With Indian Prime minister’s vision of smart cities and with the ministry of Urban development identifying new and existing locations to be converted to smart cities, the next question is, will it house smart homes too.
Smart cities will have intelligent social, economic and physical infrastructure in place facilitating better management of water, transport, energy resources, safety, security and traffic management systems. With Rs. 7, 060 allocated in the recent budget, the initiatives of smart cities have attracted maximum attention from the IT sector because of the heavy reliance of the project on ICT.
By January 2015, Electronic city of Bangalore is proposed to turn smart being the first project of its kind, Tumkur being the next location. With conversion of smart cities, the question that pops up is, will the homes be smart as well. With the city’s hard infrastructural layout becoming smart, the performance of the city will certainly go up. But one can’t deny that the smallest unit of a city is its home or apartment. It can’t be denied that urban performance depends greatly not only on the city’s infrastructural endowment but also on the quality of knowledge communication and its availability, social infrastructure and the ease of intellectual capital flows. A smart home does exactly that.
A smart home can enable a householder to put an end to all worries and a quick glance in one’s smartphone or tablet can assure one of all accessibility of house appliances and control of the environment too. With the command of the house owner, either by voice, tablet or smartphone, or remote control, all appliances that uses electricity can be regulated. Most of the applications that can be regulated relates to home safety and security, entertainment and home theater, information systems, lighting and even thermostat regulations. Smart cities are characterized by smart usage of water, energy, mobility, information technology, business, city planning, governance and citizenry and smart buildings. Smart building houses smart homes and therefore is a sure step forward in making the cities smarter.
The trend of the industry suggests that demand for smart homes is catching up in India too. Although restricted to luxury segment and the rich, the automation is in few amenities like intelligent sound sensing, lighting and smart kitchens, the demand for such homes are increasing. Although in India, it is an emerging concept, the reasons of establishment of such concepts are certainly evident.
The trifling little doubts of a householder about whether the kitchen light is switched off, the burner is off, or the security alarm activated, can all be solved through smart homes. Even someone falling off in the bathroom while taking a shower or someone breaking in to the house during your absence can also be tracked and redressed remotely.
Despite such growing enthusiasm, there are of course certain challenges of automation too.
Sensitivity of Prices:
If Indians have to use such gadgets, the products has to be customized and innovated which goes for high prices and Indian market place being price sensitive and under developed, buyers wary about their investment if there isn’t a compelling value proposition. Thus sellers are compelled to cut corners and this this is a vicious circle that the market faces.
Lack of awareness:
A constant effort for strengthening the value proposition is required as Indian customers are not aware about benefits of a smart home and its perceived value. This entails for dedicated marketing efforts of the concept from the vendor’s end.
Lack of a proper ecosystem:
Smart homes being a new concept, there is no ecosystem of integrators or support providers. Thus the vendors face an enormous challenge of a new product introduction in a price competitive market with no ecosystem to support.
Disarray in the real-estate market:
In this fragmented state of real-estate market conditions that it’s facing for the past few years, industry players need time to sell this commodity as a necessity as it is still perceived as luxury.
With time, smart homes might become a widespread reality in India. What do you have in mind?
DreamzGK Infra is one top residential builder in Bangalore. The company is providing real estate services since three years. Started with just 300 customers, now providing service for more than 4500 customer across Bangalore. If you are looking for flats in Bangalore at affordable prices then visit DreamzGK Infra.
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