Day: September 13, 2019

Career options in India: Disaster Management as a career Option

Disaster Management is an essential requirement of a modern society. Growing population and critical ecological balance have increased the risk of disaster. Natural disasters like- flood, cyclones, tsunami, flash floods, earthquakes; and man-made disasters like- fire incidents, train/plane crashes, civil structure collapses are just around the corner. The dense population and intense economic activities have raised the potential of the impact of these disasters astronomically. Natural disasters alone have taken 2 million lives according to UN estimates and another 800 million lives were affected directly or indirectly.
Therefore, the need of managing such disasters is more than ever before. The society and governments need to be ready for disasters beforehand; manage the disasters when they occur so that the impact is minimal and rehabilitating fast so that life gets back on the track. Disaster Management is basically a course to do these activities professionally and more systematically.


Career Options

Disaster Management roles can be categorized in 3 major categories-
  1. Disaster Prevention- Disaster prevention is one of the major and most important task of disaster managers. It is focused on activities and measures undertaken to prevent the occurrence of natural disasters and human hazards.
  2. Disaster Preparedness- This would concern with planning, monitoring and policy making regarding disaster management and safety practices.
  3. Disaster Relief- This is managing the disaster hit. Here the focus would be on the immediate recovery- minimizing impact on economy and lives.
  4. Disaster recovery- Here the focus is on bringing the lives back to normalcy. Rehabilitation of people, rebuilding of houses and restarting of economic activities. It would also involve studying the impact of the disaster and cultivating the learning to mitigate the disaster better the next time.


Pros and Cons of a career in Disaster Management

Pros
  • This career gives opportunity to help disaster victims and save lives.
  • By helping to prepare better for disasters, you can help country and society to save millions 
  • The work is exciting and adventurous.
  • As world is learning more about the disasters, the career options are on growth.
Cons
  • The field is still emerging, and the career options and payments are somewhat limited.
  • The work is often in remote areas and on the disaster struck locations.
  • The adventure also comes with significant risk.


How to pursue a career in Disaster Management?

You can complete your graduation in any stream and pursue masters in Disaster Management. You can follow this up with PhD.
The alternative path can be- after competing graduation and take a diploma in Disaster Management.


Top Disaster Management Institutes in India

College
Location
Website
Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)
Mumbai
Indian Institute of Ecology and Environment
New Delhi
National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM)
New Delhi
Indira Gandhi National Open University
New Delhi
School of Distance Learning (Annamalai University)
Annamalai, Tamil Nadu
University Centre for Disaster Management (Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University)
Dwarka, Delhi
School of Distance learning (Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical and Technological Sciences)
Manipal
Department of Geography (Panjab University)
Chandigarh
International Centre of Madras University (Madras University)
Chennai
The Global Open University
Nagaland
National Civil Defense College
Nagpur
Asian Institute of Fire Safety
Chattisgarh
Faculty of Environmental Science, Rajiv Gandhi University
Arunachal Pradesh
North-Eastern Hill University
Shillong


Job Opportunities

As discussed earlier, the job opportunities are still growing in this sector. However, government is updating regulations about this regularly. Manufacturing plants are already required to have safety officers. Government has also constructed NDRF team. 

Other than the organized sector, plenty of opportunities lie with World Bank, UN agencies and NGOs.

Institutional Independence, Financial Autonomy Integral To Independence Of Judiciary: SC

