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Civic bodies can raise more funds: Smart Cities Mission Director Kunal Kumar
News:
- The process to calculate GDP for a pilot city may start by the year-end, Smart Cities Mission Director Kunal Kumar said.
Important facts:
2. “National GDP is a well-established process, but we have so far not had city-level GDP in India.”, Director said
3. Advantages:
- City-level GDP calculation would help give shape to the economic indicators needed.
- City-level GDP data , could help municipal bodies make better decisions on needed infrastructure and investment .
- Also leverage their economic strength to raise funds to finance their needs.
4. Three main components of smart cities:
- An improved quality of life,
- A robust economy leading to job creation
- Sustainability built into every aspect.
5. One of the aims of the Smart Cities Mission has been to increase the share of municipal financing of infrastructure projects.
6. The EIU has recommended a top-down approach based on sectoral income data for the calculation of city-level GDP as it would balance detail and resource-effectiveness in the long term.
7. The data requirements may be too challenging and a top-down approach using household expenditure data may be more feasible in the short term.
