India, France announce
Smart Cities partnership

| April 11, 2015

On Friday, April 10, at the invitation of French President Francois Hollande, the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi began an official two-day visit to France. Acting on behalf of their respective governments, the two leaders issued a 42-point joint statement that included the following section, expressing a mutual desire to help each other advance these initiatives. To see the full document, click here.

#8. SMART CITIES

Smart Cities development is a key area to foster sustainable development solutions. France welcomes India's offer to be a partner of the Smart Cities development scheme and is ready to implement its best technological solutions and share its experience in the field of integrated sustainable cities, in particular in urban planning, urban grids, water and sanitation, sustainable mobility and digital technologies. The two leaders noted with satisfaction:

A) The high level exchanges and progress in bilateral cooperation in the field of sustainable urban infrastructure development and the enhancement in the scope of India-France Agreement for Cooperation in Sustainable Urban Development to include subjects such as 'transport' and 'heritage' for priority bilateral cooperation under the existing mechanism;

B) That in view of the interest expressed by the French side in collaboration with India for development of Smart Cities from among the list of cities to be identified by the Government of India, it was agreed to include Smart City cooperation as an area of technical cooperation under the October 2012 Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Sustainable Urban Development between France and India. This cooperation would include working together on feasibility studies, building capacities at national, region and local levels, organizing workshops/trainings, forging business-to-business partnerships and implementing any other projects mutually determined.