Abstract:
Indian cities seem to be in transition regardless of the various sustainability
challenges they have experienced in recent years. Globalization, market
economy, and technological developments have brought economic, social and
infrastructural advantages. However, population growth, proliferation of urban
functions, insurmountable increase in size of cities, and environmental crises
because of climate change have caused the cities to experience severe spatial,
infrastructural and environmental ailments. Besides, the significant rise of
Information Communication Technology (ICT) industries in the cities and
their socio-economic and spatial influence have brought about inequitable
development. At this juncture emancipation of a political will to build smart
cities in India provides a new impetus for changing the planning perspectives
and warrants a politico-cultural discourse to examine the prerequisites and
paradigms, which could aid in development of smart cities in India. Drawing
upon the stimulating mix of past experiences and prospective approaches
across the world and discussions with experts in the political science, local
governance and urban development, this explorative paper provides a
discourse on the concept of smart cities, opportunities, challenges and the way
forward to realize the goals of smart city development in a heterogeneous but
democratically unified country like India. Based on the discourse, it is argued
that the current urban governance system is not congruent for development of
smart cities in India. Therefore, it is advocated that a cultural theory inspired
politico-cultural mechanism be explored and crafted to assemble the requisite
elements of an urban governance system that should enable the dynamics and
cohesion needed for developing smart cities in India.
