[Answered] Evaluate the Smart Cities Mission in the context of sustainable urban development and urban local governance.

Smart Cities Mission was launched in 2015 to develop 100 cities across the country, making them citizen-friendly and sustainable. The SCM had two main aspects: area-based development consisting of three components — redevelopment (city renewal), retrofitting (city improvement), green field projects (city extension); and pan-city solutions based on ICT.

Impact on Sustainable Development

• Infrastructure Development: Improving infrastructure, including energy efficiency, sanitation, water supply, and transportation, was a major goal of the Smart Cities Mission. These sectors require significant investment to promote sustainable development since they lower resource consumption, increase climate change resistance, and improve quality of life overall.
• Environmentally Friendly Initiatives: A number of the mission’s smart cities have put in place programs including waste management systems, green areas, and renewable energy projects that are meant to encourage environmental sustainability. These initiatives help to mitigate environmental degradation, conserve natural resources, and cut down on carbon emissions.
• Integrated Planning: Planning that considers a range of social, economic, and environmental aspects is necessary for sustainable urban growth. To guarantee comprehensive and sustainable growth, the Smart Cities Mission pushed cities to implement comprehensive planning strategies and promoted collaboration between various government agencies and stakeholders.

Impact on Urban Local Governance

• Decentralized Decision-Making: To empower local authorities and improve community participation, effective urban governance entails decentralizing decision-making procedures. The Smart Cities Mission placed a strong emphasis on the value of public participation in planning and decision-making, encouraging openness, responsibility, and responsiveness in municipal governance.
• Capacity Building: For sustainable development and effective service delivery, urban municipal bodies’ capacity must be strengthened. To improve local institutions’ ability for governance, the Smart Cities Mission supported capacity-building projects like technology adoption, training programs for municipal officials, and information-sharing platforms.
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPP): Effective smart city project implementation depends on cooperation between the public and private sectors. PPP approaches for project finance were made easier by the Smart Cities Mission, which combined government investments with the resources and experience of the private sector. Ensuring accountability, openness, and fair benefit sharing in PPP agreements is still difficult, though.

Conclusion

The success of SCM depends on recognizing urban realities in India, empowering urban local bodies under the 74th Constitutional Amendment & enhancing the capital expenditure for the scheme.