Strategic approach in developing Smart Cities in Bharat

Top 50 cities in Bharat contribute to 42 percent of national GDP. The top 10 cities and their key strengths are as under. 

Tamil Nadu’s GDP $ 329 bn is almost equal to Pakistan’s GDP estimated at $ 338 bn. Rapid industrialisation is the key behind the growth of GDP and cities play a vital role in this. Therefore, Bharat needs to focus on developing another 10 centres into major cities in the next 5 years and yet another 20 centres into major cities in the next 10 years. 

The indicative list of cities for this plan of action could be:

Next 5 years -Jaipur, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Indore, Nagpur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Vadodara.

Next 10 years- Bhopal, Kota, Patna, Barauni, Gaya, Alwar. Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Mysore, Trivandrum, Kochi, Warangal, Vijayawada, Madurai, Trichi, Salem, Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, Rourkela.

The following 5 states though they find place in the top 10 States in terms of population, they are not in the list of top 10 States in terms of SGDP.

Incidentally the states- Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also do not have any cities that are in the top 10 cities in the country.

Majority of inter-state migrations in Bharat are from economically under-developed states . According to the 2011 Census, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh accounted for around half of the total inter-state migrants. These states have the highest incidence of poverty, and lag behind in human development. As per NITI-Aayog’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index (2015-16), poverty levels in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were 51.9 per cent 37.7 per cent and 36.6 per cent respectively.

Top cities preferred by the people for migration are- Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. Incidentally all these 7 cities are in the list of top 10 cities in the country in terms of GDP.

Therefore, developing new cities at strategic locations will result in:

1. Adding more cities that significantly contribute to the growth of Bharat’s GDP.
2. Reducing the migration from the States like- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh which accounted for around half of the total inter-state migrants.

In other words, there should be a special focus on developing major cities in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh which would help in improving the GDP of these states and reduce the migration from these states to other centres in the country.

Needless to mention that creation of good infrastructure, investing in human resources and skill development with an investor friendly policy that attracts capital investment are the vital aspects to develop major cities at strategic locations.

Smart Cities Mission (SCM)      

As of May 2025, India’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched in 2015 to enhance urban infrastructure and sustainability across 100 cities, is nearing its extended completion deadline of March 31, 2025.

Despite significant progress, only 18 out of the targeted 100 cities have completed all their Smart Cities Mission projects. Though Rs. 1.50 lakh Cr funds have been spent so far, SCM is bogged down with issues like- land acquisition challenges, inter-agency coordination issues, and resource constraints.

There is a need to conduct an impact evaluation study on SCM by identifying few success and failure stories, highlight the lessons learnt, and suitably modify the SCM, quantify the expected outcomes where the Smart Cities GDP should be one of those expected outcomes. In line with this the SCM may be further extended by another 10 years by limiting the scope of SCM to 20 – 30 cities (as mentioned earlier in this article) so that a focused approach with a strategic action plan can be adopted in this objective, with an outcome driven orientation.