In news

Eatsmart Cities Challenge and Transport 4 All Challenge Launched

EatSmart Cities Challenge

The ‘Eat Right India’ movement initiated by FSSAI under the aegis of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, has gone a long way in creating awareness amongst the people about eating safe, healthy and sustainably. 

Aim

The EatSmart Cities Challenge aims to motivate Smart Cities to develop a plan that supports a healthy, safe and sustainable food environment supported by institutional, physical, social, and economic infrastructure along with the application of ‘smart’ solutions to combat food related issues.

Detail

• 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.
  
• This unique challenge, in partnership with Smart Cities Mission will create an environment of right food practices and habits, strengthen the food safety and regulatory environment, build awareness among the consumers and urge them to make better food choices in India’s major cities and can set an example for other cities to follow. 
  

Transport 4 All (T4All) Challenge

• Indian cities have the golden opportunity to invest in public transport as a social good, completely revamp informal transit services, and prioritise digital innovation to improve user experience.
  
• 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.

Detail

• 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.
  
• The solutions will make public transport—formal as well as informal— safe, convenient, and affordable for all.
  
• 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

Source: PIB