La Trobe University > Research > Research centres and institutes > Centre for Technology Infusion > Research > Asian Smart Cities Research Innovation Network > Research themes > Economic development

Economic development

Cities are the engines of growth for countries and account for around 80% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A vibrant economy is essential to a city or region being globally competitive.

Smart cities develop more competitive business environments. The economy of a smart city is driven by technically inspired innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, provided by smart people. All smart cities aim to increase employment rates, increase the value of property, increase the number of businesses and patents, and decrease the number of people living in poverty.

The challenge is how to do this in a way that does not lead to a loss in physical and mental well-being, damage to the environment and includes people from all classes.

Research

We are eager to work with people and organisations on research that fits this theme. Some possible research examples might be:

  • how can competition between cities advance economic development?
  • how can production facilities in a country be developed and promoted?
  • how can we develop more public entrepreneurs in government?

If you have an idea for research and want to be a part of our network, contact us with your ideas.

Engagement

We are able to undertake work for organisations and governments. Talk to us about how we can help you. Some examples include:

  • analysis of data and provision of reports to advise on new economic opportunities in industry, tourism, retail, construction, commerce, transportation
  • feasibility studies – for example, optimum investment in human resources for industrial skills and infrastructure
  • economic modelling – for example, the cost of implementing a circular economy.

Externally Funded Projects

Operationalising ethical frameworks in critical tech industries

This project intends to provide Australian and Indian businesses with improved ethical policy and practice when outsourcing their technology to Indian providers. It will do this by improving the understanding of how they translate being signatories of Ethical Codes to their actual practice. Moreover, the project will analyse the emotions and views of stakeholders expressed in social media on the ethical issues found to be important in business surveys. In doing so, the project intends to advance the body of knowledge in artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber and critical technology, ethics and sustainability and risk by bringing together disciplines in business management and ethics, computer science and engineering, and AI and business analytics.

The outcomes expected include recommendations as to revised codes and practices of ethics and a framework using AI and advanced analytics to review ethical practices of companies.


Project Team:

Together, they bring expertise in corporate governance, ethics and human behaviour, cyber threats and social engineering, and the use of predictive data for industry.

This project has been funded through the first round of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership program

Current research projects

Citizens’  E-Collaboration : Collective Intelligence for Community Socio-Economic Upliftment in Smart Cities

This research aims to investigate how citizens e-collaborate to exploit smart technologies for shared value in the service economy. Although the smart technologies create a unique and connected information-based ecosystem, citizens have little understanding of what problems smart technologies will solve, and how smart technologies function. Consequently, the uptake of smart technologies has been limited or not been utilised.

Investigators:

Project ID: 12-EOI-IITK

Smart Healthcare: Techno-Economic Aspects of Digitalization of Secure Healthcare Services in India and Australia

This project will explore how to secure Electronic Health Records (EHR) and protect against data breaches and human error, to ensure data recorded is truthful and transparent.  The project will firstly categorize malicious, known and unknown patterns in the data breaches, automatically discover the contextual information to be used for classification, and use them for modelling dynamic security policies. The second part will be 'an ethical model' considering the human and economic dimensions together.

Investigators:

Project ID: 24-EOI-IITK

REmote Sensing enabled Public policy analysis of aIR-pollutants in peri-urban Environments: An Indo-
Australian case study - RESPIRE

This project aims to understand the nature of air pollution in peri-urban areas in the context of agriculture, the relative effectiveness of existing policy controls and opportunities for development of new evidence-based policy frameworks to support urban planning decisions.

As city boundaries and urban populations expand, urban and rural actors in the peri-urban environment will necessarily come into conflict. A key challenge for the government is to provide effective and efficient policy measures to mitigate the conflict.

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • M V Girinath Reddy

Project ID: 28-EOI-BITSP

Building Actionable and Smart Information Systems for Migrant Workers in Smart Cities

This project aims to test sustainable models of digital communication that support migrant workers’ welfare in urban spaces. Targeting information gaps, ethnographic research methods will be used to identify migrant capabilities for handling digital platforms. This data will guide design and construction of an appropriate information system to be deployed and tested with the communities studied, that caters to their capabilities and information needs.

Investigators:

Project ID: 41-EOI-BITSP

Sustainable Performance-Oriented Maritime Transport in India and Australia: An Empirical Analysis

This project will collect data to test CO2 emmisions and to understand how to incorporate social cost factors into the maritime transport's structure and conduct that will achieve sustainable performance-oriented services to reduce CO2 emissions.

Investigators:

Project ID: 45-EOI-IITK-BITSP

Future of India-Australia Agribusiness Trade in an Era of Reglobalization: A Supply Chain Management Perspective

This research aims to explore how supply chain collaboration among groups of importers and/or exporters can successfully reduce production/logistical costs along with work for new trade agreements. We will combine national input output data along with trade statistics to identify the global value chains in various sectors and decipher value added in bilateral trade flows. The study will generate innovative supply chain solutions and promote collaboration among multiple clusters of Indian and Australian exporters and importers, with special focus on micro, small and medium enterprises and low-income consumers.

Investigators:

Project ID: 47-EOI-IITK

Growth Convergence & Spatial Analysis of Indo‐Australian Supply Chain Dynamics Perspective

Investigators:

Project ID: EOI 2-1-IITK

Discover the Best practices of Community Engagement in Promoting Rooftop Terrace Gardening in Smart Urban

Investigators:

Project ID: EOI 2-9-IITK

Ethics in the Supply Chain

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Mr Sayak Sarkar

Project ID: EOI 2-11-IITK

Blockchain and small firms: Financing Framework, Application and adoption

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Mr Deepak Kumar

Project ID: SEOI-4-IITK

Corporate governance over the startup life cycle: Evolution & Impact

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Mr Mrigang Saurabh Dwivedi

Project ID: SEOI-5-IITK

Three Essays on Economic Policy Uncertainty

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Pushpendra Singh

Project ID: SEOI-6-IITK

Impact of contract teachers on learning outcomes of students at, Higher Secondary and Undergraduate Levels of Education

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Rama Krishna Satya Srinivas

Project ID: SEOI-7-IITK

The Nexus among Firm efficiency, Corporate Decision (Strategic) and Capital Structure

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Neha Sharma

Project ID: SEOI-9-IITK

Forging Forward with Modern Sustainable Finance and Investment

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Ms Pooja Yadav

Project ID: 169 IIT K - LTU 2023

Australia-India Economic Cooperation: An Agricultural Supply Chain Perspective

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Mr Shivam Sharma

Project ID: 99 IIT K - LTU 2023

Recontextualization of Psychological Capital: Studies in the remote work setup

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Mr Vineet Arora

Project ID: 94 IIT K - LTU 2023

Integrating supply chains in smart cities for enhanced community service: A business and environmental sustainability approach

Investigators:

Project ID: 101 BITS - LTU 2023

Research partners

La Trobe University Academics

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Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur Academics

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Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Academics

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