Gurgaon and Chennai are the two cities in India that have been awarded with IBM Smarter Cities Challenge Grant for 2013.
This grant from IBM provides the city with access to IBM's top experts to analyze and recommend ways that will enable Gurgaon and Chennai to become even better places to live and work.
Launched in 2011, the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge is a three-year, 100-city, US$50 million competitive grant programme. IBM's single-largest philanthropic initiative, the programme assigns a team of six top IBM experts to each winning city to study a key issue identified by the city's leadership.
Towards the close of the project, IBM experts will provide city leaders with analysis and recommendations to support successful growth, better delivery of municipal services, more citizen engagement, and improved efficiency.
For year-three of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge, cities around the world once again competed vigorously to benefit from IBM's talent and expertise. The winning cities proposed innovative projects and areas of focus for IBM experts.
"We congratulate Gurgaon and Chennai selected as IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant recipients for 2013. This was a difficult decision because so many cities made strong cases to earn our time and talent," said Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice-President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, and President of IBM's Foundation.
"It is a privilege to share with these cities the talent and expertise of our most gifted employees, who are the envy of the industry. They have premier skills in a range of disciplines – all useful for helping to build smarter cities and a smarter planet."
