It seems like the emphasis in today’s life, is on being smart, one smarter than the others. Like, in school we have smart children, then we have smarter children and then we want some to be the smartest among all. Similarly, we have this concept of what is called ‘Smart Cities’ in our country and this craze seems to be catching on across the country.
We need to understand what this smart city concept is all about. There have been couple of roads caving in, in Goa on account of the smart city work in progress. We need to study the challenges being faced by the existing so-called smart cities in the country before we embark on other such projects. It is good that a delegation from Sweden is in Goa for discussions with regard to smart cities. However, if we have to achieve this status of ‘Smart Cities’ we need co-operation from the citizens themselves, without which we would be fishing in the dark.
By the way, we have today what is called, ‘smart phones’. One wrong click can bring about disaster. So let’s be cautious. What we need is are ‘functional’ cities, call them smart, if you like!
