The Smart City Paradigm in India: Issues and Challenges of Sustainability and Inclusiveness

Immediately after assuming power in May 2014, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to set up ‘100 Smart Cities’ throughout the country. With the contribution of urban India to the national GDP estimated at 75 per cent during 2030, the Smart Cities are expected to be engines of economic growth. The budget speech of the Finance Minister in July 2014 mentioned that the aspirations of the neo-middle class towards better living standards are to be achieved by developing Smart Cities as satellite towns for larger cities and by modernising existing mid-size cities.