Smart Cities or Smart Laws?

Today, in this technologically advancing world, we are running a race, a race to the summit. All are striving to become the most developed nation. We all want to become smart. Because we believe in advancement, a quest for better technology, any science that makes all our tasks easier than ever before. A city or country that has this digitalisation is called ‘smart’. But, is this really what smart means? Does a world thronged by robots and cynobots signify evolution and advancement? Do we really need such smart cities? Harmony doesn't come with solar lights, it comes with order in the place!

I believe that for real development, what we need are smart laws. Laws, that can benefit the society as a whole and not just a few individuals, that can earn respect for the people and the rules themselves, that can unite the people. We need to inculcate discipline in people along with development. Without any of them, the other one is useless.

So for better discipline, we need better laws - smarter laws. Laws make the society more efficient, organised and promote higher productivity with lesser threats. Thus, automatically we’d become a better, cleaner, more developed nation, making it an awesome place to live in.

Let’s look at the impact of smart laws with real world examples

Singapore, a tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, has a $307 billion GDP and is also one of the cleanest cities of the world. All thanks to its smart laws which are a real game changer. Japan, a country known everywhere for its development and discipline, is the perfect example for how smart laws affect. Germany, Sweden and New Zealand and many more prove how smart laws have an edge over smart cities.

How well can these laws affect our own dear country India?

Rather than investing in technology, we should invest to enforce laws that protect people and promote people to newer horizons, to educate people who would then automatically follow laws to make India the best. If we talk about Smart Cities, they wouldn’t be put to full utilisation if the people aren’t smart.

Surat is one of the fastest developing hubs of the world. A city with the most number of flyovers in the country and wide roads that connect one corner to the other, Surat can be called a smart city. Also, it has been named as the first Microsoft smart city of India. But, due to the poor enforcement of laws, there is a vast difference between Surat and really developed cities. Traffic rules are often ignored by the people leading to rash driving accidents and bottle neck traffic zones.

The capital city of Delhi was the first to have Metros. With numerous universities and government research centres, Delhi qualifies as a smart city but due to the high rates of crime, insecurity in the people and increasing air pollution issues, no one would prefer to dwell here.

If we add smart laws to these cities, they would perform a whole lot 'smarter' and certainly be a better place to live in.