It is most heartening, most gladdening and most refreshing to learn that the Supreme Court has in a recent judgment titled State Of Rajasthan And Ors Vs Shri Ramesh Chandra Mundra & Ors in Civil Appeal No. 457 of 2004 while exercising its civil appellate jurisdiction delivered on July 11, 2019 has very rightly and laudably maintained that institutional independence, financial autonomy is integral to independence of judiciary. There can be no denying or disputing it! This was very rightly held by the Supreme Court while clearly and categorically directing the Rajasthan Government to reconsider the two decade old proposal of the then Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court to upgrade 16 posts of its Private Secretaries as Senior Private Secretaries which it had declined without even forwarding the same to the Governor. While interpreting the term ‘approval’ in the proviso to Article 229(2) of the Constitution of India, the Apex Court observed that the only ground on which the Government may refuse such proposal of the Chief Justice is that the proposal is not in conformity with the pay scales in civil services.
To start with, this latest, landmark and extremely laudable judgment delivered by a 3 Judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice SA Bobde, Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice BR Gavai sets the ball rolling in para 1 itself wherein it is pointed out that, “The Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court found it necessary and appropriate to upgrade 16 posts of Private Secretaries as Senior Private Secretaries in the pay scale of Rs. 3450-5000/- with the special pay of Rs. 350/- from the pay scale of Rs.2500-4250/-.”
As we see, it is then pointed out in para 2 that, “Presumably since the decision to upgrade was accompanied by a decision to grant a special pay of Rs. 350/- and to place the upgraded employees in a higher financial implication, the Chief Justice wrote to the Government of Rajasthan for according sanction. This is in pursuance to the proviso to Article 229(2) of the Constitution of India which reads thus:
“229. Officers and servants and the expenses of High Courts: – (1) Appointment of officers and servants of a High Court shall be made by the Chief Justice of the Court or such other Judge or officer of the Court as he may direct:
Provided that the Governor of the State may by rule require that in such cases as may be specified in the rule no person not already attached to the Court shall be appointed to any office connected with the Court save after consultation with the State Public Service Commission.
(2) Subject to the provisions of any law made by the Legislature of the State, the conditions of service of officers and servants of a High Court shall be such as may be prescribed by rules made by the Chief Justice of the Court or by some other Judge or officer of the Court authorized by the Chief Justice to make rules for the purpose:
Provided that the rules made under this clause shall, so far as they relate to salaries, allowances, leave or pensions, require the approval of the Governor of the State.
(3) The administrative expenses of a High Court, including all salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of the officers and servants of the court, shall be charged upon the Consolidated Fund of the State and any fees or other moneys taken by the Court shall form part of that Fund.””
As it turned out, para 3 then states that, “The matter eventually went to the desk of the Finance Secretary of the Government of Rajasthan who wrote a dissenting note and the Government of Rajasthan declined to accept the upgradation of 16 posts of Private Secretaries. As a result, the government communicated the non-acceptance to the Rajasthan High Court by letter dated 30.04.1998. Apparently, the recommendations of the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court were never sent to the Governor.”
What then ensued is stated in para 4 which envisages that, “The affected Private Secretaries challenged the decision before the High Court by way of filing a writ petition. The Division Bench of the High Court took the view that the powers of the Chief Justice in relation to the appointments, conditions of services which include strength of staff and promotional avenues etc., are supreme. The High Court held that it is the Chief Justice alone who has the power to determine these matters having regard the requirement of the High Court and for better administrative efficiency. The outside agency would have no say in the matter. While so observing, the High Court however held that the salary paid to the staff of the High Court is chargeable to the Consolidated Fund of India and there can be no Executive interference.”
As a consequence, we then see that para 5 states that, “In effect, the High Court held that the decision of the Chief Justice to upgrade the posts is part of the power to increase or reduce the strength of the staff attached to the High Court and there was no requirement of approval of the Governor under the proviso to Article 229(2) of the Constitution of India. The High Court therefore set aside the letter dated 30.04.1998 declining to accept the decision of the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court and directed that the letter cannot be an impediment in exercise of such authority. The result is that the approval of the government to the proposal is not necessary. When the matter was heard in this Court, this Court passed an order directing the State Government to put up the matter before the Government of Rajasthan since the proposal of the Chief Justice had not been put up before the Governor.”
To put things in perspective, it is then noted in para 6 that, “It appears that the dissent note of the Finance Secretary of the Government of Rajasthan was put up before the Governor who has approved the dissent. No reasons have been recorded.”
While upholding the decision of Rajasthan High Court, it is then further held in para 7 that, “We find that the judgment of the High Court is undoubtedly correct to the extent that it holds that the decision to upgrade any post can be taken only by the Chief Justice and the said decision cannot be questioned by any authority.”
Furthermore, it is then clarified in para 8 that, “However, it is clear from the proviso to Article 229(2) of the Constitution of India that where any decision of the Chief Justice affects or relates to salaries, allowances, leave or pension, it would require the approval of the Governor of the State. Article 229 of the Constitution of India does not require a prior approval. Therefore, an ex post facto approval may also be valid.”
Moving on, it is then held in para 9 that, “We have no doubt that the decision in question of the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court affected the salaries and allowances which should be payable to the upgraded posts. The matter clearly had financial implications which would require the approval of the Government of the State. To that extent the observations of the High Court are not in accordance with Article 229 of the Constitution of India.” 
While pooh-poohing the inept manner in which the State Government and Governor handled this matter, it is then pointed out in para 10 that, “We however find that the matter has not been properly processed by the State Government. In the first instance, the government did not even forward the decision of the Chief Justice for approval to the Governor of the State. They were indeed bound to do so. They merely returned the proposal to the High Court as “not acceptable”. No reasons were given by the Governor.”
While raising a thought provoking question, it is then pointed out in para 11 that, “The present case raises an important question of law, viz., what is the meaning, scope and ambit of the word “approval” appearing in the proviso 229(2)? The issue goes to the very heart of judicial functioning, for without desirable condition of service of officers and servants of the constitutional courts, the administrative side courts may become highly inefficient. The Constitution-makers, recognizing that the officers and servants of constitutional courts require special protection, included the aforementioned provision in the Constitution itself.”
