India Urban Observatory launched

Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep S. Puri, here on Saturday, inaugurated state-of-the-art India Urban Observatory, which would plug into the myriad sources of data from cities, both real-time and archived.

He said as cities begin to implement 'smart' solutions, data becomes a significant asset and enabler for governance, leading to urban transformation, according to the official statement.

He also inaugurated 'Video Wall' and said it would showcase insights gained from the Observatory and various missions and offices with the idea to pro-actively engage with citizens and visitors in spreading awareness about the ministry's various initiatives.

Remarking that it is imperative for empowerment of communities, he said cities must work on using information available through various sources to improve functioning, public services, governance, achievements and failures in the public domain.

The future of governance is data-driven and Indian cities are beginning to adopt this change in their functioning, he added.

He said bringing people in 'focus' needed a move towards outcome-based planning in governance.

"The Observatory will help in getting reliable, latest information on a meaningful set of indicators over various domains such as transport, health, environment, water, finance, which will assist in developing best practices, future strategies and policy interventions as and when required," he said.

Puri said the conceptualisation of the Observatory recognises the value of enhancing engagement among all four stakeholders of the 'quadruple-helix' model- government, citizens, academia and industry, along with improvements in the internal workflow and decision-making processes of the city governments.

The India Urban Observatory would progressively become the chief data analysis and management hub of the ministry and would enable evidence-based policy formulation, capacity building of ecosystem partners on data-driven governance, foster innovation through development of newer and better use cases thereby enabling solutions at scale and speed, he said.

"It will provide scientific response to the complex challenges of urbanisation through the use of technologies and collaborations," the minister said.

--IANS

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