London's FinTech position is widely known with the overal ecosystem for start up digital innovators leading Europe. Most pundits don't see this changing too much post Brexit, whatever the consequences of negotiation between Britain and the EU. However, that is a European position and many other cities have aspirations in this area,whist at the same time within the UK Birmingham and Manchester are begining to grow critical mass within their digital ecosystems too.
Singapore and Hong Kong are showing stron signs of trying to build strong ecosystems around Block Chain (see previous posts). But this week, Telangana (the southern Indian State with Hyderbad at the centre of its IT prowess) announced a partnership with Tech Mahindra to launch a "Blockchain District" as a technology park for incubating blockchain technology and applications.
Interestingly, The smart City Index ranking of global smart cities, shows London in 12th place, just behind Singapore and just ahead of New York, San Fransisco and Chicago. So there is a lot to do if London is going to achieve its Mayor's and the UK government's aspiration that it will be the leading Smart City in the world.
Given the fact that Smart Cities are an extended affair, reaching far beyond the borders of the city environs into a connected network of outlying areas, it will be interesting to see whether it attempts to partner with other cities in the UK to build a networked system, where the cobination of the cities is stronger than the sum of their parts.
So at this point there's loads of competition and everything to play for if London is going to fulfil its aspirations or fall behind, as so often in the past when the UK has held an initial strong leading position. This needs both political will and finance industry recognition of how wealth is actually created and sustained.
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