Going forward, para 12 then illustrates that, “The provision in the first draft constitution read differently from the present Art. 229(2). Further, the clause for the Supreme Court (Clause 104) and the High Courts were pari material. Clause 170, which was adopted from Section 228 of the Government of India Act, 1935 read:
“170. The administrative expenses of a High Court, including all salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of the officers and servants of the court and the salaries and allowances of the judges of the court shall be charged upon the revenue of the Province, and any fees or other moneys taken by the court shall form part of those revenues.”” 
While adding a rider, para 13 then discloses that, “However, Section 228 of the Government of India Act, 1935 contained an additional sub-clause whereby the Governor controlled the expenditures of the High Court. Section 228(2) of the Government of India Act, 1935 read:
“(2) The Governor shall exercise his individual judgment as to the amount to be included in respect of such expenses as aforesaid in any estimates of expenditure laid by him before the Legislature.””
Be it noted, para 14 then brings out that, “Departing from this, the clause was amended by the drafting committee to the following form, seemingly to ensure that the executive does not interfere with the functioning of the High Court:
“205. (2) Subject to the provision of any law made by the Legislature of the State, the conditions of service of officers of a High Court shall be such as may be prescribed by rules made by the Chief Justice of the court or by some other judge or officer of the court authorized by the Chief Justice to make rules for the purpose:
Provided that the salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of such officers and servants shall be fixed by the Chief Justice of the Court in consultation with the Governor of the state in which the High Court has its principal seat.””
On the face of it, we then see that para 15 stating that, “A similar change was carried out in respect of Draft Article 122 (3), i.e., the provision relating to the Supreme Court. The Article took its final form on 27.05.1949 when in the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Ambedkar moved an amendment to Draft Article 122(2) to the state:
(2) Subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament, the conditions of services of officers and servants of the Supreme Court shall be such as may be prescribed by rules made by the Chief Justice of India or by some other judge or officer of the court authorised by the Chief Justice of India to make rules for the purpose:
Provided that the rules made under this clause shall, so far as they relate to salaries, allowances, leave or pensions, require the approval of the President.”” 
Truth be told, para 16 then brings out that, “Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar and Shri Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava raised objections to the amendment of the article on the grounds that it impedes the independence of the judiciary. In reply, Dr. Ambedkar stated that the real object of the provision is to create uniformity in pay scales across all civil services. He stated:
“But it seems to me that there is another consideration which goes to support the proposition that we should retain the phrase “with the approval of the President” and it is this. It is undoubtedly a desirable thing that salaries, allowances and pensions payable to servants of the State should be uniform, and there ought not to be material variations in these matters with regard to the civil service. It is likely to create a great deal of heart burning and might impose upon the treasury an unnecessary burden. Now, if you leave the matter to the Chief Justice to decide, it is quite conceivable- I do not say that it will happen- but it is quite conceivable that the Chief Justice might fix scales of allowances, pensions and salaries very different from those fixed for civil servants who are working in other department, besides the Judiciary, and I do not think that such a state of things is a desirable thing, and consequently in my judgment, the new draft, the new amendment which I have tabled contains the proper solution of this matter, and I hope the House will be able to accept that in place of the original proviso.””
More importantly, it is then observed in para 17 that, “On a reading of the constituent assembly debates, it is clear that the real object of the proviso is to ensure that the pay-scales between officers of constitutional courts and civil services are kept equal. In the present case, this purpose has not been violated. It is not open to the government to reject a proposal which is not in violation of this object. In other words, the only ground on which the Government may refuse the proposal of the Chief Justice is that the proposal is not in conformity with the pay scales in civil services.”
What’s more, para 18 then stipulates that, “In Supreme Court Employees’ Welfare Assn. v. Union of India, (1989) 4 SCC 187 it was held that the conditions of service of officers and servants of the Supreme Court in relation to salaries, allowances, leave or pension are to be decided by the Chief Justice and his proposal will ordinarily be accepted by the President. It was held:
“62. Thus, as delegated legislation or a subordinate legislation must conform exactly to the power granted. So far as the question of grant of approval by the President of India under the proviso to Article 146(2) is concerned, no such conditions have been laid down to be fulfilled before the President of India grants or refuses to grant approval. By virtue of Article 74(1) of the Constitution, the President of India shall, in exercise of his functions, act in accordance with the advice of the Council of Ministers. In other words, it is the particular department in the Ministry that considers the question of approval under the proviso to Article 146(2) of the Constitution and whatever advice is given to the President of India in that regard, the President of India has to act in accordance with such advice. On the other hand, the Chief Justice of India has to apply his mind when he frames the rules under Article 146(2) with the assistance of his officers. In such circumstances, it would not be unreasonable to hold that the delegation of the legislative function on the Chief Justice of India and also on the President of India relating to the salaries, allowances, leave and pensions of the officers and servants of the Supreme Court involve, by necessary implication, the application of mind. So, not only that the Chief Justice of India has to apply his mind to the framing of rules, but also the Government has to apply its mind to the question of approval of the rules framed by the Chief Justice of India relating to salaries, allowances, leave or pensions. This condition should be fulfilled and should appear to have been so fulfilled from the records of both the Government and the Chief Justice of India. The application of mind will include exchange of thoughts and views between the Government and the Chief Justice of India and it is highly desirable that there should be a consensus between the two. The rules framed by the Chief Justice of India should normally be accepted by the Government and the question of exchange of thoughts and views will arise only when the Government is not in a position to accept the rules relating to salaries, allowances, leave or pensions.””
