The ‘E’ Factor of Smart Cities.While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is talking about building 100 smart cities in India, even from the very beginning of his election campaign.

Most of us must be still wondering what really are ‘Smart Cities’ going to be like?

Well there could not be a universal definition. It means different things to different people. The conceptualisation of a smart city, therefore, depends upon the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents.

The basic objective of the government under ‘Smart Cities Mission’ is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of smart solutions. This focus towards sustainable and inclusive development is aimed to act as a replicable model for other aspiring cities.

Thus one facet of the smart cities in India, reflects infrastructural development and better quality of life, the other one is with respect to the employability. A McKinsey Global Institute study estimated that cities would generate 70% of the new jobs created by 2030, produce more than 70% of the Indian gross domestic product and drive a fourfold increase in per capita income across the country.

Thus the ‘E’ factor of smart cities which we are discussing here is ‘THE EMPLOYABILITY FACTOR OF SMART CITIES’.

THE ‘E’ FACTOR OF SMART CITIES

As the government will be pumping more and more funds towards building smart cities, it will create an electro-magnetic effect on the private sector as well and the overall impact can be seen in terms of better employment opportunities for the youth of India.

But the question which has always existed in the minds and hearts of all wise people, let that be the prime minister of India or this very institute, is:

Does the youth of India is equipped with the requisite employability skills?

The answer to the question is at one side, a nightmare and on the other side an opportunity to bring reforms.

One of the reason of the nightmare could be the teaching methodology adopted by Indian education system, which is the ‘deductive method’ of learning, where in students are passed through multiple levels in schools and colleges but their employability quotient is never questioned.

Thus there arises a gap between ‘what industry needs’ and ‘what educational system is providing’. As deductive method of learning is more inclined towards providing degrees and certificates only, year by year we have pool of graduates and post graduates who pass out through their academics but are still left unemployed, were as industry on the other hands needs people.

Now again, as rightly said by our honourable prime minister Shri Narendra Modi, we need to enhance the employability probability of the youth of our nation.

Similarly, while we are talking about creating the smart cities in India, we need to plough in equal amount of efforts towards enhancing the employability factor of the youth of the nation. To do this we need to work upon all the verticals, let that be the teaching methodology, faculties, course contents as well as student involvement.

At Dnyansagar Institute of Management and Research (DIMR), we believe that the employability of an individual depends upon his learnings and in the learning process, how an individual learns matters the most, thus the inductive method of learning implemented at our institute is a step towards enhancing the employability probability of an individual. Wherein the focus is to bridge the gap between education and industry.