The genesis of the Mission
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the Smart Cities Mission on 25 June 2015, the main objective he said was to ‘promote cities that provide core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and give a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of ‘smart solutions’.
The one-of-its-kind mission that provided the right impetus to further India’s growth story and tackle the urbanisation challenges in a planned and scientific manner, The Smart Cities Mission aims to drive economic growth and improve quality of life through comprehensive work on socialeconomic, physical and institutional pillars of the city.
The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the creation of development models that can be implemented easily in other cities. As part of the mission, 100 cities have been selected to be developed as Smart Cities through a two- stage competition. The biggest driving force behind this mission was to address the growing problems in India that are a result of modernisation and urbanisation.
Challenges of urbanisation
Cities are the engines of growth for the economy in any country. In India, today, about 31 per cent of the country’s current population lives in urban areas. This population also contributes 63 per cent of India’s GDP (as per the 2011 Census). With increasing urbanisation, the urban areas in India are expected to house 40 per cent of the country’s population by 2030 and, at the same time, contribute a whopping 75 per cent to the country’s GDP.
To be able to manage the exponential growth of the urban population in India and to ensure sustainability and livability, there is a need for a comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure – an overall development in a sustained and scientific manner.
Mobilising human, digital resources
The Smart Cities Mission is primarily being operated as a scheme sponsored by the central government. As part of the mission, the central government would give financial support to the extent of ₹48,000 crore over the next five years of the launch of the mission.
This comes to an average ₹100 crore per city per year. Additionally, as part of the mission, an equal amount would be contributed by the respective State or the ULB for the projects proposed by the prospective smart city.
If there is a need for additional resources, these would be raised by the ULBs through their own funds and grants offered by the Finance Commission. There is also scope for raising funds through innovative finance mechanisms such as Municipal Bonds and other legitimate government programs and borrowings.
It must be noted that in the Smart Cities Mission, a special emphasis has been laid on the hugely-successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) model that involves the participation of the private sector in a controlled manner.
As part of the Smart Cities Mission, at the national level, the Smart City Proposals (SCPs) that were prepared by the selected cities contained more than 5,000 projects worth over ₹2,00,000 crore. Of these, 45 per cent would be funded through the mission grants, 21 per cent through convergence, 21 per cent through Public Private Partnerships and the remaining funds are to be procured from other sources.
The ideal template of a ‘smart city’
The most interesting aspect of this mission is that there is no standard definition or template of a smart city. It must, however, be based on six fundamental principles, especially in the content of India. These principles are:
Communities at the core of planning and implementation; Ability to generate greater outcomes with the use of lesser resources; Cities selected through competition and flexibility to implement projects; Innovating methods and integrated and sustainable solutions; Careful selection of technology which is relevant to the context of the respective city; Sectoral and financial convergence.
Upon selection as part of the Smart City Mission, each city would create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), headed by a full-time CEO, to implement the Smart Cities Mission. The SPV would ‘plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects’.
Each Smart City would have a SPV which will be headed by a full time CEO and have nominees from the Central Government, State Governments and the ULBs on its Board.
The Smart expo
The Smart City Mission also led to the initiation of Smart Cities Expo that integrates transformative technologies with the key pillars of urban ddevelopment that includes Green Buildings, Clean Energy and Transport, Clean Environment and Water. All this for the best and optimum use of resources and making urban spaces and cities Smart and Sustainable.
The Smart Cities India expo was launched in 2015 and has today become one of the largest Expo & Conference on the subject in Asia. It’s a huge event that enables ‘deeper communication and a more practical approach to solving urban issues and offers business opportunities for organisations working towards making smart cities a reality’.
Chief Executive Officer, Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant feels, “India must cement its position as an integral part of the global economy and become a significant cog in the global supply chain if we are to grow 9-10 per cent over the next three
decades. We must strive towards becoming an exporting hub if we want to increase our national income and create wealth for our people. The government’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative will go a long way in making India an indispensable entity in the global supply chain.”