Do note, para 19 then states that, “It seems to us that the proviso to 229(2) (as also Article 146) does not reflect an architecture of hierarchy. We think that the correct constitutional approach is one of comity between different institutions working under the Constitution. The emphasis is not on the supremacy of one institution or demarcating the boundaries of the other. It is about ensuring institutional integrity of one while respecting the functional domain of the other. These provisions are meant to facilitate a dialogue of governance between high constitutional functionaries. A healthy dialogue, perhaps, even a debate is necessary for an efficient constitutional polity. The constitutional vision is not to draw “lakshman rekhas” between constitutional functionaries; its command is for the constitutional functionaries to efficiently coordinate to best achieve constitutional goals. It is this constitutional essence that was ignored when the request of the Ld. Chief Justice was not even placed before the Governor.”
Most importantly, it is then rightly underscored in para 20 that, “That independence of Judiciary is part of the basic structure of the Constitution is now well entrenched. The Constitution has insulated the Judiciary from outside influences both by the Executive and legislature. Article 223 to 234 in Chapter VI in part VI of the Constitution dealing with the Courts below the High Courts also show that the Constitution makers were equally keen to insulate even Subordinate Judiciary. Independence of Judiciary takes within its sweep independence of the individual Judges in relation to their appointments, tenure, payment of salaries and also non-removal except by way of impeachment. An integral part of ‘Independence of Judiciary’, as a constitutional value is the ‘Institutional Independence’ i.e. the aspect concerning the financial freedom or autonomy which the judiciary must possess and enjoy. This effective involvement of the judicial branch in budgeting, staff and infrastructure has also been recognized by the international community.”
In this context to what is mentioned in the last point of para 20, it would be worthwhile to mention what is then mentioned in para 21 that, “The United Nations Sub Committee in its preliminary reports in 1980, (Committee of Jurist and the International Commission of Jurist at Syracuse) emphasized the “Institutional Safeguards” for Independence of the Judiciary and the need for collaboration with the Judiciary in the preparation of budget. The relevant clauses are as under:-
“Financial Provisions: 
Article 24:- To ensure its independence the Judiciary should be provided with the means and resources necessary for the proper fulfillment of its Judicial Function.
Article 25:- The budget of the Judiciary should be established by the competent authority in collaboration with the judiciary. The amount allotted should be sufficient to enable each court to function without an excessive workload. The judiciary should be able to submit their estimate of their budgetary requirements to the appropriate authority.
[Note:- An inadequate provision in the budget may entail an excessive workload by reason of an insufficient number of budgetary posts, or of inadequate assistance, aids and equipments, and consequently by the cause of unreasonable delays in adjudicating cases, thus bringing the judiciary into discredit.]””
Not stopping here, it is then further pointed out in para 22 that, “The Universal Declaration of the independence of Judges has resolved as follows:
“2.40: The main responsibility for court administration shall vest in the judiciary.
2.41: It shall be a priority of the highest order of the state to provide adequate resource to allow for the due administration of justice, including physical facilities appropriate for the maintenance of Judicial independence, dignity and efficiency, judicial and administrative personnel; and operating budget.
2.42: The budget of the courts shall be paid by the competent authority in collaboration with the judiciary. The Judiciary shall submit their estimate of the budget requirement to the appropriate authority.””
Interestingly enough, it is then further stated in para 23 that, “The Seventh UN Congress on the prevention of Crime and treatment of offenders, Milan adopted the following resolutions:-
“7. It is the duty of each member state to provide adequate resources to enable the Judiciary to properly perform its function.””
Of course, para 24 then also points out that, “The Lusaka Seminar 1986 noted as follows:-
“23. Resources.
The executive shall ensure that the courts are adequately supplied with Judicial Officers and supporting staff.
49. Administration of the Post.
The Judiciary being a separate branch of Government should fall under the sole responsibility of the Chief Justice. Problem may arise when the Judicial Branch is considered as a department of a Ministry. Condition should therefore be created whereby the Judiciary has a greater say in the allocation of funds for the Judiciary.””
No doubt, it would be imperative to now mention that para 25 then reveals that, “Adequate budgeting so as to meet the judiciary’s work demands, so as to ensure proper infrastructure and facilities is integral to judicial functioning. In that sense, it is an aspect of judicial independence. That independence of Judiciary is part of the basic structure of the Constitution is by now well entrenched. An integral part of ‘Independence of Judiciary’, as a constitutional value is the ‘Institutional Independence’ i.e. the aspect concerning the financial freedom or autonomy which the judiciary must possess and enjoy.” 
More pertinently, it is then elucidated in para 26 that, “The scheme of Article 229 of the Constitution of India obviously requires a joint consideration of the proposal which the Chief Justice may make in regard to appointments, conditions of services, etc., in accordance with the Rules. Undoubtedly, if the Chief Justice takes a decision which has financial implications and that decision cannot be questioned by any authority, the financial implications which such decisions may have imposed, should receive due consideration at the hands of the State Government and eventually the Governor.”
For the sake of brevity, we have discussed only the key point of para 26. As a corollary, we further see that it is then observed in para 27 that, “We are in agreement with the above observations and find that in the present case, the State Government has not considered the issue in accordance with the spirit and letters of the Constitution of India.”
Suffice it to say, it is then held in para 28 that, “Having regard to the importance of the matter, we consider it appropriate to set aside the decision of not accepting the proposal of the Chief Justice and remand the matter back to the State Government for appropriate consideration. Undoubtedly, in case the State Government considers it necessary, it may hold a meeting with the concerned officers of the Rajasthan High Court as may be appropriate for resolving the issue.” Para 29 then says that, “Order accordingly.” Lastly, it is then held in para 30 that, “The instant appeal is disposed of in the above terms.”
In conclusion, it may well be said that this latest, landmark and extremely laudable judgment has sought to send the right, loud and unmistakable message to all the state governments and state governors that institutional autonomy and financial independence is integral to the independence of judiciary. Also, the decision to upgrade any post can only be taken by the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court and the said decision cannot be questioned by any authority. Also, in such cases where Chief Justice takes decision which cannot be questioned should receive due consideration from the State Government and eventually the Governor! There can be no two opinions that the State Government and the Governor should desist from not accepting what is recommended by the Chief Justice in such cases in keeping with what the Apex Court has clearly and convincingly held in this noteworthy case! 
Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col BPS Sirohi,
A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera,
Meerut – 250001, Uttar Pradesh.

