The Smart Cities Mission has been picked as the platinum icon in the Digital India Awards 2022 under the Data Sharing and Use for Socio Economic Development category for its ‘DataSmart Cities.
Empowering Cities through Data’ initiative, according to an official statement on Tuesday. In the statement, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said the Data Smart Cities initiative is a key step in creating a robust data ecosystem that enables evidence-based decision-making in cities.
The award was announced on Monday, the ministry said.
It said that the awards instituted in 2009 are one-of-a-kind in India for honouring the efforts of different government entities in the digital realm.
These are conducted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY). The seventh edition of Digital India Awards is being held in 2022.
‘DataSmart Cities’ initiative aims to harnesses the power of data for better governance in India’s 100 Smart Cities, the ministry said.
“To leverage and utilise valuable data being generated in cities via network of intelligent devices and systems, the Smart Cities Mission launched the DataSmart Cities (DSC) initiative across 100 Smart Cities. The DSC uses a three-pronged approach – people, process, platforms – to imbibe a culture of data awareness and data usage in city functioning,” it added.