Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs launches initiatives for Cities

News: Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs has launched several initiatives namely Nurturing Neighborhoods Challenge and Data Maturity Assessment Framework Cycle 2.

Facts:

Nurturing Neighborhoods Challenge:

• What is it? It is a 3-year initiative that aims to support cities to develop, pilot and scale solutions that enhance the quality of life of young children, their caregivers and families in the public realm.
• Implementation: The challenge is conducted with the support of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, Netherlands with technical support from World Resources Institute(WRI) India.
• Features: Under the challenge, selected cities will receive technical assistance and capacity-building to reimagine parks and open spaces; improve access to early childhood facilities; adapt public spaces with early childhood oriented amenities; and create accessible, safe, walkable streets for young children and families.
• Eligibility: The challenge will be open to all Smart Cities, other cities with more than five lakh population, and capitals of States and UTs.

Data Maturity Assessment Framework(DMAF):

• Background: The Smart Cities Mission had launched the DataSmart Cities Strategy in 2019 as a roadmap for harnessing the potential of data to address complex urban challenges across 100 Cities.
  • To successfully implement this initiative, the Data Maturity Assessment Framework was launched to encourage cities to strengthen their data infrastructure and facilitate them in assessing their readiness and maturity on data.
• DMAF-2: It aims to support cities to assess their own data maturity with respect to a standardized framework covering aspects of enabling policies, governance structures, capacity building and stakeholder engagement at the city level.
  • Data Maturity is the extent to which an organisation utilises the data they produce.