The allure of the journal impact factor holds firm, despite its flaws

Many researchers still see the journal impact factor (JIF) as a key metric for promotions and tenure, despite concerns that it’s a flawed measure of a researcher’s value.
A journal’s impact factor indexes the average number of citations its recently published articles receive. As critics have noted, it’s often driven by a small number of highly cited articles, is vulnerable to being gamed by editorial policy, and is not calculated in a transparent way. Nonetheless, it remains an integral part of the Review, Promotion and Tenure (RPT) process at many academic institutions.
A recent survey of 338 researchers from 55 universities in the United States and Canada showed that more than one-third (36%) consider JIFs to be “very valued” for promotions and tenure, and 27% said they were “very important” when deciding where to submit articles.
Flourish logoA Flourish chart
The survey was led by Meredith Niles, assistant professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont, and was part of a larger study, published as a preprint on bioRxiv, investigating how researchers feel about the JIF.
It found that the respondent’s age or status had no bearing on what they perceived to be the value of the JIF in the RPT process. But non-tenured and younger researchers, for whom RPT matters most, put more weight on JIFs when deciding where to publish.
The respondents also indicated a belief that their peers placed more importance on the JIF than they did. Niles describes this as a form of “illusory superiority”, whereby people tend to view themselves in a more favourable light than others.
Flourish logoA Flourish chart
This result indicates the need for “honest conversations” about what really matters when communicating academic research, Niles says.
“If we don’t actually care about the JIF as much as factors such as readership and sharing the results of our work with people who can most advance our field, then let’s stop pretending we care and treating it as the gold standard.”
A call for research assessment reform
The survey follows a study from the same project, published in eLife last month, which analyzed the text of 864 RPT documents from 129 North American universities.
Overall, 30 of the institutions (23%) referred to impact factors or related phrases such as “high impact journal” in at least one of their RPT documents. That figure rose to 40% for research-intensive institutions.
“Faculty often talk about impact factors as featuring heavily in evaluations, but we weren’t aware of any studies that had tried to quantify its use,” says lead author, Erin McKiernan, professor in the Biomedical Physics programme at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Among the 30 universities that mentioned impact factors, the majority (87%) supported their use. Just four (13%) expressed caution against using them.
McKiernan notes that the analyses did not include possible indirect references to JIFs such as “top-tier journal”. “We may be seeing only the tip of the iceberg,” she says.
According to Björn Brembs, a neuroscientist from the University of Regensburg, in Germany, who reviewed the study for eLife, the continuing deference to the JIF shows how scientists can be highly critical in their own subject domain, yet “gullible and evidence-resistant” when evaluating productivity.
“This work shows just how much science is in dire need of a healthy dose of its own medicine, and yet refuses to take the pill,” he says.
Anna Hatch, community manager of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment(DORA), which cautions against the use of journal-level metrics in academic evaluations, adds that the results provide an important benchmark by which to measure progress in research assessment reform.
“I hope the findings inspire faculty, department chairs, and other university administrators to examine their RPT documents and, if necessary, have frank discussions about how to best evaluate researchers without relying on proxy measures of quality and impact,” she says.

