The DataSmart Urban 95 initiative is being undertaken by the Bernard Van Leer Foundation (BvLF) in partnership with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). The objective of this partnership it to mainstream the needs of infants, toddlers, and their caregivers by leveraging the Smart Cities Mission’s on-going work of creating an a data-driven decision-making ecosystem in urban India. BvLF has been working with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) since 2014 to influence national urban policy and city level planning. While significant progress has been achieved in pushing forward the agenda of child friendly cities, outstanding data gaps and insufficient or inaccessible data have proven to be a hindrance in prioritization of constituent issues and establishment of their relevance and significance. However, these data barriers can be addressed alongside the Smart Cities Mission which has prioritized the creation of an open data culture to promote data-driven decision-making. By prompting the ecosystem to count those who are not counted- i.e. infants, toddlers, and their caregivers (ITCs), investments made within the 100 Smart Cities can be influenced to include needs of ITCs. The Smart Cities Mission has laid out an evolving DataSmart Cities Strategy defined by three pillars of People, Process, and Platforms. Significant work has been initiated across these pillars at the national and city levels, including setting up a Data Analytics and Management Unit that drives the DataSmart Cities initiative across 100 Smart Cities under the Mission. NIUA’s DataSmart Urban 95 team work is described under four categories – (i) ITCN Indicators & Data Maturity; (ii) Performance Dashboard; (iii) City Analysis and Case Study; and (iv) Capacity Building. NIUA's DataSmart Urban 95 team will serve as the Nodal agency for this work and and will lean on the depth and breadth of knowledge repository and expertise of NIUA, BvLF and their partners through this engagement.
Shafeeq Ahmed Manager Information & Technology