New Generation Infrastructure to Acquire Three Toll Road Projects in India
October 6, 2014
New Generation Infrastructure, Inc. (NGI), a subsidiary of New Generation Holdings, Inc., a global leader in renewable energy and infrastructure, today announced they have entered into an agreement to acquire three toll road projects from Valecha Infrastructure Limited (VIL).
NGI will invest approximately $60 million USD toward acquiring stakes from the project’s equity partners – VIL and Piramal Infrastructure Private Limited. Artha Energy Resources (AER) will advise the transaction.
Original agreements between Valecha Group and various state governments in India involved the development, operation and maintenance of the toll road projects on a build, operate & transfer (BOT) basis in the states of Madhya and Gujarat.
“We take pride in the quality and timely delivery of the various infrastructure projects we undertake. Our BOT journey began just under five years ago and this deal will be a landmark deal for the company completing a full circle of build, operate and now transfer to our partners, New Generation Power. Valecha will now focus on completion of its existing projects and bidding for larger projects under the new government to continue setting newer benchmarks in the industry,” said Jagdish Valecha, Director of Valecha Engineering Limited.
Together, the three BOT toll roads have an estimated enterprise value equivalent to $207 million USD.
“This transaction sets another milestone for FDI in the Indian infrastructure sector,” said Dimple G. Jangda, Managing Partner of Rudra Investments, advisor to the M&A transaction on all three toll roads. “This will facilitate larger interest from international investment groups that have been closely watching the Indian market over the last few months.”
Traditionally, the Indian government had built most of the country’s roads through regular EPC contracts. In the last five years, there has been a shift toward executing these roads through a public-private partnership model, which exists worldwide.
With the constant demand for quality infrastructure in a fast developing country, these often run-down and heavily congested roads have threatened to slow-down economic development. Private companies such as NGI have stepped in to help fund these infrastructure projects.
The project will represent a balance of operating and under construction toll roads.
Lebad Manpur BOT toll road is a four-lane, new alignment project located in the state of Madhya Pradesh and goes from Lebad on State Highway 31 to Manpur on National Highway 3. With a strong influence on the surrounding industrial areas, the toll road helps facilitate additional investments and industrial setups throughout the State.
Part of State Highway 39, Badwani Sendhwa, is a 57km stretch connecting Badwani and Sendhwa via Palsood in Madhya Pradesh. The road serves as an agricultural link for produce, forestry and mineral wealth between nearby areas.
Lastly, Bhuj-Bhachua is a 77km stretch of toll road in the state of Gujarat still under construction. Plans to improve road conditions and create wider lanes on a BOT basis are currently underway. After recovering from a devastating earthquake in 2001, the project road, located in Kutch District, now forms a major industrial hub along with National Highway 8A, where the project road ends.
Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Chairman of NGI, commented, “This acquisition adds tremendous value to our already diversified India investment portfolio. We want to continue making a sizable impact on the economy by facilitating growth for other industries. These infrastructure investments in emerging markets can help boost the economy while facilitating easy trade in and around these regions.”
As part of the company’s strategic growth plan, NGI will continue to explore various opportunities in both developing and developed countries globally. Most recently, the company has been assigned the license to build one of the largest biomass facilities in Japan under the current Feed-in-Tariff program.
ABOUT NEW GENERATION POWER
NGP is headquartered in Chicago, and is a global investor, owner and operator of infrastructure assets in the key areas of Utility Scale Power Generation including Conventional and Renewable Energy Production, Distributed Generation and Mining Exploration & Extraction in the USA and internationally. NGP is developing world class Infrastructure projects including Toll Roads and Energy projects about 3000 MW in capacity in areas of hydro, solar, wind, thermal projects across the globe. The company will be generating energy for developed and developing countries that will create job opportunities and employment for several million people. Visit the company online at http://www.newgenpower.com.