A Guide For Building Sustainable Smart Cities

Smart cities must fulfil the need for sufficient fresh water, universal access to cleaner energy, ability to travel efficiently from one point to another, sense of safety and security, among others. Smart cities need to be able to efficiently combine a smart physical layer (ability to use sensors to connect physical assets like buildings, public transportation, energy grid, etc) with a smart digital layer (increasingly mixing capabilities like Big Data, AI, the IoT and the like) to crunch data collected and turn it into actionable decisions on the field, in a cost-efficient way.
Smart cities help create an urban environment for adapting to the needs of the population in the most environment-friendly, economically and socially-conscious way. These cities use data from people, vehicles, buildings and things to improve citizens’ life and minimise the environmental impact of the cities. These are continuously monitored through the Internet of Things (IoT) to maximise efficiency. Smart cities operate as one big data-driven ecosystem to avoid accidents, emissions and congestion. These employ a combination of low-power sensors, wireless networks, and Web and mobile-based applications, and use technology and data purposefully to make better decisions and deliver a better living experience.
Smart cities are collaborative projects that bring together technology, industry and governments. Technologies used for smart cities should be able to share data in an efficient, secure and open manner. Successful smart-city projects collect, manage and use data to improve living and workplace standards. Application-driven data is used by both humans and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver back innovation and efficiencies to the cities.

Why a city needs to be smart

Cities are a pillar of our economic growth. But these can have several inefficiencies with the growing population due to migrators from less-developed cities and villages. Cities can be called developed when there is availability of good education, healthcare facilities, job opportunities, transport facilities, sanitation facilities, and good law and order practises to provide safe and secure places to live.Making a city smart means utilising digital technology and data to solve such problems as traffic management, waste management, monitoring available parking spaces, controlling humidity and temperature levels in the environment, maintaining quality of tap water, waste-water management, sound monitoring and so on.
Cities can be smart but still not livable. Hence, the aim of making smart cities should be to use technology as a tool to deliver sustainable solutions. Technologies like the Internet, the IoT, smartphones, smart meters, smart plugs, smart taps or showers, and other networks of sensors can be used to develop such cities.

What makes a city smart

Smart cities must include infrastructure that helps provide a better quality of life for its citizens. Adapted smart solutions should create a cleaner and more sustainable environment. Data helps in accessing patterns or inefficiencies to improve living standards for the citizens. The same data can be used to better plan the cities in the future and create a framework for smart cities that constantly get more efficient over time.
Smartphones help provide instant information about transit, traffic, health services, safety alerts, community news and everything else needed to know about the cities, in real time. These provide notifications about the best times to travel, personalised energy usage, tips for improving eating habits, etc.
Stephane Dejean, chief marketing officer, Kerlink, says, “From rural towns to bustling metropolises, municipal officials around the world are facing increasing challenges raised by climate change, population growth, appropriate infrastructure development and access to basic sanitation. Leveraging IoT networks, authorities can streamline the use of city infrastructure and deliver tailored services to citizens, while monitoring critical indicators.
“Cities now have the opportunity to easily, flexibly and cost-efficiently deploy, operate and monetise carrier-grade IoT connectivity on their own. These networks turn out to be key assets that cities want to control, financially and/or operationally, and that can be combined to power a growing diversity of use cases. Considering their budget challenges, cities are also looking for a better trade-off between financial sources and possible business models over time. Opting for a relevant alternative like low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) and selecting a partner that can quickly and easily adapt to evolving collaboration models enable cities to address both their technical needs and financial challenges.”

Developing a sustainable city

To build future-ready smart cities, there are a few fundamental things that are required to establish a stable and adaptable framework.

Smart infrastructure

This is required to establish a foundation for digital economic development. Heating, energy usage, lighting and ventilation in buildings are managed and optimised by technology. Water-leakage detection and water potability monitoring are integrated into smart buildings. Rooftop gardens or side vegetations are integrated into building designs to produce oxygen and absorb carbon-dioxide.
Smart infrastructure also includes city-wide Wi-Fi for public use to provide real-time information on traffic congestion, parking spaces and other amenities. The aim of smart parking is to reduce both car emissions and traffic.
Smart roads are prepared for autonomous vehicles and self-driving car traffic system integration. With smart drainage systems and filtration, cities could drastically improve local living conditions. Smart lighting control systems reduce energy consumption, carbon emissions and maintenance costs, while providing a safe environment.

