Amdavad selected for IBM’s charity grants

Ahmedabad has made it among 33 cities of the world to receive grants under IBM's philanthropic initiative. The cities around the world competed vigorously to take benefit under this initiative.

For this, the initiatives of Ahmedabad and other cities were economic and workforce development, transportation (integrating bus, rail, bicycle, car and pedestrian modes of transportation), sustainability (measuring vehicle miles travelled more precisely to help lower pollution levels), health (using inhaler and air quality data to identify and reduce asthma outbreaks), education (applying data analytics to identify the most effective investments for improving an entire school system), and urban planning (revitalising and redeveloping older neighborhoods). 

IBM will provide special assistance to each winning city on the use of 'City Forward', a free online site IBM created with public policy experts. Citizens, elected officials and urban planners can use the site to explore trends and statistics in a visual and accessible way, which can be adapted for the examination of any number of urban issues-leading to better decision making.

"The cities that have been selected are all different, but they have one clear similarity: the strong personal commitment by the city's leadership to put in place the changes needed to help the city make smarter decisions," Stanley S Litow, IBM vice president of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs, and president of IBM's Foundation, said in a statement.