’.

1.3 Definitions of E-Governance

‘Governance implies the processes and institutions, both formal and informal, that guide and restrain the collective activities of a group. Government is the subset that acts with authority and creates formal obligations. Governance need not necessarily be conducted exclusively by governments. Private firms, associations of firms, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and associations of NGOs all engage in it, often in association with governmental bodies, to create governance; sometimes without governmental authority [9]’. Hence, constitutional ward committee in a municipality is as important as non-constitutional Residential Welfare Association (RWA) in the process of ongoing governance assuming different roles complementary to each other.

The UNESCO definition (www.unesco.org): ‘E-Governance is the public sector’s use of ICTs with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective’. E-Governance involves new styles of leadership, new ways of debating and deciding policy and investment, new ways of accessing education, new ways of listening to citizens and new ways of organizing and delivering information and services. E-Governance is generally considered as a wider concept than E-Government, since it can bring about a change in the way citizens relate to governments and to each other. E-Governance can bring forth new concepts of citizenship, both in terms of citizen needs and responsibilities. Its objective is to engage, enable and empower the citizen. ‘E-democracy builds on E-Governance and focuses on the actions and innovations enabled by ICTs combined with higher levels of democratic motivation and intent’ [10].

The concept of electronic governance chosen by the Council of Europe covers the use of electronic technologies in three areas of public action; relations between the public authorities and civil society; functioning of the public authorities at all stages of the democratic process (electronic democracy); and the provision of electronic public services [11]. E-Governance is defined as the, ‘application of electronic means in (1) the interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well as (2) in internal government operations to simplify and improve democratic, government and business aspects of Governance’ [12]. According to Kati [13], ‘Governance” is a way of describing the links between government and its broader environment—political, social and administrative’. The application of electronic links means the interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well as in internal government operations to simplify and improve democratic, government and business aspects of Governance [9]. It is then important to enumerate specifically, its benefits.

1.4 Benefits of E-Government

1.4.1 Benefits to Citizens

E-Government benefits the citizens in a number of ways. Some of them are [14, 15]:

• 1. 24 × 7(24 h, 7 days a week) round-the-clock government service and not 10–5,

• 2. Economical and convenient service (no need for physical visit to an office),

• 3. Fast and efficient service (electronic and broadband bandwidth determined),

• 4. Transparent (no corruption and so-called speed money),

• 5. Equitable (any one can access it by the definition of smart people) and

• 6. Convenience (can be accessed while on move using mobile phones or at home using desk top computer).

1.4.2 Benefits to Business

It benefits businesses:

• 1. Reduced time in setting up new business (reduced or absence of red tape),

• 2. Help conducting e-business and e-commerce (online business),

• 3. Better conformity to government rules and regulations for running business because computer software acts on the basis of rule-based system with no discretion,

• 4. More convenient and transparent way of doing business with government through e-procurement after e-tendering,

• 5. Better control over movement of goods through online monitoring of clearances and

• 6. Conducting monetary transactions online (e-banking, e-payment) avoiding corruption during release of government payment to contractors.

1.4.3 Benefits to Government

The government also benefits in a number of ways:

• 1. Better policy making and regulatory and development functions as a result of better and up-to date information,

• 2. Very fast acquisition, storage and retrieval of data leading to better decision making,

• 3. Better management of government processes,

• 4. Better dissemination of government rules, regulations and activities,

• 5. Better performance in regulatory functions like taxation,

• 6. Better performance in social sectors like education, health and social security and last but not the least,

• 7. Creates the positive image of modern and progressive government.

These benefit streams has shown distinct pattern of E-Governance evolution.

1.5 Evolution of E-Governance

There is emerging, a definite pattern of evolution of E-Governance in its functional aspect, if one takes its presence in different states of India or world, on a chronological order. The United Nations identifies five stages of E-Government evolution: The distinct phases are

• Phase-1(1996–1999): Emerging with Basic Web Presence

• Phase-2(1997–2000): Enhanced with Interactive web

• Phase-3(1998–2003): Interactive graduating to Transaction web

• Phase-4(2000–2005): Integrative and Transformative web

• Phase-5(2005+): Smart City Governance web or well-connected web.

During 1996–1999, Municipal government for the first time took advantage of internet and made their website. It was nothing but a notice board like, one-way communication for displaying information about a municipal government. Some of them also had two ‘push services’ by which from time to time emails and SMS were sent to selected consumers if registered. According to the UN Global E-Government Readiness Report 2008, 94 % of countries have websites, 90 % provide information, such as publications, laws, policies; 70 % offer databases of some kind; and 26 % offer true ‘single-window’ portals. Additionally, 164 governments have contact information online and 125 offer downloadable forms. Information published online can include laws, regulations, policies, budgets, judicial opinions, official publications and reports, forms, executive decisions and a wide range of government advice and information on matters such as health and agriculture. It also can include government directories, organizational structures and contact information for government offices and key officials, including addresses and telephone numbers. Provincial, local and municipal governments are also offering localized and specialized government services. Peru’s ‘Public Window’ system gives citizens in three cities the ability to learn how their local governments are structured, to access information on municipal officials, to see how public funds are spent, and to obtain information on procedures for obtaining a birth certificate, restaurant permit and other official documents.

During the period 1997–2000, E-Governance, showed the emergence of Interactive web sites. An attempt was to make the web two ways usually for uncomplicated type of data collection such as registering comments. This phase is characterized by speedier interactions using electronic channels for some part of a service or transaction. Internet sites provide search capabilities and host forms to download and linkages with other relevant sites. In most instances, this stage enables the public to access critical information online, but requires a visit to a government office in order to complete the task. Citizens and businesses may be able to comment on proposed regulations or file corruption complaints via e-mails, generate downloadable forms, submit forms and information and search various specialized databases. Information and content is regularly updated. Interacting tools include e-mail, web-based forms, chat rooms, web forums, bulletin boards, list-serves and online question and answer (Q&A) sessions with government officials. Some interesting examples of Interaction functionality include Mexico’s online forum and a feedback system in Singapore to cut government waste. The development of Interaction services is sometimes combined with the establishment of government-owned or—sponsored access points, such as kiosks, community centres or mobile units. The Bahia provincial government in Brazil has developed citizen assistance service centres, which are based in public places such as shopping malls and offer some 500 services.

During the period of 1998–2003, showed complex transaction features appearing in the web site that may involve intergovernmental work flows and legally binding procedures for example motor vehicle registration. Here citizen and business persons can complete entire tasks on line. For example, when a car is sold print out of registration certificate can be obtained online by car sellers. The ‘Transaction’ phase of E-Government involved a mutual exchange of information (and sometimes funds) between government and citizens or businesses through step-by-step online self-service processes. Citizens are able to file tax returns, obtain visas, passports, birth and death records, licenses, and permits, pay parking fines and utility bills and apply for government jobs. Electronic identity and digital signatures may be recognized, and secure sites and user pins/passwords are also required. Online transactions make government services available at any time from any Internet-connected computer and more and more frequently via a smart mobile phone, whose cost, accessibility, and wide penetration make it a suitable device to access E-Government services. Traditionally, government services may have required long waits, confrontation with time-consuming bureaucracy, and the occasional bribe. Innovations such as citizen service kiosks located in shopping centres in Brazil, portable government computers that can be carried into rural pockets of India, or medication reminders available through SMS bring E-Government directly to the citizens. Business process reengineering is critical in the streamlining of time-consuming procedures, saving labour costs and increasing productivity in the long run. In addition, governments can help to stem corruption by utilizing new levels of automation and business intelligence to make transparent and/or electronically audit the processes, the transactions and payments. Consequently, online transactions may require significant investments in back office consolidation and harmonization of information and technology systems, as well as changes for the government workforce. The success of these transactions, as with other E-Government applications, will depend on assessing and responding to the needs and capabilities of the intended users. One of the few available surveys of rural users of E-Government found the following services most in demand: personal documents, including birth, marriage, and death certificates, land registry or cadastral services, anti-corruption complaints and other grievances with public services and transportation-related services, including car registration and purchase of bus and rail passes.