Security

Creating cities that are affordable and safe should be the priorities. This ensures secure and efficient operation of critical applications developed for the smart cities, which rely on constant connectivity to volumes of data from stationary and moving sensors, which is transformed into useful information through data analytics to provide a better quality of life. Failure to secure this data can cause extreme damage.
Be it a residential complex, market, school, hospital, district centre or public transport, sustenance of any urban setup is impossible without robust security measures. But with the advent of AI, the concept of a smart city is viable as well as feasible. AI has empowered security to automatically learn and detect crimes.

Sustainable energy

Solar panels are integrated into building design, replacing traditional materials. Solar and wind energy can be collected throughout the day by fully integrating these into roads, buildings and residential areas. Smart grids are used for energy consumption monitoring and management. These conserve energy in places that might not need power and then send it to areas that may need even more power.
A building can become entirely self-sufficient by using technology like solar windows. Unused energy generated can be offered to vehicles in the local area. By 2060, cargo will travel through hyperloop and will be moved rapidly around the world in smart containers that know their contents and their destination. Ports themselves will be automated, running on renewable energy and having zero carbon emissions.
Development of smart cities will require more energy, so the focus should be on sustainable energy sources. For example, cities can pave the roads with some kind of material that converts solar energy into electricity. Automobiles can be equipped with solar panels on roofs. Autonomous, environment-friendly, efficient transport can save time and money, too.

Digitalisation and automation

Smart cities use IoT devices and sensors to gather and analyse information across the infrastructure. This helps city authorities to intelligently manage their assets, increase efficiency, revolutionise transport, reduce costs and enhance the overall quality of life for residents.

Management

This is the last but the most important stage of building a smart city. It requires a platform that features AI and machine learning to monitor and improve smart city projects.

Initiatives for making smart cities

A prime example here is managing energy use in buildings—heating, air-conditioning and lighting—while maintaining comfortable room temperatures, monitoring facility status like occupancy and availability. These end-to-end solutions offer user-friendly apps on officials’ smartphones and provide programmed, automatic rule-based responses to changing environmental or weather conditions. Monitoring and counting the movements and whereabouts of building occupants or citizens in public areas also bring an effective smart-city application. The same way, LoRaWAN’s native geolocation capability also enables cities to track their assets.
Sustainability is a critical aspect of smart-city networks. Outdoors, cities can leverage low-power wide-area (LPWA) sensors and networks for traffic monitoring, streetlighting, parking availability, waste collection in addition to noise detection, like gunshots, and environment sensing.
In Kakinada, India, Kerlink’s Wirnet TM stations are powering a comprehensive, ambient air-quality monitoring system designed by Oizom that monitors air and noise pollutions and other environmental hazards.
Chengyang is a smart city project established by Huawei. It converts a wasteland into arable land capable of growing seawater rice using a combination of sensors, wireless and deep learning technologies. It feeds 80 million people using previously unusable land. This innovation is now being applied in other parts of the world.
India Maven, a smart-city solution provider from Pune, provides smart solutions in the fields of water and energy metering, lighting, agriculture, ambulance tracking, medical wearables, firefighting, city-pollution monitoring, smart parking, renewable energy management system and intelligent traffic management.
Dejean adds, “With increasing vital IoT deployments for cities, utilities, airports, harbours, farms, manufacturing plants and other sectors, we have LoRaWAN IoT connectivity building block. We also have industrial-grade network infrastructure—indoor and outdoor carrier-grade range of LoRaWAN gateways—with a full suite of user-centric value-added services that empower cities of any size to efficiently manage their IoT connectivity. The Wanesy Management Center, Kerlink’s Wanesy Geolocation and Wanesy Device Management solution value-added services can help cities not only manage/locate their assets and remote sensors, but also help them improve the services they grant to their citizens, like traffic information, parking availability, weather forecast, public-building attendance and public-private partnerships (PPP).”
Smart City Expo World Congress is looking to establish frameworks that will shape the collaborative approach to establish smart cities of the future. Its theme for 2018 was to determine how to structure smart cities in a future-proof and innovative manner.
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Market Strategy Board brings together chief technology officers of leading companies to guide city planners and regulators, and develop standards in an effort to move cities to greater smartness.
Many places have a number of projects implemented on the ground, but these do not scale up because there are no steps taken at the national level or by individual government bodies. As more and more people are migrating towards cities, it is essential to develop a sustainable environment to make these places worth living. Human behaviour as a city dweller is changing, so everything has to be taken into account, including building material, climate, technology and so on while designing and building the cities of tomorrow.

Conclusion

Smart cities must fulfil the need for sufficient fresh water, universal access to cleaner energy, ability to travel efficiently from one point to another, sense of safety and security, among others. Smart cities need to efficiently combine a smart physical layer (ability to use sensors to connect physical assets like buildings, public transportation, energy grid, etc) with a smart digital layer (increasingly mixing capabilities like Big Data, AI, the IoT and the like) to crunch data collected and turn it into actionable decisions on the field, in a cost-efficient way. These cities need to meet the needs of current and future generations, and to maximise benefits while minimising the negative aspects of their daily living.

