Governance and engagement

Governance and community engagement are essential to facilitating prosperous and sustainable cities, but can also become politicised.

This theme will examine how governance can be improved within the smart cities context. It will focus on issues of accountability and transparency regarding government, industry and community partnerships. In particular, this theme will explore new forms of community participation in decision-making about urban issues.

Data can be obtained from existing and new data sources that are yet to be developed and used to provide information for decision-making.

The scope is immense and covers areas such as research, planning, economic development, intelligent city services, comprehensive asset management, targeted service delivery and more responsive community safety.

Research

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

  • how can new technologies be used to collect, share and analyse data for better decision-making amongst different government agencies? And how should these processes be regulated, managed and costed?
  • how do institutional structures, systems, and cultures affect the introduction, development and implementation of E-governance? And who benefits or is excluded from these digital processes?
  • to what extent do new technologies change who, when, how and why citizens engage on local, regional and national issues, and the level of influence they can have?
  • how can co-design processes of e-governance tools and services improve outcomes for agencies delivering services, and for different cohorts of citizens?

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:

  • identifying opportunities for co-design and co-development of digital tools in e-governance
  • testing the extent and effectiveness of new types of digital service delivery
  • using digital technologies to trial different forms of community engagement
  • evaluation of participatory forms of governance in decision making with regards to smart technologies
  • audits of citizen engagement in smart cities programs.

Current research projects

Smart Cities, Platformization and Circuits of Capital: An Ethnograpic study of Data and Digital Monies in India

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Mr Abhiram AH

Project ID: 6-EOI-IITK


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


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 Multi-source knowledge base for AI-driven public health explainable chatbots

A common problem in public health is the ability to answer health related questions at scale. One solution is to use Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence to learn the questions and answers so a machine can provide this service 24x7 to many people.  However current techniques lack the capabilities to ensure answers are medically sound, so new algorithms need to be found to overcome these kinds of issues.

Investigators:

Project ID: 33-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:
PhD candidate:
  • Chaitra C R

Project ID: 41-EOI-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


Women Entrepreneurs & Green Entrepreneurship: A strategic approach towards implementation of circular economy model

Investigators:

Project ID: EOI 2-2-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


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


A peer to peer Energy Trading using Transactive Energy for Smart Grid Using Blockchain Technology

Investigators:
PhD candidate:
  • Mr Mayank Arora

Project ID: 47 IIT K - LTU 2023


Educational Escape Room Approaches for Societal Change and Instruction

Investigators:

Project ID: 70 LTU - BITS 2023


Research partners

La Trobe Academics

You can download the complete file of one-page profiles for La Trobe Academics here [PDF 1.3MB]

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur Academics

You can download the complete file of one-page profiles for IIT Kanpur Academics here [PDF 1.1MB]

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Academics

You can download the complete file of one-page profiles for BITS Pilani Academics here [PDF 1.3MB]