SMART CITIES: A STUDY OF PROSPECTS BEYOND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

Abstract: Smart city development primarily pertains to the contributions from parameters associated with Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT which is indicator of smart governance is generally considered to be the major parameter for building a smart city. This paper is an attempt to explore and provide justification for other smart parameters which are also equally important in comparison to ICT in Indian context. This study describes critically the identified parameters of smart city by carrying out opinion survey with professionals. Reponses of opinion survey was analyzed on Likert scale to generate frequency index values. This index values generated were verified by Cronbach's alpha to provide new index values justifying importance of other parameters in comparison to ICT. It has been observed that "smart infrastructure", "smart mobility", "smart governance", "smart environment & smart living", "smart economy" and "sector ranking" are some major parameters that can be considered as equal or even more significant to that of parameters related to ICT for development of smart city. The computed values of Smart Impact Index (SII-KMO) and SII-EV for Ahmedabad are 0.588 and 0.765 respectively. As both these values are greater than 0.5 they are adequately significant. Thus the parameters considered for this study have adequately high impact for development of a smart city like Ahmedabad and should be treated carefully along with other factors associated with ICT.

Keywords: Smart city, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Smart Impact Index, Frequency index.