Sujavna 2015 (13)

Sunday 05, April 2015 1630 hrs

Firstly apologies for missing out on my last Sunday’s post.

Today, I would like to share some thoughts on smart cities. I am very conscious of the fact that this is a politico-economic idea that if hotly debated in India. Many conferences are being organized; many more blogs and thought pieces are being churned out by the hour and the arguments for getting the smart city of India implemented are getting shrill. So why am I joining this bandwagon and what is my purpose?

Honestly I am confused and anxious with all that I hear and read on the subject. So perhaps this blog is a desperate attempt to set on record my own aspirations for what I think any smart city should attempt to be.

Smart cities, in a most elementary manner, need to facilitate I a smart manner, an effective (read that as easy and efficient) way for all of its citizens and floaters as well as its governance institutions to communicate, transact and evolve.

Now that does not necessarily have to mean digital technologies will be the only backbone, though such technologies can help. It also does not mean that smart cities will need to be “freshly-minted” – they could be existing cities that can “re-purpose” themselves to become smarter.

So what are the unambiguous “gold-standards” for effective communications, transactions and evolution between citizens, floaters and governance institutions? Has there been any such smart city frameworks tried in any other part of the world? How much can technology help? Where and when will technology fail in implementation? What should the role of citizens of the smart city be to decide on how much smartness they are willing to absorb? How does a smart city become “un-smart” if its future citizens decide so?  What are the limits of smartness for smart cities – is the theory of diminishing returns equally applicable for smart cities? And one last question – can smart cities become gender-neutral? can they become caste-neutral? and will they support pluralism or will they end up fostering only homogenic technocracy?

What are your views?

Wishing you  great week ahead.