ABOUT VALECHA ENGINEERING LIMITED
With over 50 years of Engineering Pedigree, Valecha Engineering Limited is one of the leading construction and infrastructure development company in India Listed in the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company constructs various infrastructure and engineering projects, including roads, highways, and expressways; bridges and tunnels; airports; irrigation dams, reservoirs, and canals; and railways and specialized underground tunneling. The company also has a pedigree of working internationally and has done extensive foundation engineering works in the Middle East and is now also looking at opportunities in part of Africa and other developing counties.
ABOUT ARTHA ENERGY RESOURCES, LLP
Artha Energy Resources (AER) provide avenues for investments into renewable power. AER has relationships with governments, EPCs, developers, etc. across all verticals and stages of project development in India, Japan and the United States. They have advised 165 MW of transaction closures, bringing in a total of $548 million of renewable investments for 2014.
Source:Digital Journal
MNCs line up for a slice of India’s smart-city pie
October 6, 2014
With products and solutions ranging from connected lighting and connected networks to simulating smart cities and building management solutions, multinationals are eyeing a $35-billion IoT (Internet of Things) opportunity in India, of which smart cities are an integral part.
Harmonious systems“Cities can be built at much lower costs if Governments invest in simulation technology. We can simulate and create physical cities along with digital cities in 3-D, which can be improved and experimented upon by the urban planning department to check whether all the elements of the city and its multiple systems work in harmony,” Chandan Chowdhury, MD – India, Dassault Systemes, toldBusinessLine.
He said it would cost $2 million – $5 million to simulate a smart city environment for a city like Bangalore. Dassault has already done a smart city simulation pilot for Pondicherry city last year along with Power Grid Corporation of India.
Cisco has partnered with Electronics City Industries Association, Bangalore, to set up Asia’s first ‘Internet of Things Innovation Hub’ within a 5-km stretch.
Seventy software and hardware firms in Electronics City along and 50 start-ups will collectively work together, building on Cisco’s network infrastructure and expertise, to design and develop products, services and solutions for a Smart Connected City, to be ready in January-March 2015. “We are using our network infrastructure to deploy digitally-enabled transportation, healthcare, education, utilities, energy grid and real estate in cities. Electronics City will serve as a replicable model of a smart connected city for the rest of Bangalore, other cities in India, and other emerging markets in the world,” said Anil Menon, President, Smart+Connected Communities, and Deputy Chief Globalisation Officer, Cisco.
Intelligent outputsIntel offers an array of smart city solutions such as intelligent transportation systems, digital security surveillance, modernisation of the public distribution system, interactive retail solutions with integrated analytics, mobile healthcare platforms, sensor-based environmental sensing platform, energy management, capital goods monitoring and factory automation. “Our intelligent transportation project has been deployed in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat,” said Satish Jadhav, Country Manager & IoT lead – Embedded Business, Intel South Asia.
Philips’ connected LED Lighting solution, that allows streetlights to be instantly connected to and controlled by a remote lighting management system, has been installed at Naya Raipur, one of India’s first few smart cities. “Philips foresees a future where lighting innovations connect seamlessly with smart controls, networks, devices and apps to improve lives,” said Sumit Joshi, Head – Marketing, Philips Lighting India. Frederick Fan, Network Connectivity, APAC region, Schneider Electric, said the company offers last mile network connectivity to buildings, from structured cabling to intelligent connectivity in all rooms. “Our key focus area is intelligent smart buildings and with the initiatives announced by the new Government, India shows the biggest potential for growth,” he said.
IBM has partnered with the Lodha Group to build and manage smart city infrastructure spanning 4,000 acres at the junction of Navi Mumbai and Dombivali. As a part of the project, IBM Intelligent Operations will serve as the backbone of city infrastructure and will centralise key city functions through real time monitoring and advanced analytics. Bosch has a digital platform of convergence which is capable of integrating audio, video, alarms, audit schemes and final projection to track traffic and secure workplaces, housing and other places of importance in a smart city. “Our smart city solutions centre around software engines where video solutions, access control, fire detection, communication products and analytics merge seamlessly and create intelligent output,” said Sudhir Tiku, Head – South Asia, Bosch Security Systems.
