DMAF is designed to help cities undergo a process of self-evaluation and embrace a data culture. It is a continuous process with cycles repeated every 6 months. The 1st cycle assesses the data readiness of 99 Smart Cities on Systemic Pillar across 5 components – People, Policy, Process, Technology and Outcomes - and 26 indicators.
Policies provide a frame of reference to operate in for all stakeholders. A set of data-related policies will be required for operations of data activities within a city and will be privy to all stakeholders within the data ecosystem. A City Data Policy will be critical to defining the responsibilities, governance structure and data flow in order to help manage huge quantities of data in a city.
These cites need to ensure their Data Policies cover areas such as data classification/categorization, data flow/approval framework, data archival/retention, data security, SOPs for data collection, cleansing, usage, etc. To drive their city data policy and other data initiatives, necessary budgetary allocations need to be made to operationalize the data ecosystem.
Nagpur drafted a comprehensive city data policy including all indicative components.
Pimpri Chinchwad allocated the highest budget towards the implementation of data initiatives in the city and has actively begun their work towards appointing relevant data officials, their capacity building and other data implementation activities.
The national average for the Policy component is low which suggests that a majority of the cities have not drafted a city data policy and have not assigned budgets towards implementation of the DataSmart Cities Strategy.
It is imperative for a city to finalize the city’s data policy by the 2nd cycle of DMAF. This will act as a guidance book for all data related activities that take place in their city and will provide clarity of roles and responsibilities of the involved officials and help define a set of guidelines to be adopted and followed by all the stakeholders in the data ecosystem.
The Ministry may provide a guidance document / template for the city data policy to assist the cities in its preparation.
It is important for cities to assign and approve budget for data-related activities to ensure better capacity building and implementation.
“Our City Data Policy aims to provide a single frame of reference to all stakeholders w.r.t. key data components like data classification and data categorization. The next step is to institutionalize the policy to promote data culture in our city”
With a need to allocate resources and set-up robust Institutional Governance
mechanisms for capacity building, ‘People’ are at the core of successful
implementation of any strategy. In this component, DMAF focuses on a city’s need to
appoint a City Data Officer and Data Coordinators who will act as the custodian and
driver of open data initiatives in their respective cities.
Further, the component covers indicators focused on capacity building to ensure that
the penetration of new data initiatives yields the desired results
All 100 cities have appointed City Data Officers (CDO) in order to anchor the data-linked activities in their city in collaboration with the Municipal Corporations. 50 out of 100 cities have appointed Data Coordinators in order to help CDOs with activities related to data collection, cleansing, assessing of data requirements, data reporting at a departmental level.
The Ministry has completed 500+ hours of training with the cities. Cities like Kohima, Ranchi, Tiruppur, Kalyan Dombivali, Kanpur, Nagpur, Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, Solapur, Amaravati, Bhopal, Dharamshala, Kakinada, Mangaluru, New Town Kolkata, and Rajkot have emulated the initiative and are frontrunners in training their officers by conducting capacity building programs in data.
Cities like Pune, Nagpur, Pimpri Chinchwad have appointed additional data specialists in order to assess the quality and usability of the data so as to gain actionable insights in a defined manner. Cities should focus on appointing these data specialists in order to get expert advice on management and use of the available data.
Bhopal Smart City has successfully completed the ISO 37120 Certification by World Council on City Data. The training was attended by 31 officers which helped familiarize them with ways to implement Data Smart Cities Strategy.
Solapur is conducting trainings on data-related topics such as data analysis and storage, data security and data collection in an effort to strengthen the data ecosystem.
The national average for the Policy component is low which suggests that a majority of the cities have not drafted a city data policy and have not assigned budgets towards implementation of the DataSmart Cities Strategy.
It is imperative for a city to finalize the city’s data policy by the 2nd cycle of DMAF. This will act as a guidance book for all data related activities that take place in their city and will provide clarity of roles and responsibilities of the involved officials and help define a set of guidelines to be adopted and followed by all the stakeholders in the data ecosystem.
The Ministry may provide a guidance document / template for the city data policy to assist the cities in its preparation.
It is important for cities to assign and approve budget for data-related activities to ensure better capacity building and implementation.
“DMAF provided an opportunity to understand evidence-based status of service delivery, know the baseline and improve capacity building of officials. Evaluation & monitoring of such data has helped to measure performance level and set the future targets.”
Institutionalizing ‘processes’ of data governance is required for reliable data collection,
spatial intelligence, data security and privacy, creation of alliances and eliminating data
silos through standardization. City governments should focus on increasing inclusiveness of external/3rd party members which include industry, start-ups, academia as well
as the citizens by conducting city data alliances and data challenges/events.
Cities should also enhance their position in identifying datasets in addition to the 50
dataset templates provided by the Ministry.
Chennai, Bilaspur, Nagpur, Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, Solapur, Bhopal, Kolkata, Mangaluru and Surat have successfully formed alliances with players from universities, industry and other 3rd party members to help them advance in the path of data.
These alliances have been formed to help cities in identifying additional data, providing technical advisory for data analysis and implementation of data activities.
