Gadgets, technology, lifestyle, changing, Gwalior. SouLSteer breaks the wire. Over and out.
Once upon a time in Gwalior, it was like going to work, driving, thinking, workload, coming back, trying to sleep and repeating the same for the next day. Sitting with your colleagues at the office, talking about those iPhones, luxury cars, net generation laptops or the technology they saw in the last sci-fi movie. Just superpower fantasies, less of an emergency to own them.
Crack it up and gone are those days. General walk around in the city and you will find out your taxi driver is using a smartphone, or in some scenarios he may ask you to brief him about Facebook. Almost every businessman in the town uses one iPhone and one BlackBerry, mark it to be a statement and others are happy with touchscreen phones.
Applauded citywide and around the nation for his use of technology for the betterment of the society, District Collector, P. Narahari does the extensive use of social media. With over 800 Twitter followers and 25,000 followers on Facebook, he tries to solve each and every problem which comes across over the internet. Public of Gwalior is so active on his profile that he gets over 200 comments on his posts and people generously post around 20 grievances daily. Expressing about the technology, Narahari says, “We are establishing a IT park for local and for the companies nationwide. We have stopped using typewriter at Collectorate office and totally shifted the work to computer. All arms licences are computerised under Arms Licensing Monitoring System.” Narahari has also given a proposal to Chief Electoral Officer of MP and Election Commission of India, stating that during the election all the vehicles which will take men and materials from election control room to polling booth should be equipped with GPS technology. Happening for the first time in India, authorities have appreciated his proposal and have made a green signal for its implementation.
“For a good beginning, we will soon conduct a workshop on how to make Gwalior an IT hub inviting more than thirty local software companies.” P. Narahari, District Collector, Gwalior
Around hundred GPS enabled mobiles have been dish out to police officers in the city in order to track the location of the officers when there is an emergency to find out the nearest officer located and it also helps in fast data interchanging. Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) is other major leap in terms of technology as all the police station in country will be linked to divisional and sub-divisional headquarters for the easy data research of a criminal, the city database in getting ready of this system. Dishing out more information, Adarsh Katiyar, Inspector General of Police, says, “Technology is all about strengthening the police. We have installed internet protocol cameras which helps us to access the footage over the internet anywhere around the city, also we have GPS enabled vehicle.”
“Our use of technology is the reply to the criminals that police has to be on the higher ground and technically more equipped.” Adarsh Katiyar, IG, Gwalior
Most of the appropriateness of technology can be seen in the business sector of the city. Sachin Raut, MD of Central India Hair Lounge says, “We are integrating our salon menu into the iPad, which will automatically show the bill while one select the services, thus giving more engaging experience to the customer.” Not only people are merging the technology with their business, they want their rides to be high tech too, with the increasing demand of premium luxury cars in the city which starts from Rs. 25 lacs to Rs. 1.70 crore, city has it all. Panoramic sunroof, Intelligent Parking Assist System which parks your car without the driver, Attention Assist, Reverse Parking Cameras, etc. are some of the features for cars of elite class must have.
Talking about the tech effect in Gwalior business, eminent businessman Arvind Agarwal tells, “In 1988 I purchased HCL XT computers with 25MB hard drive, we built a custom software into it and it helped to create an invoice in just 2 hours where earlier it took 2 days. I then understood the importance of technology for business.” For his current project, Athena, there will be computerized multi-level puzzle parking from German manufacturer which will be introduced for the first time in MP along with the gearless and jerk free elevators from a Swiss manufacturer which is again a new thing for the city. “In terms of security, I use Lama Scorpio pistol with ventilator barrel technology”.
“After holding my family business which was five generations old, this modern technology more than a requirement has become a passion for me and became a gadget freak.” Arvind Agarwal, Businessman
So we can safely recall sci-fi movies won’t turn out to be a real life scenario, you just have to create it by yourself. Gwalior is evolving every day in terms of technology and users are happy with those results. Expect for the fact that those sci-fi movies are less Bollywood. Ah well, another day.
Cover Photo: Rohan Bansal Photography