Source:Business Line
MMRDA sets ball rolling to make BKC smart city
October 6, 2014
A few days before the poll code of conduct set in, the Congress-led Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had called for tenders to create Maharashtra’s first smart city, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), the glitzy business district of the country’s commercial capital.
Building smart cities has been a major campaign agenda of the BJP and a dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Union government has set aside Rs 7,060 crore for the creation of 100 smart cities either by moulding satellite towns around large cities or modernising existing mid-sized cities.
The MMRDA, which was chaired by former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, on September 10 invited expressions of interest for basic smart city initiatives for surveillance, connectivity, parking facilities and citizen-centric services based on information and communication technology networks.
Naseem Khan, a Congress MLA and guardian minister for the Mumbai suburbs, said while projecting the overall infrastructure development brought about by his party, the Congress is also positioning the smart city initiative in BKC as a major achievement.
“BJP leaders are only talking about it. Congress leaders actually deliver. While they are still busy preparing the vision document for smart cities, the state Congress government has gone ahead and started tendering for a smart city,” Khan said.
Smart cities are those where data collected through sensors is used to enhance efficiency in utilities and citizens’ services such as electricity, water, drainage, gas, traffic, parking and so on, and enable real time monitoring by authorities. Effective eco-friendly transportation systems, transparent processes for commercial activities, and online approval systems are other hallmarks of a smart city.
A senior MMRDA official who did not wish to be named said, “What we are doing in BKC is just the basic first level of a smart city. We won’t reach the global standards by implementing these initiatives, but in the next five years, we will add on more smartness features with the network as the backbone and reach the level of cities such as Barcelona and Copenhagen.”
Under the plan, the MMRDA will first cover the 175-hectare area in a public wi-fi network at a high Internet speed of 5 Mbps. There would be 90 surveillance cameras with direct coordination with security agencies to keep an eye on the E and G blocks of the complex.
Visitors will be able to avail of a smart parking facility. They will know the nearest available parking slot of the 3,000 parking slots in BKC without having to manually hunt for one. This is expected to reduce unauthorised parking and will bring down the time required to park from 20 minutes to 5 minutes, the MMRDA official said.
The 841 streetlights in BKC would be equipped with solar panels to generate power during the day and utilise it after dark with motion sensors fitted on the lights so that they switch on based on requirement. Besides, citizen-centric mobile applications will be launched for emergency services, or to provide details of the nearest restaurants and so on, the official said. MMRDA has also planned to introduce electric and hybrid buses to ply within the business district and the nearest stations.
Source: Indian express
AP may get only 4 smart cities
October 6, 2014
The tall claims of the Andhra Pradesh government notwithstanding, the state may not get more than four smart cities.
The state government had recently proposed to develop 14 smart cities and three mega cities in the hope that the Centre will fund the project. But sources said that this was unlikely and that smart cities may come up only in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Nellore. Incidentally, the former three are the ones that chief minister Chandrababu Naidu dreams of turning into mega cities.
A senior official told TOI that though the AP government has demanded a lion’s share in the smart cities programme of the central government, it may turn a reality. “It is not reasonable to demand a 10 per cent share from the Centre, which wants to develop 100 smart cities across the country,” the official pointed out. According to sources, nearly Rs 7 lakh crore will be spent on 100 smart cities in the next seven years.
The concept of a smart city is wide, with a mix of industrial development and urbanisation with high quality governance to facilitate ease of business. Various other elements that would be incorporated into these cities include IT-enabled mechanism for transactions, energy efficient network, water and solid waste management facilities and quality public transport network. In short, they will be provided with metro, BRTS, ring road, Wi-Fi connection, 24 hour water supply and power supply.
The Centre has not yet framed the guidelines on the smart city concept and a clear picture will only emerge once the detailed project report is ready. “We need a consultancy, which in turn will prepare the terms of reference for another professional consultancy to prepare the detailed project report,” said an expert who is helping the AP government on urban planning issues. The smart cities concept will be devolved on the lines of the Gujarat international financial tech city (GIFT) and the Delhi Mumbai Industrial corridor (DMIC) undertaken by the respective governments. According to an official, smart cities will have the benefit of betterment of amenities like dynamic traffic signalling system in place of static ones which have time frame fixed for 30 seconds. In this system traffic will be monitored by CC cameras and accordingly signal time will be adjusted automatically. Presently Bangalore has adopted this system in some areas.
