Comparative Analysis between Eastern & Western Urban India under Smart City Mission: An Insight to Inequalities, Challenges & Policy Implications

Mausumi Sutradhar, Aniruddha Nag

Smart City Mission, equality, indiscrimination, UN Agenda, Solid Waste Management, ITC Neighbourhood, open spaces, community halls.

On 25th June, 2015 our honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi instigated Smart City Mission. Under this mission, 100 smart cities were selected across all the states & union territories on grounds of equality & indiscrimination. This mission serves as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in attaining India’s sustainability according to UN Agenda by 2030. This paper examines whether  all the urban cities under this programme makes equitable growth& development  in all parameters taken under it. this paper put emphasis on intra- regional inequalities & disparities. In our analysis , for simplicity, we have selected only the  eastern& western zone of India.  In each zone, we have  unbiasedly taken 17  smart cities. With inter-regional analysis ,this paper also emphasises on intra- regional inequalities & disparities which has happened to be under this mission. Smart Cities Mission includes parameters like smart energy management , solid waste management, community halls, open spaces, water conservation, communication networks, smart transportation, electricity, street lights, roads, ITC neighbourhood, health, etc. In our study we have chosen 7 parameters such as health, electricity , open spaces, community halls, solid waste management, street poles, roads constructed . Here we have done our research with the help of “ R Software”. While collecting data on different cities, it has been found that values of some parameters has been missing . In addition to that , the findings of our analysis interprets that government policy fails to provide effective & equitable growth in all parameters as well as cites considered under Smart Cities Mission.

https://doi.org/10.31871/IJNTR.11.11.3