Neeta Sinha
Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, India
Title: Psycho-Social analysis of challenges facing India’s smart cities
Biography
Biography: Neeta Sinha
Abstract
Smart city concept entails four main system components which includes:
Smart technology (including ICT)
Smart innovation
Smart system
Smart people
In the Indian context why emphasis leans towards the first three which are variously defined and discussed in terms of the intervention, there seems to be an absence of clarity in terms of smart people. Since the word smart in the broader sense of the term refers to application of certain kind of intelligence in finding solutions to the problems at people’s level it also becomes a training and behavioral issue. To make it simpler, what is meant here is that using smart technology and innovation efficiently would inevitable require smart behaviour as well.
In India, which is the case in point here, due to its enormous socio cultural and economic heterogeneity the people still lag the refinement in public behavior more particularly when it comes to meeting the basic expectation of sanitation, compliance to traffic rules, ecological awareness among other.
Since there is a lack of bench marking in the minimum level of social behaviour even the most efficient technologies and systems often fail to deliver the desired result. Eg. Open defecation, urinating in public places, spitting in public buildings, throwing remains of gutka and pan masalas in wash basins and urinals, general disobedience of traffic rules such as jumping signals, risky driving, chaotic parking are some of the basic issues which are rampant across India. These problems are not just related to infrastructure deficits as such but also with psycho social behaviour for which little efforts towards its improvement have been attempted. Since technology alone cannot find all the answers, it can only be used to increase the efficiency of performance, a major change is actually required at the psycho-social behavioral level. It implies an operant conditioning (Skinner 1938) of sorts which includes both reward and reprimand.
This paper will try to deal with the psycho-social aspect of the urban dwellers in India to propose the required benchmarking for smart people for smart cities.