During 2000–2005, Integration and transformation progressed and user-centred experience, as well as multiple agency connections appeared in several websites. This fourth level service integrates a wide range of services across a whole government administration as characterized by the many emerging portals. The eCitizen portal developed by the Government of Singapore offers a prime example of this system. This fourth phase is characterized by redefined relationships between government, citizens, businesses, communities and employees delivering seamless experiences and rich levels of engagement derived from new connectivity, interoperations and business models for service, and policy design and development. The integration of information, processes, and channels across multiple government, non-government and private sector organizations enable a user to start and complete an entire task easily, confidently and securely. This is the concept of integrated and transformational service. Users are able to access any service or information in a complete “end-to-end” package where the existing boundary between departments/ministry or organizations do not interfere with or interrupt the service outcome, and where the services are clustered along common “customer” needs. The integration demands are substantial and require:

• Understanding and regular monitoring of customer experiences and expectations.

• Trained and informed staff.

• Interoperability and standardization of information, processes and technologies particularly at interfaces of organizations.

• Multi-channel strategies—ensuring consistent and reliable experiences for users within and across individual channels of service (online, on-call, on-paper and on-site).

• Cross-organizational governance controls—i.e. Memoranda of understanding, contracts, funding, service level agreements.

The opportunities for enabling a stronger dialogue between citizens and government in governance and policy development is also reflected in this phase highlighting the two-way interaction and responsiveness expected of government—a new relationship compared to the traditional ‘government-to’ approaches. The OECD’s paper on Citizen Focus: Public Engagement for Better Policy and Services highlights the importance of having public engagement policy to utilize the technology that supports engagement and dialogue.

After 2005 many nations witnessed the emergence of Smart City Governance with European Union taking a major lead. Its full nature is yet to be specified. Governments transform themselves into a well-connected entity that responds to the needs of its citizens by developing an integrated back-office infrastructure. This is the most sophisticated level of online E-Government initiatives and is characterized by:

• Horizontal connections (between government agencies).

• Vertical connections (between central and local government agencies).

• Infrastructure connections (interoperability issues).

• Connection between governments and citizens.

• Connections between stakeholders (government, private sector, academic institutions, NGOs and civil society).

It is participatory governance of the highest order. It strives to solve the issues of digital divide and inclusion and exclusion of e-democracy and E-Governance. Smart City provides immense opportunity for e-learning and e-medicine. Smart city inhabitants are to be in continuing education life-long. There is full conscious of carbon emission, energy efficiency, environmental efficiency and pollution controls. ICT build in the Smart City technologies were utilized to self-govern these parameters 24 h a day and 7 days a week.

How these phases are evident in many states of India is attempted below.

1.6 Status of E-Governance in India

India has undertaken massive initiatives to introduce E-Governance at the national, state and local levels. In terms of the total number of government websites, India is ranked seventh in the global list [16] during the phase-1 development discussed above. The policy-makers in India tend to justify the adoption and expansion of E-Governance on the grounds that it costs less, reduces waste, promotes transparency, eliminates corruption, generates possibilities to resolve inequality and guarantees a better future for citizens [17–20]. The government tends to portray E-Governance as the panacea for all ranges of problems confronting India. No evidence is there of earlier protest against computerization in administration is evident now. There are critics who, in general, suggest that the whole enterprise of ICT may have created a new class of ‘untouchables’ living in ‘information poverty’, compromised equal access to government services and eroded accountability and individual privacy [21, 22]. As the largest democracy, venturing into E-Governance, Indian Government has set the target of delivering at least 25 % of its dealings and services electronically [23, 24]. The major policy measures have been to increase computer density, connectivity, content and cost and cyber laws [25]. Under this overall policy framework, the government has introduced various measures for E-Governance, which can be categorized into national- and state-level initiatives and institutions.

Information Technology Act (2000), which is to regulate cyberspace and define offences and penalties related to information technology such as tampering with computer source documents, breach of confidentiality and privacy, publication of false digital signatures and so on [20, 21]. The Indian Government has also adopted Right to Information Act that requires all public authorities to maintain information and records, and appoint Public Information Officers to assist citizens in gaining access to such information [18, 26]. Every Government website exhibits details of Right to Information Act. Furthermore, it has introduced citizens’ charters under which the ministries and departments at both national and state levels are required to adopt charters specifying their respective service provisions, time frames, service standards and channels for redressing grievances. Punitive measures are published for delayed delivery of Government services.

Some of the leading examples of E-Governance include Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh Government took the initiative of E-Governance known as the Andhra Pradesh State Wide Area Network, which is a network for data, voice and video communication [27]. For example, through this network, it launched the Twin Cities Network Services to provide various services to citizens in two main cities (Hyderabad and Secunderabad) through one stop Integrated Citizen Services Centres (ICSCs). Through ICSCs, the citizens can access information about state and central governments; pay utility bills and property taxes; purchase certificates and licenses; and receives information regarding building permits, property registration and transport procedures [27, 28].

Madhya Pradesh introduced its own E-Governance with extensive computerization in dealing with payrolls, the budget, accounts, personnel, official communications, land records, public programmes and relief operations. It trains public servants in E-Governance at the State Academy of Administration. Initiatives have also been taken to use Hindi as a popular medium to communicate among governments, provide information to the public, use email services and maintain government web pages [29].

Karnataka state government has begun to computerize most departments. Bangalore is known as an IT hub attracting over 1,500 IT companies from advanced industrial nations; and its Indian Institute of Information Technology has a very advanced infrastructure and IT facilities. Furthermore, under its Department of Information Technology, the government created a “Centre for E-Governance” supporting E-Governance.

The Government of Tamil Nadu is strongly committed to transforming the state into an advanced system of E-Governance by computerizing its major departments and building technical capacity, with the ultimate objective of restoring public confidence and creating an effective relationship between government and citizens [19, 29]. To reinforce its mission of restoring citizens’ confidence, the Government has adopted projects to ensure computerization of land records, registration, the education system, transportation and so on. It has also established a Tamil Internet Research Centre to promote the use of Tamil on the internet in order to increase access for citizens.

Kerala uses selected nodal officers in each department to accelerate the application of IT. One unique feature of Kerala is its comprehensive programme aimed at decentralizing E-Governance to the district and Town level—many district cooperative banks and credit societies have been networked and is now having core banking facility. Activities and documents which have been put on the internet may cover tax collection, accounting, welfare schemes, court rulings and government orders and directives. Moreover, the government is using a transliteration technology that allows its web pages to be available in the local language (Malayalam). It launched a project called ‘A PC for Every Home through the Kerala Electronics Development Corporation, which aimed to reach the target of 10 personal computers (PCs) per 1,000 people by the end of 2001 and it is still being continued. There are loans available to procure computer. In Kerala, Information Kerala Project was adopted to computerize and network about 1,214 local bodies. In this state, a district panchayat of Ernakulum has adopted a model of E-Governance that provides guidance to three village panchayats in the district to build an information network covering information related to land holdings, age structure, health, tax payments. It gave internet access to cooperative societies and aids to deliver information relating to agriculture, health and education to the people by creating networked ‘facilitation booths’ in these villages. The work of “Akshaya” centres is well known and it will be discussed in Chap. 5.

According to FICCI—Ernst and Young Report, ‘E-Governance 2020’ in India (undated); the state of Kerala is also, pioneer in adopting mobile technology to deliver citizen services. M-Governance initiatives in Kerala are initiatives focusing on the utilization of mobile technologies to deliver citizen services and is aimed at making services available to citizens on the mobile platform on an ‘anytime anywhere’ basis. It was launched as a series of projects in various districts of Kerala on a variety of sectors including healthcare, education, transport and utilities. The following is a summary of the various ongoing initiatives in the state:

• Dr. SMS: This project aims to provide comprehensive information on the healthcare facilities available within a locality to citizens through Short Messaging Service (SMS).

• Transport-related services: These collectively provide information on the schedule of state transport buses as well as details on road tax paid and vehicle registration.

• Utility services: Initiated with the Kerala State Electricity Board and the Kerala Water Authority, solutions in this area are aimed at consumer billing and complaint resolution.

• Education services: These projects aim to provide various examination-related information to students.

The Rajasthan government has taken measures to strengthen E-Governance, proposing the creation of a state wide network to provide information and video communication to both public and private organizations. The Department of Information Technology in Rajasthan has developed such programs as RajSWIFT to facilitate the use of online data and email communication among officials; and RajNIDHI to provide services to citizens in a transparent and responsive manner.

