THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Thursday, on the first floor, corporation conducted a brain storming session as part of the Smart City proposal. IT experts from public sector deliberated on meeting the challenges of the city using information technology. IT after all is an essential component of any Smart City.
Some of the experts who participated in the meeting have experience in similar exercises and had given reports on improving the services using technology (not surprisingly they themselves are the victims of red-tape).
“I myself had to run from pillar to post to correct my father’s death certificate. For a clerical error I had to furnish 16 documents to get the death certificate. Nothing has changed even after the proposals,” said one of the experts from a prominent research institution. The reason, according to another scientist, was that the officials still want the applicant to visit his or her office and wait endlessly at their mercy. The process involved in service delivery has to be changed. On Thursday, IT experts suggested numerous ways information technology can become a tool for governance.
IT for Smart City
The meeting on Thursday was attended by experts from Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment, CDAC, NIC, IITM-K,IEEE, C DIT, CDS, CET, Institute of Engineers, Computer Society of India, Keltron etc. The session was moderated by Sasi P M associate director, CDAC and State Informatics Officer T Mohana Dhas.
Sreenivasan R of IEEE mooted the city centre development model. He wanted to follow the low power network that has become a major success in South Korea and a Netherlands.
Arun M, a research scholar of CDS was cautious of focusing too much on technology. He reminded that it can only be a enabler for a development vision and wanted more public engagement.
Sabarish K, who heads the Information Systems Division, talked about improving processes involved in administration and service. “Data sharing among departments, using technology for better surveillance, crisis management, monitoring for the security of elderly are some of the challenges corporation should adopt for Smart City proposal,” he said. Babu John of CET predicted that the technological changes in education, shopping, work culture would make a change in traffic management. Retired VSSC communications expert R P Nair reminded that the Smart City required the civic body to impart e-literacy campaign.
Ajith Kumar R wanted corporation to prioritise based on rural and urban demands. “The city should be friendly for physically challenged. An open data driven platform is the need of the hour,” he said. Karthick V J, an employee in a Technopark and Sreekanth representing Keltron based company wanted the corporation to use open source softwares to meet the challenges.
Hariharan N of IE wanted the civic body to introspect on its services and implement citizen at home services in future.