Sheroes – Tavleen’s Smartizens in a Smart city.

Citizens— can  now morph to Smartizens.

Tavleen Mehendiratta was a speaker at SHEROES who has a lot of passion for what she does, so much so, it has changed her entire course of life.  Her anthem has now turned to the future is not cars but mobility. Sounds quite paradoxical for an automobile engineer to say this, and the distinction are quite clear though again tad paradoxical.

Despite the fact that she was quite articulate the thoughts and concepts she shared needed a whole new understanding, acceptance and shift in paradigm, hence I have waited this long to share her journey..

Tavleen is about driving to work instead of working to drive as the average Indian does today, for most our money goes to bring in petrol for our vehicles. She started off making us understand what horsepower of an engine meant… I never thought of it, horsepower is the number of horses required to move the vehicle if there was no petrol, which in itself was scary.

She shared with where her journey began, she is an automobile engineer, who used to present shows and basically talks cars. But test driving  cars in Delhi meant hitting the road before the traffic hit it, it meant 4 am or earlier. She cribbed on and on about, it occurred why not does something about it. That was the launch of www.imobility.org  she then talked about smart cities and smart citizens.

A smart city was all about using digital technology to enhance performance and well being to reduce costs and resources and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. Of the key smart sectors included transport, energy, healthcare water and waste management. Tavleen’s contention was if a family of three owned five petrol/diesel consuming vehicles it did not make sense, there was a need to look at alternates like car-pooling and  many other options.  She has created the option of smartizen.

Smartizens are smart citizens,  the focus being shifting the citizens to the centre. That would mean to decentralize, it would mean open urban infrastructures and these innovations are not just local ones, they require global collaboration. This is requires bringing citizens into the process.

Smaritzens are people who want to make a difference in the city they live in. in the era of collaboration, citizens have to get on the same platform and work on behaviours, attitudes and ideas that can change our cities for better tomorrow.

Are you a smartizen.. You are

• If do not accept the things as they are but want to bring about a change.
• You are if you start being the change you would like to see.
• You are if you are an influencer and believe in motivating people.
• You are if you have ideas, and the power to communicate them with passion and execute them with dedication.