The Government of Gujarat has introduced a state-wide network (Wide Area Network) connecting all office complexes and corporations in the state and has launched E-nagar (E-city) program. SWAGAT is their state-wide attention on grievances by application of technology. It is an on line Four-Tier Grievances Redresser system which got United Nations Award. Geo-Spatial mapping and Geographic Information System is being implemented in most Cities since 2003. Since 2004, there is e-Procure system which is an efficient and transparent procurement process through e-tendering. Since 2010 bar coded ration cards are issued as part of integrated public distribution system. E-Jamin (E-land) since 2010 can access land records in an easy and transparent way. E-nagar concept is centred around Smart and intelligent cities with Citizen service portal, m-Governance, Intelligent transit system with GPS, Self-help Kiosk and Call Centres, Digital Empowerment through SATCOM/Video conferencing, Geo-Spatial Mapping, Wifi-hotspots and last mile connectivity called e-Ward. {Vide The Hindu Kozhikode Edition 26-2-2014}.

The Uttar Pradesh government has taken a special interest in transforming its Allahabad district into a Smart District [30].

Similarly, the Government of Maharashtra is trying to develop Mumbai and Pune into major IT hubs while pursuing the state-wide expansion of E-Governance. It has taken on the responsibility for developing it skills and awareness among employees through training, and to link all district-level offices through the Wide Area Network.

Although these state level initiatives gives some hope on E-Government in India, the position of India in comparison with other countries is very poor and considerable effort is required to progress from this status.

1.7 E-Governance Challenges of Smart Cities in India

E-Governance challenges of emerging Smart Cities are many. 2011 census of India showed that more number of urban populations was added than rural population to Indian population during 2001–2011. As per estimates of Planning Commission, by 2021 nearly 28–40 % of total population of India shall be urban. With rapid economic growth, the next wave of urban development is likely to concentrate in and around 60–70 large cities with a population of one million or more. Some of these million plus cities can be potential Smart Cities. The main area where Smart City E-Governance challenges will be the following:

• (a) Water supply and sanitation

• (b) Power supply

• (c) Urban transport and traffic management

• (d) Pollution control and environmental sustainability

• (e) Regulation of land use

• (f) Management/decongestion of development within crowded zones

• (g) Maintenance of civic infrastructure

• (h) Policing

• (i) Disaster management

• (j) Urban poverty

These challenges call for appropriate E-Governance solutions in the above enumerated aspects. There is need to invest in research and development in creating a common E-Governance solution for municipal administration, which may be easily replicated across existing and emerging urban centres. Further, large number of municipal departments are required to come together to deliver citizen services in urban centres, and the need for extensive co-ordination between them. The concept of ‘whole-of-the-E-Government’ or ‘connected government’ becomes very relevant for Citizen. Municipal administrations and the supporting agencies should adopt appropriate E-Governance standards and systems, paving way to easy integration and information exchange.

1.8 The E-Municipality Mission Mode Projects

E-Governance projects being designed to address the challenge mentioned above is the e-Municipality Mission Mode (MMP) Project. JNNURM is such MMP for municipalities which is expected to provide a major fillip to India’s urban reform agenda. The vision of the National MMP for E-Governance in municipalities is to leverage ICT opportunities for sustained improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of municipal services to citizens. The MMP intends to achieve the following goals:

• Provide single window services to citizens on an anytime, anywhere basis.

• Increase the efficiency and productivity of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

• Develop a single and integrated view of ULB information system across all ULBs.

• Provide timely and reliable management information relating to municipal administration for effective decision-making.

• Adopt a standard-based approach to enable integration with other related applications.

Some of the areas of intervention in JNNURM project include:

• Registration of births and deaths.

• Payment of taxes and utility bills.

• Approvals for land use and property development.

• Procurement and monitoring of projects being implemented by the ULB.

• Heath programs and Solid Waste Management.

• Accounting systems of ULB.

• Grievances handling, including the implementation of the Right to Information Act.

A unique feature of e-Municipality solutions will be the significant emphasis on Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) and augmenting the revenues of municipal administrations so that they can fund their growth and development to a significant level.

1.9 Status of India on United Nations E-Governance Survey 2012

India has fallen by five places in ranking in the UN E-Government survey 2012 (www.unpan.org/egovernment) from 119 in 2010 to 124 in 2012. The survey which was released on March 6, 2012 places the Republic of Korea at the top position followed by The Netherlands. United Kingdom (UK), Denmark and the United States of America (USA) follow in ranking in that order. USA has slipped by three positions and is placed at fifth position as compared to the second position in the last UN survey. As compared to its neighbours, India even lags behind Maldives and Sri Lanka who are placed at 95–115 respectively. The survey acknowledges that with a population of 1.2 billion, India has to deal with many challenges associated with this huge population. It highlights that e-services in India are in the formative stage (Phase-1 discussed).

India is low on E-Government ranking in the crucial area of web-services. There are as many as 5,000 websites of various government agencies supported by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and there are as many as additional 1,000 websites independently developed by government agencies. However, a majority of these websites are just notice boards conforming to Phase-1 development. Even the vital information is not updated on a regular basis. The last updated counter which is generally provided at the bottom of websites shows a gap of few months. Also, despite India being a multilingual country, a majority of its websites are in English.

However, India ranks high globally as far as legal framework and policy is concerned. Even the IT infrastructure is not that bad. The E-Government index measures online service component, telecommunication infrastructure component and human capital component. India scored 0.5359 on online services; 0.5025 on human capital and 0.1102 on telecommunications infrastructure.

Although India has a moderate score on web presence and human capital, the index is low with regard to infrastructure. The infrastructure index is a composite weighted average index of six primary indices—PCs/1,000 persons; internet users/1,000 persons; telephone lines/1,000 persons; online population; mobile phones/1,000 persons; and TVs/1,000 persons. India despite having high mobile penetration is still low on parameters like computers, internet, fixed line telephones and TVs. Therefore, infrastructure is one key component that India’s global ranking remains low.

It is now important to assess the impact of E-Government from whatever India had achieved in E-Governance.

1.10 Impacts of E-Governance on the Relationship of Citizens with Politicians and Administrators

Wadia [18], mentions that in India, E-Governance creates an avenue for its citizens to communicate with top political leaders and local ministers through such tools as video-conferencing, online grievance channels and complaint cells. A major means through which such interaction between citizens and politicians occurs is the parliamentary website, which is supposed to facilitate the top-down flow of information from the legislature to citizens, allow a bottom-up channel for feedback from citizens to the elected members, increase transparency by providing detailed information about legislative procedures and activities, expand the number of avenues for greater public scrutiny of the nature and processes of public policies and thus enhance the accountability of these elected politicians to their constituencies [14].

The emergence of E-Governance has significantly changed the nature of the relationship between citizens and public servants. The E-Governance movement not only promises higher quality and better delivery of services and a greater realization of entitlements, it also claims to offer stronger bonds between public servants and citizens based on transparency and accountability [19, 31, 32]. With regard to this new mode of relationship, emphasizes that E-Governance provides equal access to government and speedy and transparent responses from public servants. For Ghere and Young [33], public agencies now have to justify their decisions based on feedback from the people and conduct their business in public. However, for the critics, instead of a citizen–administration relationship based on equality and accountability, E-Governance may strengthen a top-down bureaucratic process by posting information about the structures and functions of public agencies and reinforcing the existing mode of interaction through documents and reports.

It is important to find out what shall be the impact of Smart City E-Governance which is the subject matter of this book. To start with Smart city concept is explained below and discusses how it opens up new E-Governance opportunities.

1.11 Smart City and Its Use of SCADA for E-Governance

While debating the definition of Smart Cities in the book “GIS for Smart Cities” [2] author group of that book had great difficulty in adopting existing definition. All of them felt that, definition available was like a group of blind men trying to figure out and define an elephant. Many of them came with their own definition. We also analysed the standard definitions available some ten of them. At the same time smart cities was known by several names and it compounded the difficulties. Finally, author collective of that book had accepted Smart cities definition as given below. This book ‘GIS for Smart Cities’ defines Smart City as a knowledge-based city that develops extra ordinary capabilities to be self-aware, how it functions 24 h and 7 days a week and communicate, selectively, in real-time knowledge to citizen end users for satisfactory way of life with easy public delivery of services, comfortable mobility, conserve energy, environment and other natural resources and create energetic face to face communities and a vibrant urban economy even at a time there is National economic downturns. With this definition it was easy to connect GIS with Smart City. Data recorded is converted into information and these informations are selectively used for ongoing decision making in real-time for solving real urban issues to consumers using analytics.

