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<h1>India - A leader or a follower?</h1>
India was an undisputed spiritual leader in ancient times. But couldn’t keep up with its leadership in the age of industrial revolution. The industrial revolution divided the world into West and East, the First world and the Third world. India tried to catch up and is still categorized as Developing. 

Then came the internet age and the Digital revolution, which was spearheaded by Silicon Valley start-ups.  India tried to follow-up by preparing Bangalore as the IT hub. Bangalore do earned the label of "Silicon Valley of India" but is nowhere close to lead the world industry. 

Recently, World Bank India head Junaid Kamal Ahmad, while releasing a World Bank report on innovation in developing countries, said: 
>I think we can do a Silicon Valley in India in the next five years …as the world is changing, we can leapfrog. India has the potential to innovate on the lines of Silicon Valley but it needs to do more for expanding the innovation ecosystem 

Thus India do have potential for leading the world with modern technological breakthroughs but it fails to create the right environment for it. 

<h1>Smart Cities Mission</h1>
In 2014, current Indian Prime Minister dreamed of creating 100 Smart Cities in the country and initiated Smart Cities Mission in 2015. Indian Cabinet approved a $15 billion (INR 98,000 crore) funding for making this dream true. Cities competed with each other in an All India City Challenge Competition  to fetch this project. 99 winning cities were awarded this project. 

My city was one of the four cities in my State that was chosen under SCM (Smart Cities Mission) scheme. The SCM promised to transform the way our cities look, function and how we live. It aimed to provide residents with an efficient and reliable infrastructure, enhanced quality of life and economic opportunities. But major chunk of the funds were provisioned for real estate development. 
<h1>What’s a Smart City?</h1>
The development under SCM project is not sustainable and inclusive. It only caters to a specific demography within the city. For Smart cities, we first need to address the crippling basic services, we need smart solutions in an inclusive policy framework. 

But what exactly is a “Smart City”? I think it’s just a gimmick! Even the Government doesn’t have any clear perspective of what this term means.

According to the [Mission’s official portal]( http://smartcities.gov.in/content/innerpage/what-is-smart-city.php):

> There is no universally accepted definition of a smart city. **It means different things to different people.** The conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents. A smart city would have a different connotation in India than, say, Europe. Even in India, there is no one way of defining a smart city.

With such a definition, you can’t have any developmental indicators or any monitoring towards a unified goal. 
<h1>Learn from the “City of the Future” – Dubai</h1>

Despite of starting early and spending a hell lot of funds & engaging the government machinery, India is again lagging behind in making its cities smarter. You need to be smart to spread smartness!

Automated robotized policing, flying taxis, autonomous vehicles on its roads are some of the plans for the development of Dubai. Where Indian States are instituting a “Cow Welfare Ministry”, Dubai has appointed a minister in-charge of Artificial Intelligence. 

Dubai is aiming to become the Blockchain capital of the world. To make governance more transparent, it aims to go completely paperless, digital and blockchain based as soon as 2020. The emirate wants all visa applications, bill payments and license renewals, which account for over 100 million documents each year, to be transacted digitally using blockchain.A paperless governance will result in saving of about $1.5 million apart from making it faster and transparent. 

<h1>Dubai Land Department is blockchainizing its real estate</h1>
Last October, [Dubai became the world’s first government entity to conduct transactions through blockchain network]( https://gulfnews.com/business/property/dubai-has-world-s-first-government-entity-to-conduct-transactions-through-blockchain-network-1.2101819). Dubai Land Department (DLD) created its blockchain system with the slogan “Simple, Secure, Fast”. Its blockchain database can record all real estate contracts, lease registration, tenant database, Emirates ID cards, Residency Visa etc. Tenants can pay their rent and utility bills digitally over the blockchain. 

Emirate also launched a cryptocurrency called emCash which can be used to pay government and non-government services over blockchain. 

The blockchain technology adoption by Dubai government has generated a huge confidence among the high net worth investors across the world and after the ramp up of the real estate sector, it may soon see a lot of investment flowing in.  
<h1>Wanna buy an apartment with bitcoin?</h1>
In Dubai, you can also purchase your property through your bitcoins. Check [Aston Plaza and Residences project]( http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/06/technology/dubai-bitcoin-apartments/index.html) launched last year. And this is just the beginning for becoming the Blockchain capital of the world. Rest of the world will miss on it if they didn’t do anything to catch up fast. Blockchain is going to rule the world.

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