Key challenge is digitally connecting separate systems: Hitachi

The key challenge in today's context is to use digitalisation to link system deliverables to provide integrated solutions to issues of rapid urbanisation, sustainable transportation, water and energy supply and stronger security solutions, Japanese innovation major Hitachi said on Friday.

"The question is, how do we respond to rapid urbanisation, large-scale concentration of people in cities, exploring sustainable transportation solutions, efficient supply and management of water and energy and creating stronger security solutions for the age of the Internet of Things," Managing Director Hitachi India Kojin Nakakita said while addressing the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum here organised in partnership with the Times Network.

"Delivering individual products and systems to customers will no longer suffice. Today the keyword is 'connecting' these products and systems through digitalization," he added.

In his address, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said technology is transforming the world and disruptions are impacting the lives of people.

"The need of the hour is to promote digital communication that can integrate the country by bridging the gap between villages and cities. Technology is a great leveller. For instance, it can provide solutions and can transform remote villages that do not have accessibility to the world," Fadnavis said.

Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu said that Japan is partnering India on various initiatives such as high speed railway, dedicated freight corridor, smart cities and Digital India.

"We are happy to work on more technology transfer programmes with India," he said.

In its fourth year in India, Hitachi Social Innovation Forum is an exhibition with Hitachi showcasing its diversified solutions, technologies and products such as Geographical Information System (GIS), industrial plant maintenance system and Integrated Citizen Experience Platform (CEP) solutions.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University Suketu Mehta, who wrote the book 'Maximum City' about Mumbai, said in an interview to the Times of India published on Friday that there is a lot about India's commercial capital currently "that's deeply unpleasant".

"Every time I go back I am just struck by how much it's (Mumbai) degraded; newspapers and TV programmes now describe it as 'Minimum City' - the air is unbreathable, traffic unendurable, the flats unaffordable," Mehta said.

--IANS

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