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A task force comprised of Central, concerned state governments and US for jointly developing Allahabad, Ajmer and Vishakhapatnam as smart cities and has set a three month deadline for preparing the road map.
Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu and US secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker in the national capital, during this meeting they both have agreed to form a task force for preparing a roadmap towards the realization of smart cities concept in India.
Central government and concerned state governments with the assistance of the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTAD) will work out on the required areas for developing these cities. "The road map will be worked out in three months," Naidu said on Tuesday.
The initiative was actually taken place during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US last September, and the issue was mentioned in the Joint Statement.
After the discussion with US secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker, Naidu said, "It is now time for both the sides to walk the talk by acting quick and concretizing the agreements reached."
Pritzker also met commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the day. They both have discussed for about 40 minutes and reportedly they came across smart cities, Intellectual Property Rights, FDI and feasibility of investing in India.
The Indian side also highlighted the recent policy decisions such as hiking the foreign direct investment limit in insurance and defence sectors, where American companies can invest.
"We have asked for possibilities where technology could be shared too and also to bring in investment to help small and medium enterprises of India," Sitharaman said.
Smart cities will enable more quality of life, work and rapid growth in economy and technology. India and US are strengthening their relationship for mutual benefits, Indian side expecting huge investment and assistance from US to develop infrastructure, technology and skills in India, where as US is expecting strong market and potential business from India.
-Kannamsai
