Provincializing the 'Smart' through Smart Cities Mission in India

Keywords: Smart Cities, smart urbanism, smart cities mission, India, Urban
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 75

Abstract

In 2014, the Government of India announced developing 100 smart cities through the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) to modernize India and achieve higher standards of living, equivalent to European cities. The government aspires to create the 100 smart cities by involving private actors, global consultants, and incorporating smart and best practices from around the world to make them competitive nodes and economic engines. To achieve the targets, the federal urban ministry devised specific criteria under the SCM and smart city proposal submission process by intended cities and competitive selection process of 100 cities accordingly. Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha state in eastern India became the top-ranking city among the first round of 20 smart cities selected through the competitive smart city proposals. Among other criteria of achieving smart status for the city, Bhubaneswar’s smart city proposal equally focussed on social equity and capacity building projects that are contextualized/provincialized in relation to the specific requirement of the city and its everyday residents. Project Kusum was envisaged to provide early childhood and digital education for children of all socio-economic levels. Similarly, Project Kutumb gave focus on alleviating challenges of food, water, and shelter for homelessness and migrants in the city. Project Swabhiman was envisaged to give economic opportunities to street hawkers, slum dwellers, and others through skills development and quality improvement programs. This paper aims to analyze the provincializing emphasis of the city’s smart city programs and attempts to understand the bottom-up and locally-specific innovations at the sub-national and municipality level.