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Preface
This is our 6th edition of Yojana Gist released for the month of SEPTEMBER, 2015 on SMART
CITIES AND ISSUES. Yet the message delivered in the last edition remains the same. Yojana
Magazine (released by Ministry of I&B) is increasingly finding a place in the questions of
both UPSC Prelims and Mains. Every Issue of Yojana deals with a single topic
comprehensively sharing views from a wide spectrum ranging from academicians to policy
makers to scholars. The magazine is essential to build an in-depth understanding of various
socio-economic issues.
From the exam point of view, however, not all articles are important. Some go into scholarly
depths and others discuss agendas that are not relevant for your preparation. Added to this
is the difficulty of going through a large volume of information, facts and analysis to finally
extract their essence that may be useful for the exam.
We are not discouraging from reading the magazine itself. So, do not take this as a
document which you take read, remember and reproduce in the examination. Its only
purpose is to equip you with the right understanding. But, if you do not have enough time to
go through each and every Yojana magazine, you can rely on the content provided here for
it sums up the most essential points from all the articles in Yojana.
You need not put hours and hours in reading Yojana and making its notes in pages. We
believe, a smart study, rather than hard study, of Yojana can improve your preparation
levels. Hence, instead of giving you a gist of articles, we are providing a Q&A format from
both Prelims and Mains that can make you understand How to read Yojana?
Think, learn, practice and keep improving! That is the key to success.

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INTRODUCTION
The first question is what is meant by a smart city. The answer is, there is no universally
accepted definition of a smart city. It means different things to different people. The
conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country,
depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and
aspirations of the city residents. A smart city would have a different connotation in India
than, say, Europe. Even in India, there is no one way of defining a smart city.
Some definitional boundaries are required to guide cities in the Mission. In the imagination
of any city dweller in India, the picture of a smart city contains a wish list of infrastructure
and services that describes his or her level of aspiration. To provide for the aspirations and
needs of the citizens, urban planners ideally aim at developing the entire urban eco-system,
which is represented by the four pillars of comprehensive development-institutional,
physical, social and economic infrastructure.
This can be a long term goal and cities can work towards developing such comprehensive
infrastructure incrementally, adding on layers of smartness. In the approach of the Smart
Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a
decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of
Smart Solutions. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to
look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other
aspiring cities. The Smart Cities Mission of the Government is a bold, new initiative. It is
meant to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the Smart City,
catalysing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country.
The core infrastructure elements in a smart city would include:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.

adequate water supply,

assured electricity supply,
sanitation, including solid waste management,
efficient urban mobility and public transport,
affordable housing, especially for the poor,
robust IT connectivity and digitalization,
good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation,
sustainable environment,
safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and
health and education.

As far as Smart Solutions are concerned, an illustrative list is given below. This is not,
however, an exhaustive list, and cities are free to add more applications.
Courtesy- Ministry of Urban Development, GoI
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According to the Census 2011,

Figures

31.16%
31.80%

Depiction

Of India lives in urban units, accounting for approximately one-third of the

countrys population.
Growth rate of population in urban areas; population in rural areas in the
same period was 12.2%

468

Class I Towns population > 1,00,000; 264.9 million

53

million plus cities in India and 160.7 million people live in these cities (43%
of total urban population)

63%

Urban sector now constitutes 63% of the GDP; Indias share of GDP coming
from urban areas is still very low compared to China (78%)

600 Million

people will be living in cities by 2031; urban India could house 35% of the
countrys population by 2020
will have million plus populations, up from 53 today; today, Europe has 41
million plus cities
Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab - will have more
of their population living in cities than villages

87 Cities
5 States

70% GDP

will be generated from Urban India by 2030 and the same percent of net
new employment opportunities will be created in cities

39.2 Lakh
crore

worth of investments required in urban infrastructure over the next 20

years for asset creation, redevelopment and capacity building

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 Under the Smart City Mission

The Central GovernmentAssistance to Urban Local Bodies

Technology backed urban centers
Promotion of a bottom-up model of city development

Convergence of

AMRUT,

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM),

National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY),

Digital India,

Skill Development,

Housing for All for holistic development of cities

Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) + matching amount by the State or ULB.

The central allocation will be INR 48,000 crore over the next five years (FY 2015-16
to FY 2019-20)

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Year 1:194
crore
Year 2: 98 crore
Year 3: 98 crore

Year 4 :98 crore

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MAINS RELATED QUESTIONS

1. Given the absence of information and the growing menace of poor sanitation, and
waste management, how best can Information and Communication Technologies be
incorporated to make Indian cities Smart Cities?
Waste Management constitutes a serious challenge to the success of the implementation
of Smart Cities in India. The absence of segregation of wastes at source, lack of technical
expertise and appropriate institutional arrangements as well as improper collection,
inefficient transportation and disposal systems, plague the quality of living.
ICT is a component comprising of communication devices and their applications to improve
the availability, accessibility and the feedback of these services. Communication devices
have made our life simpler and its usage to disseminate information regarding sanitation
facilities, improve participatory approach to reduce the demand-supply gap as well as
initiating good planning process can be highly beneficial. This way all the stakeholders will
have a say in the kind as well as process of development involved, keeping them informed
and ensuring regular monitoring/evaluation of the sanitation facilities.
ICT tools like GIS location & co-ordinates of bins and dumping sites, CCTV Cameras, GPS
enabled vehicles, automatic generation of status of collection and segregation of wastes,
online monitoring and interactive systems will help eliminate the human factor involved as
well as ensure real time monitoring of the vehicles plying to improve their performances
multi-fold. Social Media can be a used as a platform to garner ideas and look out for people
interested in re0using some of the usable materials.
Although ICT revolution has the ability to employ cost-effective technologies and present
more effective urban planning, we should make sure that the real attitudinal approach be
taken care of.