The primary user of this total smart city information is SCADA. SCADA is acronym for ‘Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition’, a computer system for gathering and analysing real-time data. SCADA system existed since 1940 but from time to time it absorbed the current technological innovation and ready to solve complex urban problems today irrespective of its complexity and size of population. It can also monitor a self-aware Smart city in totality. In the early stage, SCADA systems are used to monitor and control a plant or equipment in industries such as telecommunications, water and waste control, energy, oil and gas refining, nuclear reactors and transportation. Now it is being used also for large urban systems whether it is a mega city or metropolitan city. For SCADA like Smart City, size does not matter. With Smart City and SCADA a billion or Trillion dollar business is born and many multinationals such as CISCO, IBM, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Toshiba, Arup and others are part of this emerging business opportunity. However, most of the SCADA in Smart City is not total system but partial or micro system such as in the case of Delhi Metro and Mumbai Traffic system which industry calls microSCADA, being small scale. A SCADA system gathers information, such as where a leak on a pipeline has occurred, transfers the information back to a central site, alerting the home station that the leak has occurred, then SCADA carry out necessary analysis and control, such as determining if the leak is critical, and displaying the information in a logical and organized fashion leading to appropriate responses. SCADA systems can be relatively simple, such as one that monitors environmental conditions of a small office building, or incredibly complex, such as a system that monitors all the activity in a nuclear power plant or the activity of a municipal water system, an electric supply system or a total Smart City. SCADA systems were first used in the 1940 and then it was called Supervisory control system (SCS). In 1950, Telemetry instrumentation got added to SCS, and in 1965 integration with IT took place evolving the earlier generation of the present SCADA. In 1970, Automatic Generation Control in terms of Advanced Instrumentation got added to SCADA and then in 1980 Systems Analytics got integrated and in 1990 process-specific management system became a reality and now SCADA is self-adjusting which is an aspect of self E-Governing system. Hence, SCADA is ideal for Smart City. Now SCADA incorporates wireless LAN and uses intelligent electronic devices and have a distributed architecture and adaptable to a scale of metropolitan regions. The most important evolution of SCADA is its self-adaptive nature using efficient communication network.

Further details of Smart Cities are given in the following diagrams. Figure 1 shows the building blocks of Smart City System. Smart City shall be considered as a system with six components and I have given most importance to Smart People followed by Smart economy and the building blocks represented give the relative weights. From Governance point of view Smart City means citizen centred mobile phone-based intelligent Governance with digital infrastructure. Digital infrastructure are network of sensors, cameras, wireless devices, data centres and powerful analytics to enable the Government to provide more efficient services, maintain low-carbon footprints and create an entrepreneurial environment for citizen. Components of Smart Cities are as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Smart city system building blocks

Figure 2 shows Smart People. Smart People require many attributes as given. The most important aspect of smart people is their high Human Development Index. Next to importance is their Graduate Enrolment ratio. The third important factor is the metropolitan regional and the State shall have high percent of urban population and GDP contribution from urban area need to be highest. A soul searching is here to find out whether any existing city has population with the above attributes. Further, one need to assess whether infrastructure and investment required nurturing smart people exists in any such urban centres in India.

Fig. 2

Smart people

Figure 3 describes, Smart City Economies. It is driven by innovation and supported by universities which are not teaching shop but producers of patents. Entrepreneurship will be encouraged by easily available venture capital funds. This will be an economy of high-quality image, high productivity and flexible labour market and not strikes. This economy will have an international branding and generates highly diversified economy.

Fig. 3

Smart city economy

Figure 4 shows smart mobility. Here international, National and local accessibility are fully taken into account. So also last mile accessibility will be given due importance by urban design and urban compaction. Metros, monorails, intelligent transportation system will be there in such Smart cities.

Fig. 4

Smart mobility

Figure 4 shows importance given to carbon footprint, pollution, natural sceneries and natural environment and sustainable resource management.

Figure 5 is all about Smart living. Smart living is characterized by access to diverse cultural facilities for minority and majority communities, educational facilities of world standards, more attractive tourist attraction, higher health condition and good housing quality and social cohesion (Fig. 6).

Fig. 5

Smart environments

Fig. 6

Smart living

This book is all about Smart Governance and we emphasize here participatory decision making, transparent corrupt free Governance, best public and social services and above all well thought out political strategies and perspective by the inhabitants (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7

Smart governance

Once smart city and SCADA is desired for a particular human settlement, then it became important to identify prime requirements for E-Governance of Smart Cities.

2 Prime Requirements of E-Governance for Smart City

2.1 Universal E-Literacy Program

The first state in India to become fully e-literate will be Kerala with 33.3 million populations in 2011. The successful e-literacy program undertaken by Akshaya in Kerala is documented in Chap. 5. Other states in India can search other models. Irrespective of the age and sex of person, familiarity with using computer and the Internet can be achieved using multiple strategies such as community training in local government centres such as libraries, local government offices, colleges, school and ICT labs or as part of workplace training and development. Addressing the issue of literacy is more fundamental. ‘Education for all’ has become a priority in developing countries, as recognized in the Millennium Development Goals and strategies and plans are being put in place to ensure that every child has access to basic education, at least at primary level. Kerala and Manipur had already achieved near full literacy. As part of this commitment, ICTs are gradually being embedded in the educational system and the delivery of a range of subjects. Primary education shall give e-literacy to every child. However, adults who are no longer in the education system can be denied access to the benefits of ICTs due to a range of issues including lack of recognition of distance learning as a legitimate educational mechanism, and the lack of accreditation systems for non-formal education. Information on institutions approved to offer distance learning can be posted on government education portals. Online educational programs can be especially valuable to women who cannot participate in mainstream classroom learning due to family responsibility as housewife. While English is spoken in many developing countries; it is typically a second or third language, used for conducting business, but there are attempt to have selected Indian languages even in operating system but all Indian languages are not covered as of today. Even native language use poses a challenge in countries that have many local or ethnic dialects. Effective E-Government strategies should emphasize content in the national language or languages and should also provide for translation into various ethnic dialects.

Individuals with limited mobility, who may be blind or deaf, are able to benefit greatly from E-Government information and services with sufficient forethought, planning and appropriate modification of the computers. The World Wide Web Consortium develops protocols and guidelines to support accessibility to the Internet for people with disabilities. Those efforts include software solutions, policy initiatives and educational conferences. Governments may use a range of tools to measure the accessibility of their websites.

It is important for governments to encourage high-level participation of women in the ICT sector, including policymaking positions. At present, the ICT field is male-dominated in most developing countries. Most ICT policymakers are men, and ICT programs are more likely to be managed by men than women. As a result of the current imbalance, it is likely that men will reap the majority of the benefits of E-Government, including business opportunities associated with E-Government software development and support services. Programs that address women’s participation in the ICT sector could also provide funding and mentoring services on establishing and managing businesses related to E-Government.

2.2 E-Democracy

The term e-democracy refers to the processes and structures that encompass all forms of electronic interaction between the Government (elected representatives) and the citizens (electorate). Online democracy includes access to elected officials by all electorate, availability and use of discussion forums (e-participation), access to meetings and meeting documentation, voter registration and ultimately online voting, also known as e-voting. UK Government hopes to use e-voting in order to bring youth into the democratic process since their participation in elections was regarded as very low [34]. This is also true in urban middle class dominated India where voting percentage has been low in comparison with rural areas. The advent of AAP party in Delhi had pushed up the voting percentage in Delhi in recent election using social media for such mobilization. It implies greater and more active citizen participation and involvement enabled by ICT in the decision-making process. The objective of e-democracy can be grouped in the following two categories:

• (a) Passive access-related objectives: To provide citizens access to information and knowledge about the political process, about services and about choices available.

• (b) Active access-related objectives: To make possible the transition from passive information access to active citizen participation by:

  • Informing the citizen

  • Representing the citizen

  • Encouraging the citizen to vote

  • Consulting the citizen

  • Involving the citizen.

Besides all these potentially positive outcomes of various E-Governance initiatives, particularly e-democracy, some serious caution needs to be exercised. The expectations for the potential of information technology to promote participation in democracy were extremely high. However, information technology will not automatically result in increased democratic participation. There are also examples which demonstrated Government reluctance to engage in any sort of e-democracy.

