India is urbanizing at a pace so fast that the statistics scare & excite the experts at the same time. Reports suggest that over 97 cities will grow from a population count of 340 million [2008] to around 540 million by 2030. This speed of growth in cities poses challenges, but also offers big opportunities.
Survey data on the hiring trends indicate that around 22% of 800+ organizations across India claim that new career opportunities will be created in the FY 2015-16 & will increase by FY 2017-18 with the expansion of the Smart City initiative.
Smart Cities discover & polish their concepts until they attain the desired outcomes. The entire concept of these Smart Cities was implemented with a dream to improve quality of life. This improvement involves technological reforms, institutional engagements or managerial transformations and the engrossment of citizens. Ranging from Entrepreneurship to Hospitality and Engineering to Policy reform research, Smart City initiative propounds everything to get started on the path to fresh career dream.
Smart cities are an engine for job creation and economic growth. India is on the path of undertaking measures to enhance development. Creating jobs and incomes is crucial for development. Smart City initiative’s innovations contribute to economic growth and employment and also promotes & contributes to sustainable development.
The contribution of Smart cities, to India's GDP will only increase. The cities accounted for 58% of the national GDP in 2008, which is expected to go up to 70% by 2030. The primary purpose behind promoting & developing smart cities is to enable the people to be more efficient and globally competitive. The need of the hour is to acquire deep insight into the character of the city and identify core economic potential that can be enhanced with the help of technology and advancement in urban infrastructure.
A positive impact of the smart city and Digital India projects is job creation. With operations starting on 5 to 10 smart cities in the next two years, we would have created a favourable ecosystem for thousands of jobs. The Smart cities initiative converged with cities and enables them in becoming living labs for hardware, software and urban services developed. With an inclination towards white-collar jobs, IT professionals will be in greater demand, IT infrastructure being the backbone of any smart city. Data analytics, programming, high-end consulting, system and network integration will be the order of the day and professionals and students in this area can expect better opportunities. The Smart Cities will create a lot of jobs in IT, telecom & the technology-driven services sector. Other domains that this initiative will explore include business administration in real estate & urban infrastructure, infrastructure management, construction project management, construction economics & quantity and facility management to name a few.
Need of Youngsters: Digitalization of cities is going to enter a boom phase. With more and more technology being integrated into development and construction, it is imperative for technically-driven youngsters to take up positions and responsibilities in the projects to make interactions and dealings in a better and efficient manner.
Growth Prospects: Growth opportunities would be immense in smart cities. As more and more construction, manufacturing and managerial workplaces are set up, need for jobs and chances of growth would keep on increasing as more and more projects are slated to be launched. With each new project, opportunities to grow and prosper would also rise.
Emerging Jobs: Almost 1 million new jobs are expected to be created in all smart city projects combined, by the year 2030. Skilled and unskilled personnel for all departments would be required to make the projects a reality. These projects would be built across platforms that require both experience and new blood in its functioning. Experienced managers would be required to handle a team of young talents who would be the torch bearers of getting technology to work in the desired manner.