When the 60 winning cities (with proposals worth over Rs 1.31 lakh crore) become smart, it is expected to positively impact the lives of 72 crore urban population. While Rs 1.05 lakh crore will be spent on area-based development plans, Rs 26,141 crore will be spent on pan-city solutions in the next five years. What’s more! By June 2017, a total of 510 projects with a total investment of Rs 20,669 crore will take off. By all means, India’s Smart Cities Mission is on a roll! “Finally, projects are off the ground and city leaders are scouting for best procurement practices, vendor relationships in order to enhance best value for the cities and US$ 200 billion is at stake already!” stated Pratap Padode, Founder & Director, Smart Cities Council India. Come this March, the country will witness over 1,500 global and national policymakers, financiers and technologists, coupled with over 25 city and state representatives coming together for one unanimous agenda—MISSION EXECUTION—at the 4th Smart Cities Summit, which will be held in New Delhi from March 15-17, 2017. Click to know more: http://www.smarturbanation.com/ The summit is organised by ASAPP Info Global Group and the India China Economic and Cultural Council in partnership with the Smart Cities Council India. “China is the country partner and having held several road shows in China and India, smart cities projects are attracting a lot of real interests both from investors and technology companies from China,” informed Mohammed Saqib, Director General, India China Economic & Cultural Council. The summit will see participation of city commissioners from over 25 cities, city CEOs, urban planning consultants, international smart city experts from USA, China, Korea and CEOs from companies like Microsoft, IBM, Philips, Ola, Intel, Tata Projects, Schneider, Hikvision, Bechtel, Thomson Reuters, Mahindra Lifespaces, HCC, Alstom, among others. The event is likely to be inaugurated by Chief Guest Venkaiah Naidu, Hon’ble Union Minister of Urban Development. Highlighting the value of collaboration, specifically true public/private partnerships that benefit cities in remarkable ways, the summit will see over 50 high-level industry bigwigs speaking at the conclave. Speakers include Ajit Gulabchand, Chairman, HCC; Yudhwir Singh Malik, Chairman, NHAI; Aman Kumar Singh, Chairman, Naya Raipur Development Authority; Sanjay Bhatia, Chairman, Mumbai Port Trust; Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI; Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary IT, Telangana; Navin Mittal, Secretary, MA & UD, Government of Telangana; Dr Marek Wosinski, Arizona State University; Frans-Anton Vermast, Amsterdam Smart City; K. Ramchand, MD, IL&FS Toll Networks, Ashish Mathur, MD, JUSCO to name a few. The international and national keynote speakers will provide perspectives from academia, industry, legislative council and city government standpoint on smart technology integration in the execution of smart cities plans. Smart city delegations from China and other countries will also be present. The summit will showcase over 20 dedicated lessons learned and case studies from smart city deployments around the world. Furthermore, the summit will touch base areas such as transport, planning cities for the future, technologies, IoT, sanitation and waste and PPP through various sessions. During the event, Smart Cities Council India will also announce the winner of “Smart City Leader of the Year” award for which online voting is underway.