GIFT selected as Finalist in IDC SCAPA 2017

IDC Government Insights Asia-Pacific has announced that Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) has been selected as one of the finalists in the annual IDC Smart City Asia-Pacific Awards (SCAPA) 2017 under the category of Public Works. GIFT follows in the footsteps of the country’s Project NOAH initiative, which was also chosen as a finalist and ultimately announced as the winner for the category of Public Safety in SCAPA 2016.

SCAPA was created to identify, benchmark and publicly vote on the best projects each year across 14 functional smart city strategic domains. It is an intensive six-month process that tracks and evaluates hundreds of smart city initiatives in Asia Pacific. The award categories are Transportation; Public Works; Smart Buildings; Smart Grid; Smart Water; Administration; Economic Development; Land Use and Environmental Management; Permitting, Licensing, Inspection and Zoning; Public Safety; Education; Tourism, Arts, Libraries, Culture, Open Spaces; Connected Health; and Social Services.

The GIFT initiative aspires to cater to India’s large financial services potential by offering global firms a world-class infrastructure and facilities. It aims to attract the top talent in the country by providing the finest quality of life.

GIFT is one of 46 smart city projects across Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) that was shortlisted out of over 150 submissions from vendors, local governments and analysts as IDC Government Insights Asia Pacific undertakes the benchmarking of the top smart city projects in the 14 categories.

All finalists will compete with other projects through public voting, IDC internal evaluation and judging from an International Advisory Council. Like 2016, 50% of the criteria for judging will come from public votes while the other half will be based on internal assessment from the IDC Research Team and the Advisory Council. IDC will declare one winner under each smart city strategic domain.

Figure 1. Voting period will commence on 31 May and ends on 31 June, 2017. The public is encouraged to participate by voting for the smart city initiatives that have made the biggest impact in their citizen life. Voters will stand a chance to win a Gear VR as one of our 10 lucky voters selected through an electronic raffle draw at the end of public voting.

“As we move into our third year of benchmarking various groundbreaking Smart City projects in Asia Pacific, key discussions around empowering both ICT and line-of-business leadership, information governance and digital economies as well as workable strategic sourcing considerations are noted,” says Gerald Wang, Head of Government and Education Insights Asia/Pacific. “Ultimately, government organizations, city leaders, and urban planners need to build a robust Smart City ecosystem to attract both foreign direct investments and manpower talents.”

Wang adds, “While the emphasis in the near term focusses on choosing projects that use the least amount of investment dollars yet generating the largest impact, the long-term sustainability considerations are also critical. To stay ahead of the competition in an ever-changing digital ecosystem, Smart City leaders would need to have a competent strategic foresight and organizational ability to meticulously plan their execution strategy.