BENGALURU: Balloons of promises are blown every time a new government comes to power. When INC came to power in 2009, promises were made to enact a new National Food Security Act, social security, empowerment of weaker sections of society, etc. Same was the case with BJP and many other parties which came to power at state or the central level. The greed of a better future make citizens succumb to these promises and elect a party to rule. Some promises are kept many are not, but almost every time it is noticed that after a certain period, citizens forget the promises made for them, and political parties forget the promises made by them. When BJP came to power in 2014, plethora of promises were made by them as well. Make In India, Smart Cities, Bullet Train, 15 lakhs in everyone’s account and what not! But the way these promises were kept was hilarious! While the implementation didn’t take off at all, some senior leaders of BJP itself went on to state that those promises were nothing but Election Jumla (the promises which are made not to be fulfilled).

Think yourself, how can an idea like “Smart City” be implemented in India. A country where many people still struggle with a T.V. remote, how will their lives be any easy with a technology (IoT) in place which has been termed as the latest scientific revolution? While ideas of converting India into a developed nation sound fantastic, doing is so is not really a piece of cake. Realizing the same, BJP government has taken a step back and re-thought their plans again to build smart cities in India. Addressing Smart Cities India Expo, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal today said that Development of smart cities in the country will have to be customized to the Indian context while leveraging on economies of scale to make the requisite technology affordable as reported by The Economic Times.

He also added the concept of smart city must be practical, doable and affordable, which can be deliberated, discussed and then implemented. There is a need to develop smart cities or towns in a smart way.

"We got to think smart when we think of smart cities or smart technologies playing a role in India. How can we do it customized to the Indian context! How can we do it with the bare bone essentials, which would help have an impact! How can we do it to scale so that we can leverage the large economies of scale," Goyal said.

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