Source:Times Of India
PM Modi’s US visit: US to help India develop three smart cities Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam
October 6, 2014
WASHINGTON: In a boost to India’s 100 smart city programme, the US will help India in developing three such cities apart from joining hands with civil society and authorities to provide clean water and sewage facilities in 500 cities in the country.
The three cities are Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam. This announcement was made after the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obamahere yesterday.
While presenting the Budget for 2014-15, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the Prime Minister has a vision of developing 100 smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernising the existing mid-sized cities.
“With development reaching an increasingly large number of people, the pace of migration from the rural areas to the cities is increasing,” Jaitley had said.
Wounding up his whirlwind five-day US visit yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi “thanked” America and called his trip a highly “successful and satisfactory” one.
Source:Economic Times
Modi US visit: Three Indian cities to be named for smart cities project
October 1, 2014
WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: Three Indian cities are in line to be adopted for the government’s “smart cities” project by way of technology and infrastructure upgrade during IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks in Washington that are also set to see major cooperation with the US in the field of renewable energy.
The Modi government is keen to push ahead with its smart cities project under which 100 smaller cities are to be upgraded to match the resources of the top metros. Japan has evinced interest in developing the oldest living city of Varanasi into a smart city.
Three Indian cities are likely to be identified as part of the smart cities project during talks in Washington, said an official source declining to be named.
Renewable energy, including solar, wind and hydro, would also see cooperation with the US in the field in India. Modi has been pushing for the use of renewable energy, and the visit is expected to see major cooperation in this sector, with the US EXIM bank expected to provide the loans.
The sticky issue of India’s Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime is also to be in focus during the talks. US firms have decried India’s IPR regime as restrictive.
The US has been irked after the Supreme Court last year rejected drug major Novartis’s plea for a patent on cancer drug Glivec in April. The Indian government also last year invoked compulsory licence on BayerCorporation’s cancer-treatment drug Nexavar, permitting Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma to manufacture and sell the drug at a price lesser by over 30 times charged by its patent-holder.
The US feels that IPRs are not being adequately enforced in India and following the grant of compulsory licence to manufacture Bayer’s anti-cancer drug there is concern that there could be more such compulsory licences.
India would also be discussing the issue of totalisation during the talks. The issue has been under discussion with the US for the past several years. India has almost 300,000 Indian professionals working in the United States and they all contribute to the Social Security System of the US, but they cannot derive benefits from the system because they can only work for about seven years under the immigration regime. Under US law social security benefits are given only if a person lives there beyond 10 year
The US is asking India to enter into a reciprocal totalisation agreement and is presently studying the kind of agreements India has entered into with Canada, where too many Indians are working.
Source:The Economic Times
IIT-B’s techfest hosts Smart City Challenge
October 1, 2014
The permier technology institute has taken inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of building 100 new Smart Cities across the country. Gauri Rane reports
Each year, IIT-B’s Techfest focuses on development of the society through its various initiatives. This year’s theme of the annual national technology festival is to develop smart cities under the initiative — Smart City Challenge. “The motive of the competition, is to make our countrymen aware of the importance of using renewable energy sources and live in an eco-friendly environment,” says Yash Mehta, core team member, Techfest 2015. It is a brainchild of Vaibhav Kore, a core team member of the fest. “But instead of inviting ideas to design a new smart city, we thought of getting ideas/solutions to solve the problems that already exist in our cities and make them smarter and efficient,” explains Mehta.
Core members of the fest have given a multi-pronged approach to the challenge. They have come up with genres like healthcare and hygiene, trade and commerce, law and policy making and urban aesthetics along with infrastructure to develop the cities. Since all these fields are interconnected, the competition is open to students (undergraduate and postgraduate) from all streams like engineering, architecture, management, commerce, arts and design.
