Digital India Awards

In News: India’s Smart Cities Mission wins the Platinum Icon in Digital India Awards 2022 for their initiative “DataSmart Cities: Empowering Cities through Data” under the ‘Data Sharing and Use for Socio Economic Development’ category.

• The seventh edition of Digital India Awards (DIA) is being held in 2022.

The Digital India Awards (DIA):

• It is a prestigious National competition that seeks to encourage and honour innovative digital solutions by government entities in realising the Digital India vision.
• Aim: to inspire and motivate not only government entities but also start-ups in fulfilling the Digital India vision.
• The category ‘Data Sharing and Use for Socio Economic Development’ emphasizes on sharing of Government Data by Ministries/Departments/Organizations, States, Cities and ULBs to create a vibrant data ecosystem in the country for analysis, decision-making, innovation, services, economic development and public good.
• Instituted in 2009.
• Conducted by = National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).
• DIA presents an opportunity to bring to the fore digital initiatives being adopted to transform India into a digitally empowered society & knowledge economy.
• These awards are instituted under the aegis of National Portal of India to encourage and honour innovative digital solutions by government entities at all levels.

About DataSmart Cities initiative:

• Under the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs
• It is a key step in creating a robust data ecosystem that enables evidence-based decision-making in cities.
• AIM: to harnesses the power of data for better governance in India’s 100 Smart Cities.
• Based on a ‘People, Platform, Process’ strategy, this initiative is leading to convergence of Ministry’s efforts for performance management, empowerment of communities, and research, co-creation & open innovation.
• Importance of data for accelerating the power of city’s existing initiatives
• Various digital platforms such as Smart Cities Open Data Portal (SCODP), India Urban Observatory (IUO), India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX), Assessment & Monitoring Platform for Liveable, Inclusive & Future-ready urban India (AMPLIFI) and Geo-spatial Management Information System (GMIS) have been developed to enable cities better manage, share, and leverage available data.
• Objectives: Evidence-based planning, cross-city assessments, multi-disciplinary research and improving socio-economic outcomes.
• The program has institutionalised a Data Ecosystem in cities through 100 City Data Offices and more than 50 Data Policies.
• The Smart Cities Open Data Portal has transformed from zero to all 100 Smart Cities now publishing open datasets and contributing to data blogs and visualizations, leading to 1.2+ lakh downloads and ~6 lakh views.
• This initiative has led to generation of more than 180 innovative, scalable, and replicable use cases in collaboration with various stakeholders that are being utilized by cities for better functioning and citizen engagement vis. Vadodara Medical Green Corridor, Surat Real-time Bus Seat Occupancy, Agartala Smart Traffic Control, among others.
• The success of this initiative in 100 Smart Cities has a potential to create a virtuous cycle of improvement, with transformational impact of data on all cities in India.

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Source: PIB