Imagining life in a Connected India by 2050

By 2050 India is expected to develop into world's number one economy and the most populous country wiyh 50% people expected to live in urban areas.

Such hyper growth would bring many challenges but also opportunities to leverage new technologies and innovations. Let us explore some of the new technologies that could shape our country.

We are sure to go beyond odd-even formula with smart traffic management and reliable/efficient public transportation. Connected technologies like the vehicle to vehicle communication will fully mature within the next 20 years. This means, accidents can be largely avoided as cars will alert the drivers by communicating with other cars and roadside objects.

Another example is when a drunk driver gets into the car. The car would just refuse to start! It calls the nearest rent-a-driver or even better, the car enters into an autonomous or self-drive mode and perhaps even stops at a chemist to pick up some headache tablets that it has pre-ordered.

In case of an accident/crash, the nearest ambulance is alerted, traffic lights altered for clear path to the site of the accident, injuries are pre diagnosed, right specialists are called to the hospital and even the operation theatre is booked. This will dramatically increase the number of lives saved.

In terms of preventive healthcare, advancements in wearables would mean real time measurement of body vitals like heartrate, cholesterol levels, blood sugar etc would be possible and predictive systems can anticipate health issues.

Fully connected intelligent homes will be a norm. But, won't it be amazing if you have a helping hand in the form of humanoid robots? Affordable and easy to maintain robots supporting us with daily chores, be it cleaning the house or preparing a cup of coffee would delight us.

Advanced streaming and virtual reality technologies can bring real life-like effect, experiencing stadium-like feel watching soccer match or a live concert just sitting at home.

Education sector would transform through the creation of highly knowledgeable skilled workforce. In fact, connected classrooms could obliterate the need for visas.

Let us now look at some key factors that can make the above sample cases a reality. Over the next 3-4 decades, we will see affordable and super high speed data rates giving "live experiences" for the citizens all the time.

We will see significant progress in the fields of machine learning, voice recognition and artificial intelligence, there will be a complete new paradigm with which people will interface with devices, gesture and voice support ( in local languages) will replace keyboard to a large extent. This means the digital divide between urban and rural populations will be eroded and access to technology will be simplified.

Energy efficiencies will see significant improvement over the next decades resulting in cars, mobiles, homes and even offices consuming significantly less power. We should not witness any power outages. We will also have close to unlimited data storage and instant access to data through the high speed data connections.

With a highly interconnected world, there could be challenges of too much info about an individual's likes and there could be security challenges. But then, the highly connected world will ensure basic human desires be it communication, search, shopping, entertainment, sports and travel to be much better.

Our journey is poised to be exciting over the next three decades as India gets connected and the citizens are sure to witness a safe, healthy, active and enjoyable life.

The writer is information and communication technology professional