Over 800 teams have registered till now. In the first phase of the challenge participants have sent a report as per the problem statements in each of the above mentioned five genres. “They have to design models and sketches along with a powerpoint presentation at the end of the second round explaining what changes will their solutions bring to the current scenario and how impactful they would prove to be,” informs Mehta. The best entries will then qualify to the second round where mentors, who are experts from different fields will provide guidance on how to shape the ideas and develop them to the implementation level. The expert panel of over 50 mentors consists of IPS officers, IIT professors, corporate professionals and eminent government officers. “Getting a chance to interact with high-profile mentors is in itself a big incentive to the participants,” reflects Mehta.
Besides the prize money of Rs 5 lakhs for winners, another incentive to the participants is that, their ideas will be considered by the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC). They will also have the opportunity to pursue summer internship at its different associated organisations.
The organising committee plans to take this initiative forward by way of collaboration with other government organisations like Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), City and Industrial development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO). They have also approached the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Urban Development Ministry of the Government of India, Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) and Urban Development Department of the Government of Maharashtra for their consideration of the event. “We have also contacted the administration of Varanasi and expressed our willingness to contribute to the development of Smart and Spiritual Varanasi in light of the pact signed between India and Japan recently,” informs Mehta.
The new “Super green man” in traffic lights
October 1, 2014
LONDON — In the one-sided battle between pedestrians and the automobile, the first shot was fired in London in 1896 when 44-year-old Bridget Driscoll became what is believed to be the first pedestrian victim of a petrol-driven car.
Struck down by an automobile doing just 4mph during a demonstration at Crystal Palace, the grim sequence of events was so unfamiliar that one witness riding in the car told the inquest she felt a “peculiar sensation” as the car swerved to avoid Mrs Driscoll.
At the time, the coroner at the inquest expressed the hope that an incident of this type “would never happen again.”
Fast forward 118 years and more than 270,000 pedestrians are killed on the world’s roads every year.
Striking a balance between the rights of the pedestrian and the car driver was once the preserve of the traffic cop — a human being that could judge traffic flows, calibrate changes and react to circumstances as they occur.
But as traffic volumes increased and the task became automated with traffic lights, the frustrations all too familiar to pedestrians — lights that seem never to show the “green man” — are now tolerated as a normal part of urban life.
London, however, is set to trial a new system that aims to use the latest technology to regain the fluid responses of the traffic cop.
Source:Fox31
Called Pedestrian SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique), it is the first of its kind in the world and uses state-of-the-art video cameras to detect how many pedestrians are waiting at crossings.
When the cameras count a critical mass of pedestrians, the technology transmits data that keeps the “walk” sign lit for longer to allow more people to cross the road.
Similarly, when fewer people are waiting to cross the road, the traffic is given a longer set of green lights.
The SCOOT system already regulates London’s traffic flows and has been credited with cutting delays by 12% in the capital. It is in use at 3,000 junctions in the British capital, with a further 1,500 earmarked for SCOOT upgrades by 2018.
The Pedestrian SCOOT system, however, would be the first time the technology has been used as pedestrian pinch points in the capital.
“Our SCOOT system has been used around the world for many years use to optimize and coordinate the traffic signal junctions and we’ve done that currently and historically for vehicles,” explained Mark Cracknell, team leader of the Technology Delivery Group at Transport for London.
“We have inductive loops in the road that detect vehicles, do clever analysis of the traffic patterns and then coordinate the junctions to try to make the progress through the city as smooth as possible.”
Currently pedestrians at many crossings in London get a standard six seconds to get onto the road — known as the “green man” time — before countdown technology takes over telling pedestrians how long they have left to get across the street.
What SCOOT technology aims to do is dynamically change that “green man” time.
“If there’s only a few people waiting we’ll just go for the standard six seconds to cross, but if we’ve got 100 people waiting to cross we can increment that up to the appropriate time.
“What we’re avoiding is the scenario where we don’t have enough time to get everybody on the crossing and then pedestrians have to wait for another cycle of the traffic signals to get across.”
Cracknell said the system would have the most value where the pedestrian traffic is variable, for instance outside a school or a tube station.