2.3 E-Participation

E-Participation tools are used to collect and discuss citizens’ and businesses’ views so their interests and needs are better represented in government programs or processes. The tools include online surveys and polls, electronic newsletters, e-mail, feedback forms and web forums where citizens can express their opinions. They can be used to supplement public forums or meetings. E-Participation applications may have to publish in web site, presenting relevant background information, decisions and other materials to help citizens and businesses understand certain public policy or regulatory issues. New Zealand has aggregated its policies, community of practice, knowledge pool and ways to participate in government in one site, participations.

Feedback or comment forms may support anti-corruption measures. For example, the Philippine Civil Service Commission (CSC) implemented an m-Government system that enables citizens to text complaints or corruption charges on government officials, and mobile phone users can report grievances against the police using SMS.

More advanced e-Participation functionality can include personalization features. For instance, e-mails may be sent to interested citizens or businesses based on their registered interests, alerting them to new decisions, reports, or resources on E-Government sites.

2.4 E-Consultation

E-Consultation takes the process one step further than e-Participation, facilitating online comment on specific policy or regulatory issues, while those issues are under active consideration by the government. E-Consultation resources can provide online access to government proposals and other key documents including wikis, written filings of stakeholders, and audio and visual recordings of public meetings. Resources can be organized to facilitate online consultation with citizen or business stakeholder groups and to receive formal inputs into government policy or regulatory processes. Online consultations can reach a wider range of stakeholders and ensure that consultative processes are transparent.

Canada’s government has created a useful site giving citizen’s access to all ongoing e-Consultations Singapore also has a site for e-Consultation. The UK, which in recent years has scored highest on the UN’s global assessment of e-Democracy, has created resources for local e-Democracy. E-consultation is not present in Indian E-Government practice.

2.5 E-Decision-Making

E-decision-making functionality facilitates intra-government decision-making processes. These applications are generally associated with cabinet-level decision-making or parliamentary procedures and aim to increase the efficiency of decision-making processes within governments. Estonia is among the countries that have implemented e-Decision-making processes. E-Decision-making applications may also be combined with “Publish functions” that provide the public with information about government decision-making.

Integration/Transformation initiatives require established and sophisticated back-end capabilities and infrastructure. In fact, some E-Government projects have components of more than one phase and a government can offer information and services across all phases during the evolution of E-Government in a department, a jurisdiction and a country.

2.6 E-Voting

Europe appears to have big plans for electronic voting (eVoting). There are attempts by European Governments to make the voting process attractive and convenient for citizens. Examples include the British government, which saw the lowest voter turnout in 90 years (59 %) in 2001, and has run many trials in local-council elections, and ballots over the Internet. In Geneva, Switzerland, eVote cast in April 2006 was a first step in a plan to wire the entire country. The European Union has funded a 3.2 million euro, 3-year pilot program to use eVoting in three local elections, one in France and the other two in Germany and in Sweden. More than 1 million Estonians have voted via the Internet in the 2006 local elections. To counter the possibility of coercion, Estonians were able to log back on an unlimited number of times and change their vote anonymously or walk into a polling station and cancel their e-vote.

It may be noted that eVoting is far from fool proof. In this respect, the US (despite the 2000 presidential election incidents) has scrapped plans to introduce eVoting for the armed forces, on the grounds of safety and privacy. The major issues are: “How do you verify that people aren’t selling their voter-ID codes, if you can’t actually watch them vote at a station?” What seems to be a compromise is the use of voting machines, which started in the US and are also catching on in Europe. India conducts voting using electronic voting machine and found fool proof but there are few who are critical of these voting machines. Election Commission of India had studied the argument and had disapproved the view. The Netherlands and parts of Germany have used them in elections. The United Kingdom has completed two pilot programs using more than 300 machines for local elections. France authorized the first use of electronic polling booths in elections held in 2006. And more than 3.2 million people in Belgium (44 % of all voters) voted electronically in their national elections in May 2005. In Brazil, by as early as 1998, almost two-thirds of the voting population had cast electronic ballots in federal, state and local elections. Some experts argue that even these systems are vulnerable; therefore, an active field of research deals with developing systems to let people know that their votes have been counted. The authors point out that using a simple digital audit trail to re-create what happened on Election Day would mean revealing who voted for whom, thus violating the principle of secret ballots. The most sophisticated systems deliver verifiability without a cumbersome, possibly vulnerable, set of printed-out ballots. With clever cryptographic algorithms and innovative viewing devices, it is possible to envision a process that provides specific proof after the fact that a vote was included in the total, without compromising the privacy of the specific selection. Cryptographers around the world have currently been working on such issues.

Besides technical matters however, political culture does play an important role. E-Voting in the US is a divisive issue; the possibility of it becoming a feature of the electoral process in the foreseeable future there is extremely remote. This is in contrast to Europe, where states such as the UK, Switzerland and Estonia lead the e-Voting experimentation. E-voting in India is conducted in electronic machines but e-Voting from home is a distant possibility and it can drastically increase the voting percentage. Ideally, E-voting is best executed as part of M-Government with fool proof security.

2.7 Other Requirements

Other requirements are briefly tabulated in Table 1.

Table 1 Citizen-centric tools and requirements for smart of E-Government

These requirements shall be dovetailed with the rights and responsibilities of constitutional bodies embedded in the Constitution.

2.8 Indian Constitution and Governance of Cities

It is the constitution of India that directs and guides city governance based on laws which itself is based on rights of the citizen such as for example right for information, right for owning property, rights for clean drinking water and clean air as well as rights for common property, rights for public realm, eminent domain, etc. Law makers are the elected representatives under constitution, in National, State and Municipal level. They are empowered by constitution to translate principles and processes laid down in the constitutions to make laws and implement laws on several aspects of governance say for example as related to city planning, Urban management and implementation, provision of communication, transport, water or land for public use and so on given in the 12th schedule of 74th constitutional amendment as adopted by states and union territories. In a federal system like India, there are constitutional bodies such as National Parliament, State Assemblies, Metropolitan Planning Committee, Municipal Council and Ward Committees with distinct legislative, administrative and financial powers and responsibilities. Constitution of India divides the subject matters of Governance as those Parliament is solely responsible to legislate and State Government are responsible jointly (concurrent list) to legislate, State Government are solely responsible, Municipal and state government concurrently or Municipal government solely responsible. Manner in which each of the hierarchical level of constitutional bodies legislates and implement is solely left the respective bodies within their limit of powers and legal process of legislation. Hence, the extremely wide range of issues on which law can be made is divided between Union of India and State in Schedule VII of constitution. While List I and List II in schedule VII delineate the exclusive domains of Parliament and State legislative assemblies respectively. List III is called concurrent list. In concurrent list union of India and state assemblies have joint jurisdiction. As noted earlier, Seventy Fourth Constitutional amendment, spell out in its 12th schedule responsibility of Municipal Government. All those suggested by Indian constitution need not be taken in totally by State Government. State Government decides what Municipal Government shall accept in the 12th schedule based on their assessment of what is most suitable for the respective government in Municipal and State, and leave other responsibility of law making to State Government. Hence, there is no uniform pattern of law-making power among all states and municipality in India however all these diverse methods are firmly rooted in Indian constitution. The amount of decentralization the fundamental basis of Smart City Governance is the prerogative of higher hierarchy of such as Metropolitan Planning Committee and State Government. Central Government have power to override the earlier given decentralized power and so also the State Government by enacting new legislations within the constitutional framework to Metropolitan Planning Committee, and Municipalities to Ward Committees and even RWA. RWA is not a constitutional body like ward. RWA cannot get funds from consolidated funds of Government but Ward can. Hence, it is important to dwell on Tax sharing by constitutional bodies in India.

2.9 Sharing of Tax Collected in India

Taxes in India are collected by all constitutional bodies using the vehicle of annual budget under different heads. However more amounts are collected by union of India, then State and least municipal city government. Finance Commission at Central and State levels are empowered to determine how tax collected can be shared between hierarchies of constitutional bodies at State and Union of India and below metropolitan Planning Committee, Municipality and even ward level. Gadgil formula of yester years and Ranghuram Rajan Committee Report in 2013 which is under consideration enunciates formula by which tax shall be shared between Union Government and State Government based on certain set of indices. State government financial commission also creates such formula to share tax below state government to other constitutional bodies such as village panchayat, district planning committee and Metropolitan planning committee and Municipalities. Generally, indices of underdevelopment and development are used as criteria for a formula to share the tax between central and state government and state and other lower bodies. Indices of underdevelopment are indices of needs but indices of development are used to encourage development initiatives. Since State Government Finance Commission from periodic interval suggests how state tax is shared between cities and villages and with this it is possible to accurately determine how much annual grant will be available at each municipality to make annual plans and implement it using the approved planning process. Powers are also given to take loans and raise capital from open market in India or from foreign sources to Municipality by instrument such as Municipal Bond or others with the approval of Central Government. However, there has not been much achievement in raising money for development other than tax revenues. It is expected that Smart city will excel in raising money for city development.

