“India lives in its villages" said Mahatma
Gandhi, India is a rural dominated
country.
In the Indian context, villages
are the heart of the nation. Hence, for the development to percolate to the
grass root level, focus must be devoted to the progress of villages. The
efforts of rural development may not work on the same principle as of smart
city.
The Smart Village concept should be based on
the local conditions, infrastructure, available resources in rural area and
local demand as well as potential of export of good to urban areas
Smart Villages are the need of the hour as development
is needed for both rural and urban areas for better livelihood. Benefits of the
smart village efforts are foreseen to be tremendous.
Smart Villages concept has the potential
to uplift the grass-root level of the country, hence adding feather in the
overall development of India.
“Smart village means a place that is
totally commited in the assignment of providing a better life
quality for its inhabitants. It’s a village that have all the necessary
conditions to live in community, respecting the environment, traditions,
education, respecting the people and its values, and where every person is
really involved in the local improvement of the social aspects. Share the
ideas and solve the problems in a community basis,
because
everyone is focused in ‘doing their best’ to the sustainability of their
village / community. “Cristina M. – Smarty Volunteer from Portugal
The concept of SMART Village is as defined below:
S
|
Social, Skilled and Simple
|
Zero Tolerance for Caste and Creed or better no caste &
creed and no discrimination on Gender and Religion Everyone is Literate and
skilled Simple living and high thinking
|
M
|
Moral, Methodical and Modern
|
Moral values of Gandhiji, Swami Vivekananda etc Methodical using
Total Literacy and latest techniques Modern like cities
|
A
|
Aware, Adaptive and Adjusting
|
Highest level of awareness on global social & economic
issues Adaptive and adjusting to fast changing environments
|
R
|
Responsive and Ready
|
Responsive to collective wisdom, cooperative movement &
larger social issues Ready to generate own resources for self-sufficiency and
self-reliance
|
T
|
Techno-Savvy and Transparent
|
Techno-savvy for IT and Mobile usage Transparent in harmonic
relations and delivery of services
|
The smart city initiative is
having good potential for urban development and India has also recognized this
potential and is at the edge to start implementing this concept. This will
facilitate better living for about 30% of the population, who live in urban
area. But, more than half population will not be benefited from smart city development.
Conditions in rural area are very different as compared to urban, so the same
model of smart city cannot be implemented for the villages.