“During the day there might be a low flow and you don’t want to be fixed with a high crossing time when there’s no one there,” he said. “There are technologies out there that can detect whether a pedestrian is waiting, but the technology we use actually quantifies and counts the number of people.
“We’re not aware that this is in use anywhere else in the world.”
At the heart of the technology is a stereoscopic camera that allows the sensors to detect and count crowds of people in three dimensions.
“They’re vision-based systems, the idea being traditional vision systems just have a single camera and there are a number of inherent flaws with that — things like shadows, puddles and changing light conditions can cause problems.
“The stereoscopic camera allows us to get a sense of depth — discount the puddles and the shadows — and just get a picture of the people standing there.”
Despite this it’s not all one-way traffic. Pedestrians that press the button on a set of lights and then change their minds and walk away are another challenge to the free flow of traffic.
Transport for London is trialing new technology that would detect when a pedestrian has changed their mind and strolled off or crossed the road before the “green man” signal.
“This is what we call ‘call cancel’ technology and we’re trialing it at different locations in London — it’s the combination of both SCOOT and ‘call cancel’ which we are looking at,” said Cracknell.
Ultimately, however, developing technology that brings back the function of the human traffic cop is the Holy Grail for Transport for London.
“We’re trying to be more intelligent with what we’re doing. Rather than just tweaking the splits of the vehicles, we will be catering for everybody,” Cracknell said.
3 Alternative Tech Startup Cities With Less Traffic, More Housing
October 1, 2014
Silicon Valley’s powerful entrepreneurial economy has resulted in some major downsides: gridlocked traffic, high housing prices and a growing and aggressive tech backlash. Today, three cities previously known more as vacation destinations are now legitimate alternatives to Silicon Valley life at a much more affordable price. For the adventurous startup or mature tech company, there’s life beyond red taillights, long commutes and protestors blockading buses.
Las Vegas, Denver and Reno, Nev., mix together a vibrant startup culture with world-class recreation or entertainment. And they all do it in places with plenty of affordable housing, a few million fewer highway-clogging cars and minus the debate over gentrification. Related: What Elon Musk Really Thinks of ‘Silicon Valley’
1. Las Vegas. Tony Hsieh gets credit for jump-starting Las Vegas’ startup scene with his $350 million Downtown Project, but the city has grown into much more than his personal project. Switch Communication’s founder, Rob Roy, is pumping money and energy into the InNEVation Center, a collaboration space that delivers some of the fastest Internet speeds in the world (courtesy of his company’s SuperNAP data center) and serves as a meeting place for startup and economic development events.
Las Vegas’ Downtown Container Park, where an enormous metal praying mantis sculpture shoots flames out of its antennae, hosts live music events along with unique retail and dining spots. It’s helping draw new hospitality sector investment like Seth Schorr’s new ultramodern Downtown Grand hotel, a gaming, dining and entertainment venue.
While the VegasTech Fund, founded by Hsieh, is a big influencer in town, early-stage and maturing Las Vegas companies can seek financing from the Las Vegas Valley Angels, Brennan Capital and state sources like the Battle Born Venture Fund and the Silver State Opportunities Fund.
Competitive advantages: Las Vegas is an hour’s flight away from California’s two biggest population centers and the center of the convention and trade show universe. Representatives of the largest companies in the world touch down for business networking and product launches. Las Vegas has affordable housing and business costs, anchor businesses like Zappos and Switch Communications and a year-round industry-event schedule. Median home prices are $164,700, according to Zillow; about half a million dollars less than San Jose’s. Related: Tech Firms Seeking Talent Spring for Spacious, Luxe Quarters
2. Denver. A healthy startup ecosystem includes companies of all maturity levels, whereby ones that have grown from shoestring outfits to market leaders might reinvest in the community. And Denver has businesses in fast-growing industries and companies large and small, young and mature. Denver-based businesses like HomeAdvisor, now a subsidiary of IAC with 1,200 employees, participate in community-building events like Denver Startup Week.