Having given requirements and constitutional provision, an attempt is made below to enumerate basic and advanced step to set up E-Governance for Smart Cities.

2.10 Basic Steps Towards E-Governance for Smart Cities

There are series of basic steps as well as advance steps to be undertaken by Municipalities or Metropolitan Planning Committee to convert existing governance to E-Governance for Smart City. Basic steps are given below.

2.10.1 Increase City Expenditure on ICT

It is important to increase percent of household connected by internet, and increase existing internet bandwidth available through fourth generation (4G) Broadband for an aspiring smart city. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a public sector undertaking in India has connected all their telephone exchanges by WiMAX towers and with intermediate towers which is a 4G system of broad band in selected states in India such as Kerala. Hence Kerala achieved full coverage of WiMAX towers. However, still there is more number of Adsl 2 users than WiMAX users in such states and percentage of households with 4G broad band connections is still very low. Private internet providers have planned to introduce 4G broad band in India. There are public call offices but public facility for internet connection is only limited number of Internet Café and Akshaya offices in Kerala. One way of measuring increase expenditure in ICT in Municipalities is to find out percentage of ICT expenditure on the total city budget. There is not much to show on this index in Indian Municipalities. It is not even a head of expenditure in Municipal Budget. However, State and Union Government is increasing such expenditure.

2.10.2 Website Availability

Availability of Municipal Website [45] is the second step. Internet is the channel for communication of people with Municipality, business and Citizen and vice versa. Most of the major cities in India have web portal and there are many more functions that can be incorporated to convert this web to a worthy portal for Smart city. Some of them are already discussed above.

2.10.3 Strategic Plan to Promote E-Government and ICT

Based on Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) each municipality that aspire to become a Smart City with E-Governance shall have a strategic plan to promote E-Government and ICT [46]. In the majority of states in India, there is state level and Union level initiatives’ but none exists at city level or ward level. Only thing available is some budget allocation to use the state level initiative. The city of Madrid is implementing a roadmap for the development of E-Government and there are plan for implementation of Law on Electronic Access of citizens to public services. Such initiatives are not known in India barring few initiatives based on the requirement of receiving grant for centrally sponsored big ticket JNNURM projects mentioned earlier and introduction of cyber laws.

2.10.4 Increasing Percentage of Services Available on Line

Introduction of ICT in public administration greatly improves the productivity and quality of administrative services of cities. These are achieved by a well designed and technologically superior web design of cities [47]. With the introduction of E-Government, both citizen and municipality had made services 24 h and 7 days a week, efficient, higher quality services, saved cost of providing services and receiving service, reduce waiting time for service delivery, improve transparency and eliminate corruption; for citizen, business and city government. Government of India now have a target only to bring 25 % of Government services through internet. It is important to assess how many percentage of total government services are on line and there shall be a time bound action programme to bring in all administrative services if not majority of services on line. There after a city shall be declared as 100 % online service provider.

2.10.5 Easiness to Lodge Complaints, Claims and Right to Information

City website shall have provision to lodge complaints and claims [48]. Most of the Municipal website host at least one page devoted to Right to Information. These rights are being made more user-friendly. It is ideal to use M-Government protocol for such activity.

2.10.6 Electronic Signature

An electronic signature is legally equivalent to a handwritten signature. It operates using digital certificates embedded in a chip. The electronic or digital certificate includes data that is used to identify the certificate holder, to exchange information with other persons and entities, in a secure manner and to sign the data being sent electronically to verify its integrity and provenance. None of the Indian cities have provision of electronic signature. This books contract is electronically signed with Springer.

2.10.7 Increase in Number of Staff Using Computers Connected to Internet

Statistics of percentage of administrative staff connected to computer having internet connection is a good indicator of advances in E-Governance. This should be published annually by municipality.

2.10.8 Increasing Number of Citizen Using Internet Connected Computers

Statistics of percentage of citizen connected to computer having internet connection is a good indicator of advances in E-Governance

2.10.9 Transparent Governance

Administrative process need to be transparent to citizen and business dealing with city Government. It is only a corruption free city government with maximum percentage of administrative process that is conducted through internet can achieve this. It facilitates easy access to information by individuals and groups.

2.10.10 E-Democracy

ICT can be used to enhance democratic process and increase opportunities for individuals and communities to interact with the government. Internet leads to greater participation with no limitation of geography, and disabilities. E-democracy improves politics, citizen participation, communication and decision making. Indian constitution requires public participation in Governance at local level. E-democracy helps in inclusion of social groups, involvement of citizen taking into account plurality of views and dissents, and gives precedence to general interest as against individual interest. E-democracy results in support for E-Governance. There are many ways e-democracy can be enhanced. They are e-mails, sms, chat/forum, online surveys and social networks.

2.10.11 Electronic Voting

Electronic voting has two parts. They are casting votes electronically and counting votes with no possibility of errors and corruption. All computer-based security that identify voters and security of not hacking on counting of votes shall be there. These make electronic voting cheaper, more efficient, secure and accurate system than traditional voting methods. In a smart city it may be necessary to vote for all policies and plans suggested by all population from time to time and hence, a cheaper e-Voting system need to be developed which is technologically most superior.

2.10.12 Continuing E-Education

Smart city is inhabited by smart people and they are supposed to be provided with all facilities of continuing education [49]. They have also to be educated on emerging ICT technologies they use, such as security of e-voting, e-signature and also shall be able to discuss on emerging policy and planning issues in city level.

2.11 Advanced Steps Towards E-Governance of Smart Cities

E-Governance of Smart Cities can take two roads in its advance steps. An efficient, liveable and sustainable Smart city can use a combination of hardware and software solutions to improve the efficiency of urban operating system for E-Governance of Smart City. Thereafter part of the constitutional responsibility of municipal governance is taken over by this system which cannot be executed by municipal administration alone. It can achieve by adopting Smart City technologies, in the use of software and hardware to govern utilities and services by municipal government using SCADA.

Another approach is to use E-Democracy to enhance E-Governance and involve all interested in various aspects of Governance using web technologies and participatory social engineering. It can be used in SWOT analysis, Strategic Planning, zonal planning and urban land management which is possible easily for city government who had already executed basic steps enumerated above.

2.11.1 E-Governance by Adopting Smart City Technologies

Smart cities, implement a vision of efficient, liveable and sustainable human settlement based on ICT. As a first step to realise these objectives, smart city attempts to be self-aware of all its functioning using sensor technology which is ICT enabled. These sensor technology can be local (for example, traffic flow measurement in real time by sensors under roads) or remote (using remote sensing satellite to find out traffic flow measurement and vacant car park site), a combination of many technologies, and involve heavy use of computer driven mathematical modelling based on past trend data. Informations are generated on real time by, for example, smart water or electricity metres or smart grid and it is used by consumers, utilities and services systems of a city or related institutions, business and citizen to optimise performance and create least cost solution in real time. This can only be achieved by a combination of hardware and software. Hardware of smart city-urban services and infrastructure whether it is social, physical or economic is based on an integration of ICT in the technology used. These technology based on Geographic Information System has got capability to transmit data in real-time to end users. End users use a set of software to make this information for decision making which optimize resources uses such as energy, water, etc., and serve both providers and consumers of service efficiently. Some of the examples of such system as existing today in many smart cities is summarized below.

• 1. Beijing, China: One of the Government responsibilities is to control traffic for the benefit of travellers. Urban and Interurban traffic control system of Beijing uses traffic signals in real time, which includes an enforcement system, and supervision and monitoring system for expressway. It also incorporates CCTV traffic flow detection, weather detection and guidance system all integrated in 10 control centres.

• 2. Tiajin, China: Geographic Information System is used for upgrading power grid, district heating management and tolling system.

