Deconstructing 'smart' Delhi: Critically examining the production of knowledge and difference in New Delhi's smart city project

Keywords: Smart city, knowledge production, access, sustainability, global South
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 21

Abstract

In 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 100 smart cities under the federal/central government’s initiative of Smart Cities Mission (SCM) programme, an initiative effective along with the regime change in the central government of India. The goal of this programme was to improve the urban infrastructural crisis. The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), a central government body, collaborated with Bloomberg Philanthropies to design and develop the Smart City Challenge, a method through which Indian cities competed with each other for the central government’s funding. One of the central and crucial criteria for the selection of cities under the Challenge was a citizen-centric approach – an inclusive and sustainable smart city. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), undertaking the smart city project in New Delhi, has not announced any direct initiatives specifically for the differently situated urban populations in the city such as economically weaker sections (EWS)/slum dwellers and women within its smart city proposal (SCP). In addition, the identity of these ‘smart’ stakeholders remains ambiguous along with ambiguous receivers of sustainable environmental goals. This dissertation will address these gaps by deploying methods of discourse analysis, semi-structured interviews, and survey questionnaires to study NDMC’s smart city project. The results of this study will argue for access to the smart city for whom, sustainability for whom, and who are the citizens participating in the planning and implementation of the smart city projects.