Seminar on Cyber Security Planned on 16 March 2017

Second Meeting of Centre of Excellence on Cybersecurity was held on 30 Jan 2018 at New Town

The second meeting of the Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence took place yesterday where people from Academics, Industry, Police, Deptt of IT&E, Webel, Govt of India and others took place. We decided to hold a full day workshop on educational and training facilities available in Bengal and Eastern India. This would enable all to spread information on admission procedure, duration etc if students wanted to build careers on cybersecurity or on re-skilling IT professionals through trainings.  The workshop would be held on 16th March 2018 at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre.

Some of the other decisions taken were:

1. A notice inviting Expression of Interest amongst empanelled agencies of CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team of India) would be floated for rate discovery on (a) remote VAPT (Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing) of government web-services and (b) end-point cyber health check-up of assets, systems and processes. Besides, M/s C-DAC , a Govt of India Undertaking, could also be engaged for the same activity

2. NIT Durgapur would consider the proposal for starting a course on Digital Forensics.

3. A workshop in the lines of an ‘exchange of knowledge’ mode would be arranged where stakeholders from the State, Centre, Academia, Law Enforcement and Private entities can participate and share their experiences, best practices, impediments faced along with their vision for the future.

4. Regarding Cyber Security Policy of West Bengal, it was decided the National Cyber Security Policy would be studied. The state policy would also chart out the statutory capacity required by the verticals of the CS-CoE to reach their respective goals.

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Today I saw an auto displaying an advertisement on the back hood near Karunamoyee bus stand. This is as follows. Looks like, Cybersecurity is getting traction even in the unorganised sector !

Street View, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality for New Town

To help one to decide whether or not to undertake a tour to Eco Park, Mother's Wax Museum as well as Biswa Bangla Convention Centre (especially for organisers), we are taking help of the digital platforms.  Feeds and information on Web-pages, Facebook / Twitter / YouTube feeds are regularly done by dedicated teams. Information on events is also sent via SMS to registered persons, registration being free and automatic.

Recently, we are trying to explore the Virtual Realty and Augmented Realty platforms too.

Thus, for example, in the Google Maps, a 3D walkthrough for Mother's Wax Museum can be seen at https://www.google.co.in/maps/@22.5996881,88.4721804,3a,75y,169.65h,61.79t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAF1QipOOPdsDwCthpIisNBrlRADx7LS8sJInfTvcaLWX!2e10!3e11!7i7700!8i3850?authuser=1 . You need to move the mouse and click at the virtual arrows to move forward and look around. This was uploaded three weeks ago and already 85,000 views have taken place.

A Virtual Realty Tour using drone photographs was uploaded during BGBS 2018 last week. This can be accessed at http://www.ecoparknewtown.com/ecoparkvr/ . Using the keyboard direction-arrows or by using the arrows on the screen, one can navigate around eco park and hit interest zones in the realty view to get transported to the next area of interest. If someone has Google Cardboard or a VR box and use the link on your smart mobile phone, you will see a stunning 3D virtual realty view, where you rotate and tilt your head to move around and enjoy the view around you.

An Augmented Reality Apps called "Convention Centre AR" is available at Google Play Store. It can be searched on the Googe Play Store and downloaded free on your Android Mobile. Once downloaded, the pictures in the BBCC AR Booklet (the BBCC AR Booklet is available at the Convention Centre Office) can be connected with the apps by pointing the mobile's camera to the photo while the Apps is running. The whole picture of the booklet comes to life, an AR Video is seen on the screen with people moving  around and in the midst of a simulated convention happening at the Centre. A great feature is the last page of the booklet that comes to life through the Apps to show how to reach the site of BBCC from E M By Pass / VIP Road from a flying drone point-of-view. The Convention Centre AR Apps and the booklet was launched during the BGBS 2018 on 16 Jan 2018

One Crore Foot-falls in Eco Park

Yesterday 20th January 2018, Eco Park visitors surpassed the 1,00,00,000 mark. This is a cumulative figure, beginning five years ago.

Commemorating 5 years of Eco Park, we have published a booklet. This can be seen at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_-A-gdqj_uHSEkxb1kxR2V3ZWtYNkRwbkRIalQyNXdXZmRr/view?usp=sharing  . It is available for purchase at Eco Park @Rs50.

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http://ifuturecities.com/institute-for-future-cities-researchers-to-help-shape-new-indian-city/

http://indiaeducationdiary.in/institute-future-cities-agrees-partnership-new-town-kolkata-development-authority/

Community Market Project near Shukhobrishti

Groundbreaking of Community Market Project yesterday (19th Jan 2018)

The road in front of Shukhobrishti Complex is full of unauthorised roadside shops. We conducted a survey on the type of shops and names. We discovered, interestingly, that while in other parts like those in front of Unitech where NKDA has already built a Community Market the number of food stalls was the most, here, in Action Area 3, the spread is wider with even hair cutting saloons and fruit / chicken stalls. Actually, the street economics of the large residential area - only lately being serviced by a new Spencer's mall - ensures demand for the whole spectrum of shops one normally sees in a block market of Salt Lake and elsewhere. So we planned the rehabilitation market as per demand, planned for a segregation of dry and wet markets that is, fish - chicken- mutton on one side, groceries and vegetables on another side and food-stalls and services (xerox, hair cutting) on the front. A two storied office building for the market committee to keep an eye as if from a watch tower. Well dispersed spaces for bins. Parking space. All in a rather thin strip of land. But planning is done in consultation with stakeholders, panchayat, engineers and architect.

