BLIND-SPOTS OR BLACK HOLES? COMMON MISTAKES IN SMART GOVERNANCE

Failure to address execution, the people-factor and the long tail impact – it's a small oversight that can turn into a broken hinge of even the strongest doors towards the future

- Pratima H

Does the name Alexandre Gustave ring a bell? Hint - He was an accomplished engineer of his era. Nope? Okay, another hint - He made Paris memorable for something really special. Nothing? Ok, fine - His last name was Eiffel.

Got it now! Yes, the man who made the blueprint of the historical imprints of Eiffel Tower. But do you know the most interesting bit about this engineer? It's not the part that he made a structure with almost 18,000 unwieldy parts that were nothing on their own (and would fall apart) until they came together. It's not the part that he chose to work with iron instead of the emerging sensation called steel in those times. It's not even the part that this tower became the tallest building in the world until Chrysler building came about. Nah! As Bill Bryson unravels very wittingly, it is the less-known fact that while Frederic Bartholdi is known for designing the great Statue of Liberty, it was Alexandre G Eiffel who created the complex inner engineering and pioneered the curtain wall construction approach inside it- which could hold the massive structure well.

If you are wondering why we are suddenly rambling into the past, it is because nothing prepares us well for the future than the vestiges of wisdom lying buried under the thick gravel of history. We seem to forget, and conveniently so, the real underpinnings of any masterpiece. But that's where the magic, the engineering, and the architectural dexterity lie.

And the future of India - where everything runs smooth and uninterrupted in an intelligent and intuitive way- from cars, court-cases, documents, planes, brains, waste management, electricity to real-time data, water, fresh air- lies in the plumbing being laid out now. In the form of smart governance.

"THE FUTURE OF INDIA, WHERE EVERYTHING RUNS SMOOTH AND UNINTERRUPTED IN AN INTELLIGENT AND INTUITIVE WAY, LIES IN THE PLUMBING BEING LAID OUT NOW.