In his keynote address, Dr Kumar Pratap said that in the area of urban development India has a lot to learn from Singapore.
And if India was looking for a country as a benchmark in its development goal, then it has to be Singapore, he said.
Dr Pratap was speaking at the fourth Singapore-India Business Dialogue hosted by the Singapore Management University (SMU) on November 15.
The theme of the dialogue was Sustainable Urban Management in Singapore and India.
Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong was the Guest of Honour at the event.
Dr Pratap said that orderly urbanisation is necessary for India in order for the country to sustain its high growth rate.
Urban Indians number 31 per cent but they contribute 63 per cent to the national GDP.
These numbers are bound to grow, he noted, saying that 40 per cent of India’s population will be living in urban areas and will contribute 75 per cent to the GDP by 2030.
The challenge will be in providing minimum urban services to this rapidly growing urban population.
And therein comes opportunities.
Most of it will be from India’s Smart Cities Mission which aims to develop 100 cities.
The idea is to begin with a compact area in the city and develop that area as Smart City by providing a package of core infrastructure and smart solutions. In his address, Minister Wong also touched on the compactness of cities.
He said that a compact, dense and well-planned city is in fact one of the most green and sustainable ways to live.
“Our physical footprint becomes smaller, we reduce travelling time between urban sprawls and reap the benefits of shared resources and amenities,” he said.
Mr Wong said Singapore highly values its relations with India and several Singapore companies are doing business in India.
He mentioned Sembcorp as one of the biggest foreign investors in India’s power sector.
He added that Singapore and India can partner each other to grab the opportunities that come with the challenges of urbanisation and create more sustainable cities for the future.
Earlier, in her welcome address, Provost of SMU Lily Kong said that urban management and sustainability is one of the five areas of excellence that SMU has identified as it aims to build its reputation as a premier university in Asia.
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