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Lets take care of the Attitudinal Approach

Education about
negative consequences
of defacating/littering

Greater Fiscal
decentralisation
to Local Bodies

Better Coordination
across Service
Providers

Encourage
Research &
Development

Maintenance of
Reliable Data

2. When it comes to affordable housing there has been no significant departure from the
huge demand-supply gap existing in the country. In the light of the statement, how can
India host a housing revolution to solve the existing crisis in India?
India holds a huge demand for housing, which has kept on increasing substantially with the
demand-supply gap and the lackadaisical implementation of the policies. While there exists
an oversupply of housing for the higher-income/middle-income group, the low income
group unable to afford the high-priced houses, take their course to illegal shelter.
Some of the measures that can help India create Housing-for-all are
Supply: Modern construction techniques can help us deal with speedy constructions with
many companies selling these techniques to help increase the construction of houses.
Availability of Land: Land should be available at a reasonable price which can be done by
employing sustainable models of land sharing and upgradation of land. Also, there is a need
to effectively utilize the land and create new laws related to it.
Finance: Housing loans can be extended to the low-income/middle class groups easily with
proper financial education, to make owning-a-house a reality for them.
Infrastructure: There is a need of overhaul of services related to the provision of basic
amenities to the houses. Proper transportation facilities, good connectivity with the city,
waste management, safe drinking water and security is important.
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Housing, as an economic sector has both forward as well as backward linkages leading to a
generation of a huge amount of job-creation for the time being, for the rural unemployed,
skilled or semi-skilled. Thus, housing needs to be given a high impetus, both as a strategy for
development and to achieve scale economies in production, savings and a new growth
story.

3. Public safety and security has become paramount for city administrations to ensure
sustainability of Smart Cities. What are the steps that can be taken to ensure that our
cities stay disaster-free and secured?
Public safety and security is a part of the components of a Smart City: Sustainability and
Quality of Life. Safety of a city takes into account the financial and cyber-crimes as well as
data issues and theft of community resources as well as the loss that a city incurs during a
disaster. A smart city needs to be responsive to changes as well as resilient to minimize the
impact of natural disasters.
Tele-Surveillance/Connectivity:

Round-the-clock availability of data

Reliance during Emergencies: Directions + Instructions + Surveillance
Rich source of intelligent inputs + Automated Database Filler
Online disaster rescue communities be built and made awareQuick Action

Data Integrity + Generation:

Encrypted Solutions in the device: Authentic Communication with required Call

Centre
Digital Certificates: Authentication + Signing + Encryption
Algorithms: To maintain anonymity
Generation of data from smart phones +Sensors Alert rescue team
Enable tracing of excess of capacity to automatically alert

Collaborative Response Efforts:

Automatic Updates: Effective Action + Saves Time & Energy

Ensure Cooperated collective Action: Effective Surveillance
Can be linked to traffic signals: Medical Emergency

Disaster Resistant Hubs:

Creation of Resilient & Sustainable Communities

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Provision of alternate energy + shelter

Modular Housing as relief camps
Basic Facilities: Kitchen + Bathrooms + Sleeping spaces

There is a need for sustainable linkages to be established with the help of technology,
knowledge and information. There is a need for smarter constructions resistant to natural
disasters, new energy efficient means to reduce the stress that has developed on our
natural resources. This change in focus against the Smart City initiative implementation will
truly magnify the potential of development.

SOLVE THESE QUESTIONS USING MIND MAPS & OTHER GIVEN INFORMATION

1. It is said that Indian Cities acts as an engine of growth. Do you agree with the
statement? Discuss the challenges for Indian cities to become actual engine of growth and
world class cities.

2. What are the institutional challenges in making our cities Smart? Is Smart City Mission
too ambitious?

3. Recently, many schemes like AMRUT, Housing for All and Smart City Mission has been
launched for Urban Development. What are the reasons for failure of previous schemes
and importance of contemporary schemes? Isnt it that recent schemes hold no good than
new names?

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DO YOU KNOW
Over-the-Top Services:
Applications, Services that can be easily accessed over the internet are known as over-thetop services. Ease of access is provided by social networking sites, search engines, gaming &
music sites which can be easily accessed by mobiles phones, e-reader, tablets, being able to
compete with traditional service providers without any hassles.
The communication revolution characterised by deep penetration of smart phones, the
digitisation of all the content over the internet, the online entrepreneurship boom with an
ever-increasing demand for internet penetration has created a different kind of niche,
almost becoming a necessity. With the unprecedented growth and huge demand, theres
also a spate of development regarding the regulations of OTT services but, the way ahead
lies in coordinated functioning and deliberations with all the stakeholders involved.

PRELIMS RELATED QUESTIONS

1. The philosophy Integral Humainism has been given by
1.
2.
3.
4.

Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya

Sarojini Naidu
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Mahatma Gandhi

Ans: Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya

Editor of Panchjanya + Swadesh
Budget 2014 Scheme on his name: Gram Jyoti for 24/7 electricity supply to villagers

2. What was the name of the pact opposed by Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukerjee, on whose name a
scheme (Rurban mission) has been introduced by the 2014 Budget?

1.
2.
3.
4.

Delhi Pact
Lucknow Pact
Sarat Suharawady pact
Surat Pact

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Ans: Sarat Suharawady pact

3. In terms of absolute numbers, population have increased for
1.
2.
3.
4.

Only Rural
Only Urban
Both Rural & Urban
None of the above

Ans: Both

4. Which state hosts the maximum number of villages according to 2011 Census?
1.
2.
3.
4.

Uttar Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Bihar
Odisha

Ans: UP
UP > MP > Odisha

Regards
IASbaba

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