Unfolding the wisdom of smart cities

Former President Dr APJ Abdul launched a book titled ‘Smart & Human - Building Cities of Wisdom’ on Monday. The book is authored by GRK Reddy, founder and promoter of Swarnabhoomi Academic Institutions, and Srijan Pal Singh, advisor to the institution. The book was launched at a one-day symposium on sustainable smart cities. The symposium was organised by MARG Institute of Design and Architecture, Swarnabhoomi (MIDAS). The first copy of the book was given to the former president. Dr Kalam wished the authors luck and hoped the book would do well.

Aligning with the Central government’s vision of building 100 smart cities in the country, the book features the evolution of cities from the start of civilisation till the present day and the different stages of urbanisation the cities have traversed through history. The twelve chapters of the book travel through the various factors which has influenced the growth of the cities, from their historical boundaries to the current geographical limits. Some of the topics covered in the book are industrialisation, the current trends of urbanisation, population growth and green cover.

“Time has come to take urbanisation as an opportunity and not a challenge and evolve an qualitative and quantitative index based urban solutions, which will result in holistic growth and will lead to providing more jobs and technological breakthroughs, innovations and will enable the Prime Minister’s vision of housing for all with amenities and utilities along with quality of life,” said GRK Reddy.