The work started yesterday. Will take 18 months. NKDA is building it. This will be the third such project after the one near Unitech in AA2 and Old Thana in AA1 - both hugely successfully running with rehabilitated street vendors.

EV Charging Design Competition

At NKDA: Designers' Meeting for EV Charging

New Town already has bike taxis, e-rickshaws, eco carts (golf carts) and EVs (Electric Vehicles). Hidco has an EV of Mahindra (e2O) that is used often. The idea is to encourage use of EVs as much as possible to minimise emissions and become green friendly. In fact, like our recent dockless GPS controlled public cycle sharing scheme, we are also thinking of having shared GPS controlled EVs.

However, users of EVs suffer from what The Economist refers to as the "charging anxiety", an anxiety that battery will drain out and then the EV will stop. To address this, it is necessary to have fast charging stations every few kilometres so that there is always a place for charging the battery of an EV.

So a design competition was invited by NKDA (see https://nkdamar.org/Tender/115.pdf ) and the idea is that external design and internal technical design will be done by intending persons for being evaluated by an expert panel . The first would be given a prize of Rs 1 lakh. Today was the day of pre-design conference.

We clarified that (a) the design would be validated first with a prototype (b) 7 days' time extension as prayed for would be allowed (c) "fast charging" should be ideally 2 hours (d) normal / slow charging options for scooties/ totos etc as well as fast charging option should be there (e) prepaid meters would be used.
https://www.thebetterindia.com/128599/kolkata-e-vehicle-charging-points/

New Town, the M.I.C.E destination of South Asia... (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions)

New Town Kolkata is the Singapore of Kolkata. It is a Green City, It has the best infrastructure. It has IT, Financial and Educational Hubs. It has a fine work-life balance.It is becoming a leading MICE destination of South Asia.

There is the largest urban park in India, a 480 acre Eco Park where  one can experience Seven Wonders, Japanese Forest and Sculpture Garden. Rose Garden, Butterfly Garden and Heliconia Garden. Mask Garden, Tea Garden and Herbal Garden. Duo-cycling, boating and zorbing. Rabi Aranya, Musical Fountain and Mother's Wax Museum. Toy train, Cafe Ekante and Children's Park. Most of all, clean air, green vistas and blue water provides a fine relaxing experience Eco Park. No wonder, it witnessed the highest footfall (1.38 lakh) on 1st January 2018 in Kolkata.

 Work happens in the IT Hubs of TCS Gitanjali, DLF-I, DLF-II, Eco Space, Candor Techspace, Webel IT Park and more than 50 IT offices. 23 banks and financial institutions have taken up plots in the Financial Hub while the huge SBI Institute of Management has started functiong. A FinTech Hub is also being set up. Quality power, pure water from Hoogly River, dedicated Optical Fibre Duct Network, and Public Art consisting of original sculptures and the upcoming Biswa Bangla Gate add to the interest of New Town.

St Xaviers' University, IIT, Alia University, Presidency University, Amity University, UEM University, Techno India as well as other Colleges and institutions of higher learning is likely to make New Town a rich source of youth and talent to form a virtuous cycle with the IT and FinTech Hub.

Besides the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre with its upcoming 100 key collocated hotel(see picture above), there are star hotels (Novotel, Pride, Swissotel, Holiday Inn and Westin) as well as Ekante Cottages and more than 19 OYO homes. With more than 78 food courts including Cafe Ekante, and attractions like Mother's Wax Museum, Nazrul Tirtha, Rabindra Tirtha, Swapna Bhor Seniors' Park, Business Club, Golf Arena, and, of course, Eco Park, New Town is fast emerging as a MICE destination for the country and south Asia.

The Tata Medical Centre is a prime cancer hospital of Eastern India. Ohio Hospital, Bhagirathi Neotia Mother and Child Care, Shankar Netrlaya, Alo Eye Hospital and many upcoming units incluing Nursing Colleges make New Town an ideal Health Care destination as well.


New Town has an area of 7,000 acres, designed for a population of 1 million, is 5 minutes from the Airport, is being connected with metro rail, and is always innovating with experiments such as bike taxis, energy saving street lights, GPS enabled smart bicycle sharing, and Wi Fi enabled 10 km long Biswa Bangla Sarani.

Brainstorming Session for Innovation Centre

At IT&E Department today: Innovation Inputs

The State Govt has decided to set up a Centre of Innovation at Bantala. A building construction has already started and is expected to be commissioned within 2018.

In order however to decide how the centre should function, we held a brainstorming session with many thought leaders and experts from IIM, IIT, University of Kolkata, WBUT, Assocham, PwC, Sumantrana, Intueri, Praxis, Fujisoft, Start-Ups and others.

After intense discussions, it was roughly decided as follows (I requested all to give inputs separately by 31st January):
1. The goal of the Centre of Innovation would be to produce (a) patents / IPRs and (b) upscale knowledge in emerging areas like blockchain, fintech, IoT, robotics etc
2. The aim would be to network with industry and academic institutions by video workshops / interactions, webinars, web, linked-in, apps etc as well as actual workshops
3. The task would be to invite successful patent holders and mentors to handhold aspiring young innovators and help them with industry problems and mentors.
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https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/-kolkata-to-emerge-as-a-big-financial-centre-by-2030-1131553-2018-01-10