How Smart Will India’s Smart Cities Really Be?

public-private partnerships, convergence with other government missions, loans, and other avenues.

Shaguna Kanwar, project coordinator for national programmes with the NGO and monitor YUVA (Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action), pointed out the flaws. “The SCM fails to address a primary concern of the country – the critical need for access to housing and basic amenities (like electricity, water, schools and public hospitals) for millions in the country… the SCM may be just a garb to promote the interests of a few,” Kanwar wrote.

—A Special Report

March 15, 2023:

Did the Indian government come up with the sudden declaration – that 22 of the 100 cities chosen for a so-called ‘Smart City’ project would be ready by March – with an eye on the G20 leaders’ summit that the nation will host later this year?

The question arises because the information apparently leaked to a news agency by an unnamed official speaks of a time frame for the completion of a major chunk of the project, tailored to showcase before the visiting G20 world leaders that much of India’s urban population resides in “better planned” areas with “improved livability” conditions. It’s immaterial that these “better planned” areas would actually continue to be hubs of poor quality of life and unlivable slums.

According to the anonymous official, while work in the 22 Smart Cities would be completed next month, the other 78 would be ready in May-June. That’s in time for the 18th G20 leaders’ summit to be held at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan with aplomb on September 9-10.

The government aims to promote Smart Cities as advanced urban waterholes giving a decent quality of life to its residents besides a clean and sustainable environment. But activists and critical-thinkers question whether the so-called Smart City Mission, or SCM, actually promotes the interests of only the elites and leaves out the masses living in chaos and dereliction.

Launched on June 25, 2015, the SCM selected 100 cities for redevelopment through four rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018.

The implementation of the SCM at the city level is carried out by an SPV (special purpose vehicle) – a 50:50 joint venture between the state government and the urban local body – that plans, implements, and evaluates the projects.

The central government is providing financial support of Rs 48,000 crore over five years for the entire project, which comes to about Rs 100 crore per city per year. The state government or the urban local body, too, is expected to pitch in with a grant, with the rest of the project’s costs to be funded from various sources, such as

While the government booklet ‘Smart City Mission (SCM) Statement and Guidelines’ speaks of applying ‘smart’ solutions to various issues through a robust IT network and digitisation, analysts call the project “inherently unsmart”.

There are fears that the exorbitant cost of the “high-end infrastructure and superlative quality of life”, as the Smart City mission emphasises, would jack up the cost of so-called development, raising the cost of living, and making the cities out of bounds for those struggling on the margins.

SHIMLA, A CASE IN POINT

Small shopkeepers in Shimla, which is on the list of Smart Cities, are tense about whether they can continue to survive there after the reset. “We are Indians, we are not from another country. We are not different, and we live here. Please let us stay,” a shop owner told Empire Diaries in an earlier article.

Indian cities, including those that are part of the hallowed SCM, are paying the price of an irresponsible urbanisation drive. Shimla, the capital of the state of Himachal Pradesh, is just one of them. Once a refreshing getaway in northern India’s mountains and known for its serenity, Shimla now has all the ugly characteristics of a