Oracle, Maharashtra sign MoU for Smart City digital initiative

NEW DELHI: Oracle and the Government of Maharashtra have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) intended to accelerate the state’s digital transformation initiatives.

Leveraging Oracle Cloud solutions, Oracle and the Government of Maharashtra will develop the State’s smart city program, with the goal of making the State’s urban landscape more livable and inclusive, while driving economic growth.

According to the MoU, Oracle and the Maharashtra Government will create a Center of Excellence (CoE) to help accelerate its smart city program and modernize the Government’s technology solutions. The CoE, housed in Mumbai, will serve as a research platform to design, develop and test new capabilities that will deliver better government-to-citizen (G2C) and government-to-business (G2B) services.

"Benefiting from the power of the Cloud, the CoE will enable rapid innovation with minimal capital expenditures. In addition, the CoE will offer a flexible and scalable common framework, as well as a team of experts, allowing individual cities to scale and replicate its solutions," as per MoU.

The proposed projects, to be finalized before the end of the calendar year, include:

Smart city in a box

Mobile platform for service questions

Unified app development for services like drivers license renewals or property tax payments

Digital platform to deliver smart city services across the state

Connected infrastructure across all devices, kiosks and citizens

Infrastructure services for equipment and IT

Resources to manage transportation logistics, including analytics, asset tracking, fleet management

Resources to manage utilities, including water and power

Many of these projects will support the government’s e-services program aimed at citizens, visitors, business establishments and government officials. Both Oracle and the Government of Maharashtra will invest in IT infrastructure, training and skillset resources as well as management of the CoE.

The Government of Maharashtra, the largest state economy in India<2>, initiated a program in April to develop 10 smart cities<3>, adding to the 33 announced by the central government in the 100 smart cities initiative<4>.

“Cloud computing has changed the landscape of governance. It has the power to enable inclusive growth and to transform the state into a digitally empowered society,” said Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister, Government of Maharashtra.

“Together with Oracle, we want to build a new, efficient, transparent and inclusive system that benefits our people. The CoE is a step in that direction and will make more government services available with the click of a button. I look forward to working with Oracle on this important mission," said Chief Minister.

“We are thrilled to further our commitment in India by working with the Government of Maharashtra and the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, to help position India as a world-class design and manufacturing epicenter. The Cloud Center of Excellence powered by Oracle will play a key role in improving the lives of the people of this state,” said Safra Catz, CEO, Oracle Corporation.

“By moving to the Cloud, the Government has the opportunity to create a digitally empowered society and a growing knowledge economy. We look forward to making this partnership a success," said CEO.

This follows Oracle’s recent commitment with the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, to support the country’s global digital leadership. Oracle unveiled a massive, state-of-the-art campus centered in Bengalaru, nine incubation centers throughout India, and an initiative to train more than half a million students each year to develop computer science skills.