Need to focus on leveraging IT to build smarter cities in India: BJP

Gupta emphasized his views during an address on Urban Matters at the SAP Forum for Public Services in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The recently concluded General Elections 2014 was a clear example of how India’s leading political party and the winner, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leveraged SAP Social Media Analytics to help uncover and extract emotions, behaviors and sentiments of Indian citizens to gain insights and engage with the citizens for their successful campaign, the company said in a statement.

“Today, citizens want effective delivery of services, improved governance and transparency in the functioning of big, complex and constantly changing cities,” said  Gupta.

“To ensure better government-citizen connect and community collaboration BJP is working towards building a 'Digital India' where innovation, research and technology will play a major role," he said.

BJP has started a social media campaign where volunteers and citizens can collaborate and contribute.

This platform was also leveraged during the General Election 2014 for aggregating the top news and political content across the web every day.

Gupta also believes that the power of real time analytics can bring the required transformation in handling a range of urban issues from Smart Utilities and Traffic Management.

“Challenged by rapid urbanization and rising population density, Indian cities need new models for sustainable growth, risk mitigation, resource management and financial restraint,” said Mathew Thomas, Vice President – Strategic Industries, SAP India.

“Our government’s vision echoes SAP's interest in helping build a strong foundation for inclusive, effective and transparent government,” he added.