IN: Under smart city mission, over 357 projects worth over ₹11,000 crore completed in Gujarat
With an extensive network of roads and railways, along with the development of international airports and ports, Gujarat today has a well-developed transport network that provides excellent connectivity to its citizens. To manage the increasing traffic in urban areas efficiently, overbridges and underbridges are being constructed across the state. In particular, in the four major cities, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara, and Surat, a strong road network is being developed through such infrastructure, making transportation easier for citizens.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to visit Gujarat on March 31. During this visit, he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for various urban development projects.
Zambia builds ‘homegrown’ digital ID, seeks international expertise
Digital transformation is showing progress around the world. In Africa, the Zambian government is seeking an international partner through the Smart Zambia Institute (SZI) to support its planned digital ID rollout.
In a report by state broadcaster ZNBC, SZI National Coordinator Percy Chinyama revealed that Zambians are implementing the digital ID system through a ‘home-grown’ approach. However, he acknowledged that international partners may provide additional expertise.
Advancing citizen-first public services through AI and digital transformation
With governments worldwide turning to AI-driven digital transformation, Huawei took centre stage to explore how integrated platforms, data intelligence and “chat‑to‑process” innovations are reshaping service delivery, boosting efficiency and raising satisfaction across the public sector.
Governments across the world are under growing pressure to deliver faster, more accessible and more transparent services for citizens. Driven by ageing populations, rising citizen expectations and budget constraints, administrations are having to rethink how public services are designed and delivered – and AI-enabled digital solutions are helping their cause.
Urban AI should not be understood as a single, inevitable next stage of the smart city, say researchers
Jun Zhang and colleagues have published a new article in Urban Geography arguing that urban AI should not be understood as a single, inevitable next stage of the smart city. Instead, it shows that AI urbanism is a contested political and discursive formation—a set of truth-claims about what AI is, what it can do, and why it should govern.
Using a Foucauldian discourse analysis, the paper asks how ideas such as autonomy become credible and actionable in urban governance, and how they reshape who gets to decide, what counts as rational policy, and whose futures are made governable in AI's name. In this way, the paper shifts focus away from technical capability alone and toward the politics of how AI is made legitimate.
ES: Cities must lead digital shift, says Madrid’s tech chief
Digital transformation is about how organisations work and people collaborate, explains Fernando de Pablo, director of the Digital Office of the City of Madrid
As cities across Europe accelerate digital transformation, questions of governance, interoperability and public trust are coming to the fore. Despite heavy investment in digital tools, the real challenge lies in how institutions adapt, collaborate and deliver tangible improvements for citizens.
Madrid has emerged as a leading example of this shift, as cities take a more central role in shaping digital public services. The Spanish capital will host the GovTech 4 Impact World Congress (G4I), bringing together policymakers, practitioners and industry leaders to exchange lessons on digital government.