Land Pooling : A transformative step for Urbanisation

Shri
Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs
has stated that the land pooling policy based on public private
partnership in land assembly in urban development represents a
paradigmatic shift, wherein land is being pooled and is to be developed
by private landowners. He further informed that the owners/group of
owners can pool land parcels of any size for development as per
prescribed norms and guidelines based on sectors as delineated in ZDPs.
“The Policy mandates that each sector will have a 60:40 ratio with 60%
of the land to be developed by Land owners/consortium for residential,
commercial, partly Public Semi Public (PSP) land uses and 40% of the
land to be used for various city level infrastructure requirements
including roads, greens, PSP facilities, development of utilities i.e.
water, sewerage, electricity etc. with involvement of private sector”,
he added.  He was speaking at a Conference on ‘Land Pooling : Building
India Capital – Opportunities in Real Estate and Infrastructure
organized by Delhi Development Authority(DDA) in association with the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry(FICCI), here
today.   Shri Anil Baijal, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Shri Tarun
Kapoor, Vice Chairman, DDA besides land developers, stakeholders and
urban planners were also present at the Conference.
Land Pooling : A transformative step for Urbanisation

Dwelling
on DDA’s commitment towards operationalization of the policy on fast
track mode, the Housing Minister said that DDA had launched portal for
inviting Expression of Willingness for participation earlier
this year wherein any landowner of contiguous land parcel of any size
falling in 95 villages of Planning Zones K-1, L, N and P-II could come
forward to register on the website. DDA conducted an extensive public
outreach program to raise awareness about the policy and educate the
citizens of Delhi on its benefits. This outreach program has paid
dividends – as on 06.09.2019, a total of over 6000 hectares (approx) of
land has been registered under the portal expressing their willingness
for participation with maximum registrations in Planning Zone N.
The
Land Pooling Policy augurs well for shaping Delhi’s urban landscape,
bolstering economic growth and improving living standards. DDA proposes
to take up planning of the sectors which are likely to achieve the
minimum threshold of 70% as Model Sectors on priority to generate
momentum in real estate and infrastructure sector. Under the policy,
every 1000 hectares of pooled land will accommodate about 3,85,000
persons in approx. 85,000 Dwelling Units. About 17 lakhs Dwelling Units
are expected to be constructed  of which approx. 5 lakhs will be
available under EWS category. The housing generated under the Land
Pooling Policy will be a key input in economic, social, and civic
development of the city. Simultaneously, development of the trunk
infrastructure i.e. roads, water supply, electricity supply, etc. will
be taken up by DDA in coordination with the service providing agencies.
Shri
Anil Baijal, LG of Delhi during his address stated that the success of
the policy largely depends on the provision of fast, time bound planning
and development of city level infrastructure and infusion of capital
which will act as a catalyst for integrated development of the sectors
and zones. “While, DDA in close coordination with service providing
agencies such as Transco, DJB, local bodies etc will work towards it,
the participation of the private sector is equally important.  The
required capital investment for development of smart infrastructure,
housing, schools, medical facilities etc. requires deliberation on
collaborative models between DDA, Service providing Agencies, landowners
with investors/real estate segment. This conference is a step towards
this effort to partner and get on board Investors, Real Estate
Developers, Banking sector and experts for making this policy a
success.   Delhi is at the cusp of urban innovation and presents an
untapped opportunity for Real Estate and Infrastructure Development. It
is envisaged that Smart city solutions deployed in 109 land pooling
sectors will turn these new urban centres in ‘smart neighbourhoods’. The
envisioned city level development under the Policy will provide the
high speed transport system, world class infrastructure facilities i.e.
24 hours water supply, power, pipe gas connectivity, health and
education facilities in these green field areas. Therefore, it is
anticipated that significant yields for both land owners and investors
will be garnered with the implementation of the Policy”, he added.
Shri
Tarun Kapoor, VC, DDA expressed hope that this Conference will provide
an opportunity to deliberate key issues pertaining to development of
Delhi.  The industry perspective was provided by Mr.Sanjay Dutt,
Chairman, FICCI Real Estate Committee & Managing Director and Chief
Executive Officer, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd.

Scholastic Journalism

Student journalists request brilliance
in training from their news coverage counselors and projects. They
request educating in media law and morals, mindful announcing, and
successful journalistic practices. They gain best from counsels who have
been prepared in expert gauges. Journalists teach people in general
about occasions and issues and how they influence their lives. 
They
invest quite a bit of their energy talking with master sources, looking
open records and different hotspots for data, and in some cases visiting
the scene where a wrongdoing or other newsworthy event occurred