The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has unleashed three prominent initiatives targeted towards shaping cities and enhancing their data ecosystem. These include The Nurturing Neighborhoods Challenge, The Data Maturity Assessment Framework – Cycle 2, and an online training programme for City Data Officers (CDOs) in 100 Smart Cities.
The Nurturing Neighborhoods Challenge
This initiative is a three-year plan aiming to support cities in the development, testing, and scaling up of solutions that advance the quality of life for young children, caregivers, and families in public spaces. It is accessible to all smart cities, capitals of states and Union territories, as well as any city with a population exceeding 500,000.
Such cities will be provided with technical assistance and capacity-building help to reimagine parks and open spaces, better access to early childhood facilities, adapt public spaces with amenities orientated towards early childhood, and develop accessible, safe walking streets for young children and families.
Data Maturity Assessment Framework – Cycle 2
Initially, the Smart Cities Mission launched the DataSmart Cities Strategy in February 2019. This roadmap was designed to utilize data potential to address complex urban issues across 100 cities. Accompanying this, the Data Maturity Assessment Framework launched to encourage cities to enhance their data infrastructure and evaluate their readiness and maturity concerning data.
DMAF -Cycle 2 aims to assist cities in fostering a ‘data culture’. This standardized framework allows cities to assess their data maturity considering enabling policies, governance structures, data management, capacity building, and stakeholder engagement at the city level.
The aspiration is to facilitate open innovation, collaboration, co-creation, and academic research by democratizing the data culture. The assessment range for this cycle has expanded to include cities besides Smart Cities, aligning with the Digital India Campaign that leverages data and digital technologies to efficiently deliver government services to citizens.
Data Maturity is defined as the degree to which an organization uses the data it produces.
Online Training Programme for City Data Officers
This digital course, tailored specifically for CDOs appointed in the 100 Smart Cities, offers practical exposure to both basic and advanced tools for data collection, analysis, and visualization.
Other Recent Initiatives
Aside from the three main programs, other recent campaigns include the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0, the ‘Streets for People Challenge’ India Cycles4Change Challenge.