• 3. Guiyang, China: Here Smart grid collects and analyses real-time operational data across a distribution network covering 4 million populations.

• 4. Dallas, Texas: In Texas SCADA improves efficiency and resilience to disruption of water distribution system. SCADA is acronym for supervisory control and data acquisition. It is a type of industrial control system (ICS). ICSs are computer-controlled systems that monitor and control industrial processes that exist in the physical world. SCADA systems historically distinguish themselves from other ICS systems by being very large-scale processes that can include multiple sites, and large distances like a city. These processes include industrial, infrastructure and facility-based processes. Dallas also use integrated mobility management platform that improves efficiency of multimodal transportation in major corridors using SCADA.

• 5. Houston, Texas: SCADA improves efficiency of water and electricity distribution system. Houston undertook to retrofit for energy efficiency of 40 municipal buildings delivers that had $3 million yearly warranted energy and water saving.

• 6. Paris-Issy-les-Moulineaux, France: Smart Grid energy management project at district level within city is used for energy efficiency, renewable installations and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

• 7. Lyon and Genoble, France: Lyon uses Smart grid project at regional scale, including smart metre deployment, low voltage and medium voltage grid management, user automation for energy efficiency and peak shedding.

• 8. Madrid, Spain: Madrid uses weather information system for airport, Storm water management, and Energy management system for buildings, real-time adaptive traffic control system in 739 intersections, integrated platform manages traffic control, CCTV system, city access control and web-based traveller information.

• 9. Barcelona, Spain: Barcelona have a command and control centres for city traffic, critical buildings, metro, parking, CCTV surveillance; quality monitoring; and also metro fare collection.

• 10. Abu Dhabi, UAE: UAE had implemented energy audit that paves way for Building SCADA for 70 buildings, including management of Street lighting energy use.

• 11. Dubai, UAE: Dubai integrated SCADA building management system and security system that serve buildings for 900 residents; SCADA improves water distribution system and CCTV provides access control.

• 12. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: SCADA improves efficiency of water distribution system, Electricity grid and Gas distribution system through all Metropolitan areas. Traffic management system optimizes mobility throughout the city; all interfaced with Rios’s intelligent operation centre (IOC) providing 50 % of its data for holistic view of city system. Smart city is based on holistic real-time view of city.

• 13. Sao Paulo, Brazil: CCTV optimizes surveillance, and SCADA optimizes traffic in tunnels and highways. Two command and control centres manage city areas with real-time adaptive traffic control system in 382 intersections.

• 14. Quito, Ecuador: Quito uses real-time adaptive traffic control system covering 600 crossings, 6,700 traffic lights and 1,500 CCTV cameras. Weather information system for city airport is also used. Integration platform manages traffic control, using CCTV system, city access control and provides web-based traveller information.

• 15. Oskarshamm, Sweden: Performance Contracting optimizes energy in 28 buildings, saving Euro 0.3 million, 350 MWh and 80 tons CO, through active control of heating and ventilation and building management system.

• 16. Mumbai, India: SCADA improves efficiency of water distribution system; real-time adaptive traffic control system and optimizes traffic of 253 crossings. Central traffic management control centre supervises and react to disruptions in real time.

2.11.2 E-Governance for Smart City by Strengthening E-Democracy

Attractive form of e-democracy is one in which citizens could in principle extends their participation in decision making in number of areas of Governance. Clift [7] describes e-democracy as referring to ‘how internet can be used to enhance our democratic process and provides increased opportunities for individuals and communities to interact with government and for the government to seek input from community’. E-democracy creates e-participation which is less limited by geography, time and disability. Most of the ICT deployment in Governance is to increase the provision of information to the citizen. There are many key questions for strengthening e-democracy.

• 1. Are we satisfied with the current level of citizen and business participation in our democracy at city level?

• 2. How to make the political process of democracy at city level more participatory?

• 3. How can we make public engagement in governance such as in policy making, planning and monitoring of development more deliberative at city level [50]

In order to answer all these questions Smart City Governance uses ICT. Basic steps discussed above help, in e-democracy at city level irrespective of the fact it is a mega city or million plus city. It could contribute to create a more transparent, interactive government engaged in wide range of dialogue with citizenry. E-democracy participation is achieved in the following way.

• 1. More informed citizenry is created by internet access to Government website. The capability of web is enhanced to create interactivity with the citizen.

• 2. Government website can be used as a forum for the free exchange of ideas and ability to share informed debates on issues and policies under consideration.

• 3. Citizen’s inputs can be made online for consultation into decision-making process of government on those issues that directly affect them.

• 4. Opportunity to vote on line for candidates, policies or plans easily by eVoting.

• 5. Ability to create network of like-minded people group creating network of community in order to influence politicians, legislators and public officials.

Indian constitution calls for participatory planning and internet can be utilized for ongoing legal processes. They are preparing Master Plans, zonal plans, land management plans and urban design in a city. A structured approach using internet can be utilized for debating preliminary draft of policies and plans for law makers and citizen and planning, managing and monitoring plan implementation.

This discussion leads to the question of searching alternate models of E-Governance for Smart cities.

3 Alternative Models of Smart E-Governance

Smart City uses Smart Governance, an advanced form of E-Governance. It is important to identify first potential Smart cities as indicated in Chap. 15 of ‘Geographic Information System for Smart Cities’ [2]. This will lead to study nature of such cities whether it is small settlement, million plus metropolitan areas or megacities. Then it is time to decide on appropriate Smart City Governance models. A case to case approach seems to be more appropriate than a state specific or nation specific approach. There are considerable resistance to change in Governance but Smart Governance is not possible with great changes in Governance. Two areas in India, where Government transformation is slow, is in applying changes in constitution for municipal governance and modifying existing pattern of administration both in the national and State levels. In a heterogeneous India, with coalition politics, it is unlikely that there will ever be a single party with absolute majority to rule India who can easily make amendments to constitution. Well-established administrative practice never dies however bad it may be or gets transformed, unless there is far reaching change as dictated by constitutional amendment of Municipal Governance. With this scenario in background, four alternatives model of E-Governance can be visualized.

3.1 Model-1 No Transformation of Government Structure and Processes

In model-1, smart governance is just the governance of ‘an aspiring smart city’ like any other type of city with no transformation in existing practice of Governance is envisaged at all. According to Model 1, smart governance is all about making the right policy choices and implementing these in an effective and efficient manner utilizing the existing Governance practice. This can be done within the existing political and administrative structures. Batty et al. [51] highlight that smart governance is only an attribute that is associated to a governmental management and nothing special that merit structural change. Gil-Gracia [52] highlight that smart governance comprises aspects of political participation, efficient services for citizens as well a well-functioning administration. Here, Government must approve the development of the smart city and it can prioritize some areas of action appropriate to Smart City. Smart governance is about the promotion of smart city initiatives which can be executed with no change in existing governance.

3.2 Model-2 Innovation in Decision-Making Process and Implementation

This model of E-Governance advocates low level of transformation which is not even apparent to accommodate capacity for innovative decision making and implementation process. It is not a complete structural change in Governance at all. It is supported by multi-level training programs by institutions such as Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) which trains political and administrative executives in different levels. This is generally based on long research inputs to training. UNESCAP [53] emphasizes that smart governance is ‘the process of decision making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). Walravens [54] adds that decision making can be innovated by using network technologies like SCADA requiring low level transformation of governance. SCADA can be a tool for Urban Governance. Schuurman et al. [55] define smart governance as the process of collecting all sorts of data and information concerning public management by sensor or sensor networks. New technologies are used to strengthen the rationality of government by using more complete—and more readily available and accessible—information for governmental decision-making processes and the implementation of these decisions.

Decision Support System (DSS) has been used by Business for many decades using information inputs that is available in real time. Strategic decisions are made using DSS to prosper in business based on current reality. Municipal Governance can also use DSS for participatory decision making based on most recent information. Since city is a spatial entity, location-based decision assumes importance. Geographic Information System (GIS) allows for developing Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) which can be used for variety of tasks in Governance.

