Germany and India have joined forces on India's Smart Cities programme. Today, Gunther Adler, State Secretary for Building, and his counterpart from India’s Ministry of Urban Development, Madhusudan Prasad, agreed on this point in a joint meeting in Delhi. Starting with 100 cities, technology-based innovations and transformations are be make urban spaces more efficient, sustainable and liveable – and thus healthier and cleaner.
State Secretary Gunther Adler, who headed the delegation of the Federal Building Ministry, made the following statement: "We see with great respect how India's economy is developing and it will continue to grow strongly. Cities are key places and driving forces for economic development. According to the UN, in 2050 over 80 percent of the population will live in urban areas. Worldwide urbanisation presents us with many challenges. It is necessary to cope with problems such as lack of housing, poor water and energy supplies and overburdened infrastructure."
India's 100 Smart Cities programme was the focus of discussions at the second meeting of the Indo-German working group on sustainable urban development, which was established within the framework of a joint memorandum of understanding signed on 16 April 2015. In financing the Smart Cities initiative, India's government relies on public-private partnerships. The central government is providing about 6.5 billion euros over a period of five years. By the end of August 2015, 98 Smart Cities had been named – 20 cities were selected in January 2016 and will be part of the first round of funding. Already at the first meeting in September 2015, which took place in the wings of the National Urban Development Congress in Leipzig, India's Urban Development Ministry provided detailed information about the procedure for selection of the first 20 cities to be able to benefit from the support programme for the implementation of Smart Cities and expressed the expectation that Germany would provide support for the programme in two or three cities for instance with feasibility studies.
State Secretary Adler: "Germany wants to support the ambitious Smart Cities programme. Here, the Federal Building Ministry also supports German companies that want to cooperate intensively with Indian partners in order to assist Indian cities in implementing their plan." Germany has been involved for many years in topics concerning cities in India. Secretary Adler continued: "There are a number of cities that are of interest in terms of cooperating. But first we would like to enter into direct dialogue with the three cities Bhubaneswar, Kochi and Coimbatore to help them with the implementation of their Smart City plans, among other things with feasibility studies." To do this, there will be talks with the respective cities to explore mutual interest and to discuss what form cooperation might take in practice. The the initial discussions will be conducted locally by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
Secretary Adler also met with Dr Nandita Chatterjee, Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, and discussed measures to promote affordable housing. There were further discussions with Indian and German business representatives in particular on the topic of Smart Cities.