At the center of Denver’s startup activity is Galvanize, a 30,000-square-foot entrepreneurial campus including a venture capital funding firm, as well as collaborative co-working space and a social hub for events and education. Companies with origins in the Denver area include Mapquest, Photobucket, Rally Software, Cloudzilla and Forkly.
Firms like Grotech Ventures, with offices in Denver, are financing startups and are joined by large Boulder-based funds like the Foundry Group.
Competitive advantage: Denver is located in a mountainous region that many consider more of a vacation destination than a business hub. Indeed Colorado ski resorts are just down the highway and the area’s mountain biking and hiking trails are virtually endless. Denver offers all of this, while retaining an affordable cost of living. Home prices, at a median level of $254,800, are higher than in Reno, Nev., and Las Vegas, but still less than half the price of San Jose’s. Related: The 10 Best Cities for Buying or Selling a Home
3. Reno’s allure lies with its geographic location, affordability and emerging and energetic startup scene. It’s a morning’s drive from Silicon Valley and just a half-hour car trip from the ski slopes and beaches of Lake Tahoe. That mix of business friendliness, quality of life and entrepreneurial energy is attracting small, scrappy startups and the satellite offices of some of the world’s largest technology companies.
The Biggest Little City has transitioned from a gambling mecca into an entrepreneurial hot spot. Tesla Motors is eyeing the city to house its new “gigafactory,” a multibillon-dollar battery-production headquarters; Apple has already built a data center there and Intuit, Microsoft Licensing and Drone America are headquartered in town. Homegrown startups are sprouting downtown. Reno’s Startup Row along the Truckee River features cloud-computing companies and fitness-software outfits, a vibrant co-working collective and a hardware developer that builds microcontrollers.
Reno’s vibrant entrepreneurial culture includes 1 Million Cups events, hackathons and startup weekends all year long. Marmot Properties is remodeling and updating scores of Reno homes in central locations to house the influx of entrepreneurs.
Capital needed to fuel startup activity is also available: The Silver State Opportunities Fund is investing $50 million in Nevada-based business. And the Battle Born Venture Fund is a state fund that provides critical funding for early-stage, high-growth companies in Nevada. The Reno Accelerator Fund invests in early-stage companies in the capital.
Competitive advantage: Reno’s home prices are a world away from Silicon Valley’s. The median Reno home price is $198,700, according to Zillow (less than a third of San Jose’s) so nearby tech startups and maturing companies don’t have to worry about employees struggling to find homes or commuting long hours.
Reno’s tax environment is considered business friendly. And city’s startup scene is alongside a downtown whitewater kayak park with terrific skiing and a web of mountain bike trails nearby. Plus, Reno’s thriving bar, restaurant, coffee and entertainment scene includes Campo, named one of the nation’s best new restaurants by Esquire in 2012.
Source: business2community.com
AUTODESK DISPLAYS 3D SMART CITY MODEL OF MUMBAI
October 1, 2014
Autodesk, Inc., unveiled its prowess in digital city technology by showcasing a 3D Smart City model of Mumbai, at Autodesk University India & SAARC, 2014. A digital city provides a way for the public, city government, construction communities to combine mapping, building, civil engineering, and utility information into an accurate city model that can be used to simulate the future impact of decisions at a city-wide scale.
The 3D smart city model of Mumbai that was unveiled at Autodesk University 2014, is an intelligent projection of the possibilities that the city has in terms of becoming a smart city.
• The model covers around 40% Mumbai
data comprising of South Mumbai and Bandra area
• The data also includes data related to scenario of Metro Line 3, and iconic structures.
• For developers, architects, urban planners and city officials, there is nothing quite like a scale model of your city to gain new insights into your surrounds.
• Projects related to urbanisation in the PPP mode are a function of time, money and approval. A 3D digital model, by helping in the levels of detailing, helps minimise speculation.
Sunil MK, head, AEC, Autodesk India, said, “While the world has woken up to the importance of Smart Cities, India has shown utmost promise with the government planning to establish 100 Smart cities. Our Digital City technology provides a comprehensive approach to create a sustainable city that balances economic and engineering demands with environmental and social needs.”