Answer to Question #193248 in Management for Gargi

Question

The city of Leh is the joint capital & the largest town of the union territory of Ladakh in

India. Leh is at an altitude of 3,524 metres (11,562 ft), and is connected via National

Highway 1 to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in the south via the Leh-Manali

Highway. You have been invited as an external IT consultant by Government of India

with a mandate to convert Leh into a “Smart City”

a. Which “Smart” city in the world will you choose as a benchmark to emulate some of the

best practices of that city into Leh? Provide atleast 3 reasons with brief descriptions

behind your choice of choosing that particular city as a benchmark?

b. Suggest & describe atleast 2 innovative technology enabled services that you will

introduce into Leh so that it can be called as a “Smart city”?

Answer 1

a) Hong Kong - it's a world leading smart city that the City of Leh can emulate. Three reasons behind my choice of Hong Kong as a benchmark for Leh include:

HK has remarkably embraced technological friendliness. The city is leading in technological subsets such as cloud computing, internet of things, teleworking related solutions, data analytics and digital transformation.

HK has a smart infrastructure, ranging from intelligent transport systems to built environments that have incorporated AI and data analytics in the design processes, which Leh can borrow from.

The HK government has heavily invested into smart city development through: the Smart City Blueprint Initiative, encouraging adoption of 5G network throughout the city and investing in Research and Development on robotics and AI. This commitment to smart city development is something Leh's government can emulate.

b) Innovative technology enabled services I would introduce into Leh to make it a smart city include:

Internet of Things - IoT technologies play a crucial role in smart city development. They refer to a network of objects or things embedded with various technologies to connect and exchange data over internet connection.

Smart grids - these are important technological systems in smart cities. A smart grid is an electrical grid which entails a wide array of operations and energy measures. They increase efficiency through automated power systems, greater penetration of highly renewable energy sources and enabling integrated communication platforms.