Does India really need smart cities?

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Ever since the announcement that 100 smart cities will be built in India, skeptical minded people along with the general population pondered on a question if smart cities were really required by the nation. People asked for a justification for building smart cities, stating that increasing poverty must be addressed first. Smart cities may appear like a lavish spending and investment focused at greater
standard of living, but in the hindsight, it’s far more than just that. Fundamentally, smart cities pertain to better infrastructure and infrastructure brings an entity investment, of course if the plan is worth every penny.

To understand what a smart city can do, it is important to know what a smart city is. A smart city is a massive complex of buildings and service centers with all requisite and advanced facilities available in proximity. It’s a microcosm of a metropolis. In building a smart city, lesser resources are used and more utility and productivity is achieved. In general societies and residential complexes, we find lack of planning amidst every structure, there is lack of planning right from the distribution of lanes to the positioning of a hospital and even regulation of traffic.

A smart city differs completely from that. A smart city is planned to perfection, every lane, street, parking space, recreational space, medical centers, fire systems, etc. are located and positioned in a way that they provide ultimate convenience to the people living in the smart city. This encourages more and more people to reside in a home, in a smart city. Demand from the people brings investors who are ready to pour in massive sums of money. This money directly or indirectly reaches the government’s locker, and then it can be used for developing under-developed areas or strata of the society, of course if the government has complimentary policies for it.

Apart from the second part of what we do with the poured-in investment, many benefits still arise with smart city construction. Higher standard of living and excellent utility of resources are easily visible advantages, but there are many more. It facilitates a boom in the realty and property sector that also boosts the banking and loaning sector as well. With more investment, especially from foreign entities, more opportunities arise and more scope for development begins to take root. India certainly needs smart cities; it will be a certain catalyst in boosting the down-going economy.