Chinese technology major Huawei wants to partner India in helping it build Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure for the development of smart cities, a senior company executive said at the Huawei Innovation Day Asia, co-hosted with National University of Singapore, here last week.
The Centre has already announced the list of 100 cities which it plans to make ‘smart’ by providing efficient physical, social, institutional and economic infrastructure. The government has defined a smart city in the Indian context as a city that provides a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment, and supports the application of smart solutions.
“We will be able to help India build ICT infrastructure including wireless systems and the computing platforms for the smart cities,” said Joe So, Huawei’s chief technology officer for Industry Solutions at the company’s Shenzhen head office.
“We can help build the inter-dependency of the Indian system,” So said, stressing on Huawei’s strength in building ICT infrastructure.
Noting the similarities between India and China, especially in view of the huge population in their major cities, So said India’s smart cities should also adopt ICT. So pointed out the use of ICT in Chinese cities has helped reduce crime rates significantly. The Indian smart cities could also use ICT for similar use, said So at the Huawei Innovation Day Asia.
Elaborating, So said India would not be able to have one plan for building 100 smart cities as the country’s major regions are different from one another. Each city must be planned based on its structure and people’s needs such as New Delhi being a government and agencies centre and Mumbai being a commercial hub.
Addressing the Innovation Day Asia, Singapore’s minister for trade and industry S Iswaran said, “The ICT innovation will have a profound impact on the nature of jobs, the viability of business models, and the structure of economies.” Citing the Asian Development Bank’s figures, Iswaran said the continent’s urban population grew by 44 million every year and the Asian nations had to concern themselves with their citizen’s growing expectations for more efficient government services, as well as ensure environmental sustainability.
So said he’ll be highlighting Huawei’s technologies for India, its second largest market outside China, at the Smart-Safe City conference in Bangalore on December 19.
The company also announced its vision for the next generation of the smartphone: The “superphone”, and said it will be developed by 2020.
Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49798484.cms