Some examples are discussed briefly below. Municipal budget of a million plus agglomeration in India can be around 250–500 Crores of Indian Rupees or more annually depending upon the type of Town. As per Governance procedure given in constitution of India, Ward Committees, Municipality and Metropolitan Planning Committee are involved in making decision annually for spending Rs. 500 Crores in a city based on rational decision made as per the approved Governance mechanism of State Government. Chapter 10 in this book is an attempt to develop such approach for Municipal E-Budgeting System for Municipal Corporation of Kozhikode, Kerala. The trend of hosting web-based Municipal GIS with annually updated database, becomes useful not only to Government for e-annual planning and budgeting but also for business men or women. Not even one interactive Municipal GIS websites are hosted by any Municipal Government in India. If such web sites are available an entrepreneur located several thousands of miles can make investment decision on his business based on SDSS she design based on Municipal GIS.

Imagine a business woman who wants to cultivate flowers and market it in Europe or United states from any metropolises of India. She can do it from this municipal website based on number of requirements for such business, involving cultivating flowers and marketing using airports and decide for selection and purchase land and complete all administrative process for such purpose from her home says in United States using SDSS and E-Governance.

3.3 Model-3 Creation of Smart Administration

This model believes that smart governance is all about creating smart administration. Smart Administrator shall be well versed in Indian Constitution and Nitti gritty of innumerable legislations of Union and State Government. He should be in a position to work with people, get participation of elected political executives and local business, using his social engineering skills. He should be having capability for speedy decision making and speedy implementation using modern E-Governance practices and, project management tools like Primavera, real-time responsive systems like SCADA and SDSS. Hence this model incorporates Model 2. He should have very high professional capability in ICT with academic attainments and facility shall be there to renew his ICT capabilities by annual training programs. Big data, spatial data processing and data security shall be his concerns. He should have supporting staff in creation of database which can be spatial or non-spatial. He should have capability to collect revenues as per law and spend budget in a timely fashion using E-Governance tools. He will automate all rule-based administrative decision making through E-Governance leaving only few important decision to be made by him.

Gil-Garcia [52] indicates that a ‘smart state’ is a new form of electronic governance that use sophisticated information technologies to interconnect and integrate information, processes, institutions and physical infrastructure to better serve citizens and communities. This type of smart governance is at a higher level of transformation in administration since it requires the restructuring of the internal organization of government. Administrations need to be innovated to deal with the requirements for differentiated policies. Batty et al. [51] highlight that ‘smart governance is a much stronger intelligence function for coordinating the many different components that comprise the smart city. It is a structure that brings together traditional functions of government and business. It is appropriate smart administration suited to an age of very high deployment of ICT in every household.

Can India aspire for a smart administration in near future? Is it a doubtful preposition? In Smart Administration, there cannot be many low-level administrative staff like peons to carry files since files are replaced by electronic records in computers. Stenographers to type dictation must have disappeared since all Government functionaries have to use internet connected computers with their own digital signature. All file movements in; computers are date and time stamped to determine the efficiency of the Government servant. These self-generated data can be used to determine provision of citizen service conforming to the Right for Government service time norm.

At present in India, there are 5 million Central Government servants/administrators at different levels and smart administration means cutting the number by say half the present size, for example to 2.5 million. In addition to Central Government servants, there are almost equal number of State Government administrators and Municipal Government servants. If you analyse budgets of many Municipalities, a substantial percentage in certain states are used for sustaining administration leaving much less for development work. This is noted by State Government but actions to achieve reduction of administrative expenses have not shown success.

Further, a qualitative change in capabilities of Government administrator is required. This means high professional qualifications and competence for Smart Governance. In the past, Administrative Reforms Commission came out with many recommendations, but ‘the tail of the administration dog cannot be straightened’. If we want ‘smart administration with straight tail’, then we could have followed what France has done. France disbanded, the then existing administrative system and created brand new with no semblance to the old one after it declared itself as a Republic. India under the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, only changed the name from Indian Civil Service to Indian Administrative Service and did not transform it totally, minimally or marginally. The mind behind East India Company (established in 1,600) invested the scholarship of Anthropologists to design a colonial administration with limited manpower highly suited to rule Indian Colony to achieve their limited objectives such as revenue collection and law and order. This system has nothing that can trigger dynamically spatio-economic development. This administration that is followed till now is not suited to Smart Cities. Alternate system can only be E-Governance system in which 90 % Government Tasks are electronically performed. Now the target is only 25 %. So India is now is 125th Rank among 190 countries in E-Governance status by United Nations Report on E-Governance in 2012, while UK is 3rd, who never used the administrative structure designed for Colonial India in UK. Is it possible for India to be top 10 countries of the world in E-Governance? A big restructuring for appropriate administration for smart city is required but seems impossible to achieve now. In coalition politics in India, absolute majority is impossible to dream of now a days and that is required for constitutional change to bring about administrative restructuring and far reaching changes. This system of Governance will have capability to manage big data, use SDSS extensively and will have data security safeguards with them.

3.4 Model-4 Rearranging Governance as Dictated by Smart Cities

The fourth Model of Smart Governance advocates that smart governance is all about rearranging the position of government within the urban system as dictated by the urban system itself. This involves the highest level of transformation since it is not only about the transformation of the internal organization by smart governance (vide Model 3), but also of the external organization that connects Smart city with other cities inside or outside the Nation. This establishes a highly responsive urban system of smart city with interacting capabilities with external cities even if it is not part of the same nation. In this model, one can question, how Bangalore, Hyderabad or Jaipur be part of a State for Governance on the basis of linguistic division of State. In the world of Smart Cities, are linguistic states being the rational basis for economic realities that is faced by a smart cites?

A state in India is a contiguous area based on some criteria of homogeneity such as language spoken and then transformed to a programming or administrative region in different spatial hierarchy. In addition to homogeneous regions, there are also polarized regions based on interaction and flow of money, communication and goods. A good example of polarized region is a City region. It is a polarized region based on mutual dependencies of city and rural areas interacting with cities mutually benefiting each other economically. The question is in Smart City scenario, such city region is relevant or not? Since Smart city can also interact with cities outside the National boundary, can Smart City Governance be made as demanded by its international city-based interaction? In fact city regions are planned based on city and rural area interaction and demand for mutual needs. The Smart City interaction can be more than face to face talk in same language but can be telecommunication, SMS or email communications, transliteration and above all flow of money for investment and flow of goods and services much beyond geographical space of one nation, of the yesteryear’s city region. It is also possible for smart cities to plan for most economical and high return production system combining a series of cities around it which is most suitable for this purpose, irrespective of the fact many of the cities in this system may be outside one national boundary. Smart city governance shall facilitate such operations.

For example, economically, Singapore, New York, Boston, London, Hong Kong, Mumbai or Chennai are more connected outside their own respective nation, States and cities. These connections are not based on same languages spoken, identical culture or nationality. These cities shall economically progress only based on sensitivity of their policies to these external cities speaking Arabic, Mandarin or Japanese. It has been seen in the past any subtle changes of policies of Singapore can make money flow in or out of Singapore to Hong Kong and vice versa. If this is the reality why not give the freedom of designing government policies and system of international interaction based on these sensitivities to the Smart Cities than dictated by Central Government and not even State Government in India. These smart city foreign affair policies can be well within the constitutional framework. This is the essence of model 4. It cannot be easily implemented in India.

Caragliu and Del Bo [56] state that ‘space-specific characteristics could influence on the smart cities development and, therefore, there is a need for geographically differentiated policy actions’. Bătăgan [57] indicates that ‘smart governance means collaborating across departments and with communities, helping to promote economic growth and at the most important level making operations and services truly citizen-centric’. It may be noted that smart governance is a widespread adoption of a more community-based model of governance with greater connectivity being facilitated by new technologies. The community links can be outside the nation and state. Schuurman et al. [55] stress that governments in smart cities are called to play a key role in promoting the involvement of all relevant stakeholders which may include foreigners, in order to create an interactive, participatory and information-based urban environment. Finally, Kourtit et al. [58] argues that ‘smart governance is the pro-active and open-minded governance structures, with all actors involved, in order to maximize the socio-economic and ecological performance of cities, and to cope with negative externalities and historically grown path dependencies.’

4 Recommended Model

Since each Smart City is unique, it is not possible to recommend any one model to all potential smart cities. Based on many considerations Government shall adopt most suited models. This is to bring out the best output of smart city. Models 1 and 2 are easy to implement than Models 3 and 4. It is likely smart city technologies can spread in many cities which is much easier than implementing all other difficult components that make the smart city system; discussed in this chapter. In that case Model 2 becomes more relevant today. Long experience and critical evaluation of smart cities are required to move to Models 3 and 4.