GS 3, Sci & Technology, TLP-UPSC Mains Answer Writing
3. How can technologies like blockchain and internet of things (IoT) transform the lives of common citizens?
ब्लॉकचेन और इंटरनेट ऑफ थिंग्स (IoT) जैसी प्रौद्योगिकियां आम नागरिकों के जीवन को कैसे बदल सकती हैं?
Demand of the question:
It expects students to write about how the application of new emerging technologies like Internet of things and block chain can transform the lives of common citizens.
Introduction:
Emerging technologies such as block chain and Internet of things (IoT) are often perceived as capable of changing the status quo. Emerging technologies have wide ranging application hence, possess the potential to transform the lives of common citizens.
Body:
Emerging technologies can be applied in various fields such as health, finance, agriculture and various other sectors which would aid the government in implementing various programmes and in turn assisting to transform the lives of people.
- Block chain technology as a public ledger system, records and validate each and every transaction made, which makes it secure and reliable. Which can overcome the challenge of securing each and every transaction over the internet.
- It will also help to increase the number of cashless trade. Block chain technology can also be used in the preservation an use of large scale data like Aadhar card data, PAN card data etc.
- The transfers are done through mining that makes hacking difficult. All transactions carried out are authorized by miners, making the transactions unchanged and preventing the hacking threat. Hence, this technology will also help to build more trust in the online payment system.
- Blockchain could be used to improve a variety of healthcare-related processes, including record management, healthcare surveillance, tracking disease outbreaks, management crisis situations and many more.
- A growing portion of IoT devices are created for consumer use, including connected vehicles, home automation, wearable technology, connected health, and appliances with remote monitoring capabilities.
- Donation tracking: With the help of block chain capabilities, donors can see where funds are most urgently required and can track their donations until they are provided with verification that their contributions have been received to the victims.
- Blockchain could also manage a crisis situation. It could instantly alert the public about the virus by global institutes like the WHO using smart contracts tracing concept.
- In education sector the blockchain-based SuperCert promises anti-fraud identity intelligence blockchain solution for educational certificates. It ensures authenticity and minimizes fraud. In turn it will help to have genuine learners who can complete their studies more neatly and obtain a certificate accordingly. It will transform life of people by providing more learned individuals in the society.
- The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is an application of the IoT for medical and health related purposes, data collection and analysis for research, and monitoring.
- IoT devices can be used to enable remote health monitoring and emergency notification systems. These health monitoring devices can range from blood pressure and heart rate monitors to advanced devices capable of monitoring specialized implants, such as pacemakers, Fitbit electronic wristbands, or advanced hearing aids. So these kind of technologies will help the people to have a healthy life style and good health care.
- Application of the IoT extends to all aspects of transportation systems (i.e. the vehicle, the infrastructure, and the driver or user). Dynamic interaction between these components of a transport system enables inter- and intra-vehicular communication, smart traffic control, smart parking, electronic toll collection systems, logistics and fleet management, vehicle control, safety, and road assistance.
- Smart cities: IoT will solve major problems faced by the people living in cities like pollution, traffic congestion and shortage of energy supplies etc. Products like cellular communication enabled Smart Belly trash will send alerts to municipal services when a bin needs to be emptied.
- Agriculture: Farmers are using meaningful insights from the data to yield better return on investment. Sensing for soil moisture and nutrients, controlling water usage for plant growth and determining custom fertilizer are some simple uses of IoT.
- Environmental monitoring: To assist in environmental protection by monitoring air or water quality, atmospheric or soil conditions, and can even include areas like monitoring the movements’ of wildlife and their habitats.
Despite the numerous applications and its wide scale benefits these emerging technologies have some drawbacks to transform human lives, they are as follows:
- Over-reliance on technology: Relying on technology on a day to day basis, making decisions by the information that it gives up could lead to devastation. No system is robust and fault-free.
- Security: As the IoT systems are interconnected and communicate over networks. The system offers little control despite any security measures, and it can be lead the various kinds of network attacks. Hence, it jeopardises personal lives of people.
- Lack of understanding comes next as many executives have a vague understanding of blockchain and the changes it will bring. Many still connect it only with crypto currencies management.
- A lack of general regulation is a problem. The Supreme Court of India has ruled against a decision imposed by the country’s central bank nearly two years ago that stifled crypto trading in Asia’s third-largest economy.
NITI Aayog has released recommended to establish IndiaChain which will ensure Creation of a national infrastructure for the deployment of blockchain solutions with inbuilt fabric, identity platform and incentive platform. Along with it NITI aayog has also proposed to use Internet of Things to tackle the water crisis in various parts of India.
Conclusion:
Hence, we can conclude that emerging technologies such as blockchain and Internet of things possess a big potential to transform human lives. But at the same time their implementation challenges needs to be addressed so that these technologies will not just be useful to transform the lives of the common citizens but also to transform the whole world and make it a better world.
