Eatsmart Cities Challenge and Transport 4 All Challenge Launched

Context

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the EatSmart Cities Challenge and Transport 4 All Challenge.

About EatSmart cities challenge

• Organization:The EatSmart Cities Challenge was organized in association with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Competition:The EatSmart Cities Challenge is envisioned as a competition among cities to recognize their efforts in adopting and scaling up various initiatives under Eat Right India.
  • Eat Smart Cities Challenge will have a positive impact on the eating habits of the urban
  • It will create a social and behavioral change towards food safety, hygiene, and nutrition.
  • It will help in creating an environment of right food practices and habits, strengthening the food safety and regulatory environment, building awareness among the consumers, and urge them to make better food choices in India’s major cities.
• Partnership: The challenge is initiated in partnership with Smart Cities Mission.
• Cities involved: The challenge will be open to all Smart Cities, capital cities of States /UTs, and cities with a population of more than 5 lakh.

Transport 4 All (T4All) Challenge

• Ministry:The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Transport 4 All challenge in collaboration with ITDP.
• Aim:The Challenge aims to bring together cities, citizen groups, and start-ups to develop solutions that improve public transport to better serve the needs of all citizens. It is a citizen-centric approach.
  • The first edition of the Challenge focuses on digital innovation.
  • Cities and start-ups will receive guidance to develop and test various solutions, learn from them, and scale them to build people’s trust in public transport and enhance their mobility.
• All the Smart Cities Mission cities, capitals of states and union territories (UTs), and all cities with a population of over 5 lakhs—are eligible for the Challenge.
• Three Stages of the Challenge
  • Stage I PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION: Cities, with the support of NGOs, identify key recurring problems that citizens and public transport operators face
  • Stage II SOLUTION GENERATION: Start-ups develop prototypes of solutions to improve public transport with inputs from cities and NGOs
  • Stage III PILOT TESTING: Cities engage start-ups for large-scale pilots and refine the solutions based on citizen feedback
• key stakeholders: Municipal Corporation, Smart City SPV, city bus undertaking, metro and suburban rail, regional transport office, traffic police, road owning agencies, Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) unions, NGOs, and academic institutes working in the field of sustainable transport.