Envisioning a truly smart city

The success of the smart city mission depends on urban local bodies, and it is imperative to carve out a bigger role for them in the national development strategies

The smart city mission, as envisaged by the Prime Minister, is embedded in the idea of promoting cities that provide ease of living to its citizens, with core infrastructural development, a clean and sustainable environment and access to resources through the adoption of data-oriented “smart solutions”.

Through extensive work on the social, economic, physical, and institutional pillars of the city, smart cities seek to promote economic growth and enhance the quality of life. The goal is to create reproducible models that serve as beacons for other aspirant cities, with an emphasis on sustainable and inclusive development. However, this new face of urbanisation — emanating from India’s strive to adopt innovative digital and sustainable approaches to achieve its goal — is not unilateral. It is intrinsically tied to different aspects of governance, especially reforms at the level of local governance with the aim of making urban local bodies and their administrative tools more innovative and adaptive. These kinds of reforms are not linked with financing alone, but also with enhancing the role of urban local bodies in smart city governance.

India’s Smart Cities Mission is a centrally-funded programme that mandates equal contributions from state governments and urban local bodies for implementing initiatives covered by the smart city proposal. States are expected to look for funding for the initiatives included in the smart city proposal from a variety of sources, including the resources of the state and urban local bodies generated from the collection of user fees, beneficiary charges, impact fees, land monetisation, debt and loans. The mission is monitored at three levels: National, state, and city. At the national level, the responsibility for approving ideas, keeping track of progress, and allocating funds fall on an apex committee, which is led by the secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and includes officials from associated ministries and organisations. At the state level, the overall direction of the smart city mission would be set by a high powered steering committee and presided over by the chief secretary of the state. Furthermore, at the municipal level, the district collector and the chief executive officer of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) make up the smart city advisory forum in all smart cities. Its responsibility is to release funds and carry out, oversee, and assess projects for the development of smart cities.

According to the Twelfth Finance Commission report, there are 3,723 urban local bodies, of which 109 are municipal corporations, 1,432 are municipalities, and 2,182 are nagar panchayats. The vast number of urban local bodies showcases the potential to leverage growth and development in all critical areas, including housing, sanitation and hygiene, livelihood, IT, health and education, transportation, and environment. However, it is essential to embed accountability and fiscal discipline in the workings of these urban local bodies. Through the smart city mission, India can be ushered into the new age of governance with a focus on improving the efficiency of urban local bodies. For example, the SPVs — which essentially operate like municipalities but are distinct in their composition in that they are registered as a private company with at least 40 per cent of private investment — lend a sense of stability with permanent executive leadership to urban governance. It is hoped that this will encourage local governments to move towards inter-departmental convergences and the devolution of executive authority to elected officials from the city, such as a mayor, who could ensure more responsible city management.

The urban local bodies are essential for the growth of smart cities in more ways than one. The success of the mission depends on factors like swift and effective leadership. Most importantly, due to their grassroots operations, urban local bodies can provide a clear vision, engender a desire to build better communities among its residents and promote effective and efficient development. They are also a source of useful information about the local environment, bringing forth particular demands that should be addressed and being the voice of consensus. There are some critical constraints to these functions in the form of limited jurisdiction and financial bottlenecks. This does not only impede their capacity to function, but also to upgrade their skills to function better.

Therefore, a close synergy between the smart city mission and urban local bodies can be conceived when the latter’s scope is enhanced and pushed forward. Beyond increasing the scope of their work and jurisdiction, it is also a matter of realising the role of grassroots governance mechanisms in driving sustainable urbanisation in the country. It is imperative to integrate the urban local bodies within the national development strategies in order to build capacity for sustainable and inclusive urbanisation. Through this, the mission must revolutionise urban governance while strengthening accountability and transparency if it is to have a long-term impact on urban development. Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness, India and visiting scholar & lecturer, Stanford University; @kautiliya. Debroy is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister of India; @bibekdebroy