Chandigarh, Nagpur, Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, Amaravati, Jabalpur, Rajkot and Surat have positioned themselves a step further as compared to their counterparts by conducting data events in the form of hackathons and data challenges to help city government identify city problems and in some cases also help form preliminary solutions towards resolving their city’s complex issues.
Amravati, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Erode, Kanpur, Kohima, Kolkata, Pimpri Chinchwad, Port Blair, Pune, Solapur, Surat and Rajkot have been distinguished for their work around using open data to help identify/solve urban problems.
NIUA in collaboration with Chennai Smart City Limited is setting up the Chennai Data Observatory. In this regard, alliances have been formed with IIT Madras and the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI).
Pune conducted several data hackathons in its departments around data extraction, cleansing, visualization, AI / ML video analytics for the Pune Police etc.
Majority of the cities have initiated data collection in various domains. To utilize and leverage their available data, the cities need to engage external parties such as sector experts, industry experts and universities to provide in-depth analysis of data in various domains. This can be done via. MOUs, data challenges such as hackathons in the city. Cities can connect with one another to encourage peer-to-peer learning to understand the nuances of conducting these engagements.
The cities may focus on engaging stakeholders in the data ecosystem by forming alliances and working towards the common goal of creating a data culture.
Hackathons may be used as a means to crowdsource solutions to the complex urban challenges
“The Data Initiative has also helped Surat in solving various city issues with the help of data from various sources. The hackathons organized inline with the data initiative has also helped in exploring innovative solutions for government services.”
To encourage publishing and exchange of data, measure performance and outcomes
and generate evidence for policy planning, ‘Platforms’ are the required digital
infrastructure. These components are needed for the management of data and to
achieve individual cities’ data objectives.
Factors such as use of an open data portal, electronic collection of data and updating
the data as per a defined schedule are critical for successful implementation of the
DataSmart Cities Strategy and for innovation and co-creation.
99 cities are active on the open data portal for Smart Cities (www.smartcities.data.gov)
Over 3,300+ datasets have been published on the open data portal and this data will be accessible by all units of the data ecosystem including the citizens. This will help in gaining insights and help design responses for the cities’ urban challenges.
Around 37 cities have departments which have electronic collection of data.
36 cities have sensors/field devices to capture the data at the source in a city
Around 75 cities have digitized their citizen centric services such as grievance management, payment of taxes, certificates/licences etc. Further in this path, the digitization of citizen centric services will help in secure data exchange and sharing.
Surat published 100 datasets on the open data portal.
Pune and Surat developed their own city open data portals.
The cities are generating a lot of data and use of technology is inevitable in unlocking its true potential. Focus should also be on publishing quality datasets that can be used for analysis and for solving cities problems.
It is imperative for the cities to prepare a schedule of updation of datasets on the open data portal and to comply with the schedule.
The cities are also encouraged to collect more data in an electronic form which can be fed in the open data portal and can be used by stakeholders for problem solving, co-creation and innovation.
“We are using the video analytics technology in our city to increase the safety of our citizens. Handling voluminous and sensitive data itself needs robust policy, processes and people. DataSmart Cities helped us understand the data ecosystem in depth and outlined the importance of data sharing and data alliances.”
The cities have started their journeys towards building a data culture in order to
emerge as ‘Digital Leaders’ in a paradigm of data-driven governance. While efforts are
being made in setting up a strong foundation, it is important to see the impact these
efforts are creating.
This component assesses the use of data for positive citizen outcomes, addressing key
policy questions and developing apps for improving the lives of citizens.
15+ cities have showcased use of data in solving complex urban challenges leading to positive citizen outcomes.
These outcomes include the benefits provided to the citizens, the role played by data and success stories.
Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Mangaluru, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Salem, Thiruchirapalli and Vishakapatnam have developed apps using data for areas such as mobility, education and solid waste management in order to provide improved citizen services.
Amaravati, Bhopal, Bilaspur Chennai, Coimbatore, Dharamshala, Indore, Jabalpur, Mangaluru, Kohima, Pimpri Chinchwad, Port Blair, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Salem, Thanjavur, Thiruchirapalli, Tirrupur and Tirupati have identified problem areas to be solved by use of data.
Pune developed a Deep Insights app which provides insights and visualizations in the areas of Solid Waste Management, Water Supply and Waste Water Management.
Bhopal Plus App is a single digital interface between Govt. and citizens to engage (via discussions, surveys), avail services (tourism, emergency), view city dashboard and grievance redressal (register or track complaints)
It is important that cities learn to utilize the collected data in development of applications and create use cases to help in policy making as well as for updation in the existing policies.. Cities preparing use cases, conducting citizen benefit engagements and preparing of applications should ensure high quality documentation of these activities so as to serve as an example to be followed by other cities.
The data available with the cities can be used by them for designing targeted solutions and addressing key policy questions.
The cities shall develop apps using the available data for improved citizen services.
“We firmly believe in the power of data for co-creation and innovation and thus we are investing in building capacities at all levels. We launched our city open data portal in 2016 and are ever since working with various stakeholders especially Universities and Startups to solve our local problem.”
