Comments by "M Shastri" (@libshastra) on "What is Modi govt's Smart Cities Mission?" video.

  1. Raghav misses a couple of things about Smart Cities. The "smart" in smart Cities is all about smart implementation and not smart technologies. Second, it is a continuous program with either annual or biannual project durations. Each city proposes a program as per their local requirement (improved garbage collection, drainage, redevelopming a local area like Chappan or Chandni Chowk etc) to MoHUD. MoHUD selects projects based on costs, sustainability and a bunch of other criteria and the Centre allocates money towards it. The cities who are selected then gets their allocated money through a SPV that created for the project. Each city's Smart Cities program has it's own online portal with stats and progress reports on projects under consideration, planning and implementation. Also the SPV (each approved project is implemented by a SPV) is also supposed to publish quarterly earnings reports like a private company. So you can see how the money gets spent. This is the 3rd round of smart Cities.
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