BRICS nations can cooperate for developing smart cities: Vasundhara Raje

BRICS countries can cooperate mutually for the development of smart cities and other infrastructure and the nations can learn from each other, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said on Friday.

In a keynote address at BRICS Smart Cities Conference here, Raje said that innovative urban environmental management practices made in Saint Petersburg in Russia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, and Shanghai and Beijing in China could be implemented in India keeping in view the conditions here.

"Member countries of BRICS can learn many things from each other. The collaborations within BRICS shall strengthen ties and improve our appreciation of each other's cultures and peoples," she said.

The Chief Minister said that exchange of experiences and the sharing of solutions among urban development managers and scholars shall surely help in making our cities better, safer and more resilient.

"Growth of population in urban settlements is posing many challenges. It has placed additional loads on the infrastructure in every city. Our thinking is that cities of tomorrow require technology-driven inputs to make life of our citizens easier and safer," she said at the conference ahead of the BRICS Women's Parliamentarian Forum meeting to be held on Saturday.

The Chief Minister said smart cities are of little use without smart citizens.

"To make our citizens smart and skilled, our government has taken skill development as a top most priority. We have engaged with numerous partners in skilling up our youth in a wide range of trades. ITIs have been taken up by industrial houses to impart skills and all our industry partners are collaborators in creating job and imparting world class training to our youth," she said.

Raje informed with support from the government of India, Jaipur, Ajmer, Kota and Udaipur are being developed as smart cities.