Buzzwords such as smart city and smart India have once again become prominent and eminent as we try to make our cities more efficient and promote optimum usage of space and scarce resources. Although this was a project inaugurated by the honourable prime minister in 2015, it is predicted that the project will successfully be completed in 2022. It will hopefully lead to a positive influence in the future by allowing seamless communication to take place and ameliorating the quality of life of the people through a more sustainable and greener environment. The highly developed urban infrastructure that uses a diverse range of technologies and electronic methods to collect data and accordingly supervise the allocation of resources would definitely help in increasing productivity but at the same time, there have been arguments related to the encroachment of privacy and security issues that have been caused due to the development of smart cities. Knowing India’s adroitness and expertise in producing a skilled IT workforce, it would be a loss of epic proportions to miss out on the opportunity of such a large investment project. In this context, it is fitting to analyse the potential of smart cities to usher in new economic growth and seek the answer to whether the rejuvenation of the Indian economy would at all be possible through the development of smart cities. 

India is a rapidly growing state and it is the world’s second most crowded state. The government has already declared that it has spent a massive bulk of Rs 48,000 crore for the development of thriving and aspiring 100 smart cities. Furthermore, in the coming years, the metropolitan populace will increase, which will make more effect on the gross domestic product of the country. Urban communities are dealing with immense issues in the space of waste administration, water contamination and gridlocks, etc and these issues need intuitive, perspicacious, and insightful solutions, which is why the government of India formulated the ‘smart city’ mission. This will not only help in enhancing and revamping the cities by making them more strategic and ecological but also support the needs and wants of future generations, by making their life much more comfortable and secure. It is imperative that India harnesses the dual advantage of investment and a fresh wave of innovation through smart cities as it aims to construct 2 crore homes over a large expanse of urban locations especially to cater to the requirements of the underprivileged and poor population. The rise in demand will continue to stimulate the market and tourism would exponentially increase as people from all around the world would be attracted to view such a novel concept and this would bring perks to the economy. This initiative provides the citizens with a more dynamic infrastructure and luxurious lifestyle with splendid facilities like 24 hours water and electricity supply, robust internet connectivity, and advanced transportation systems which would channelize the flow of vehicles in the entire city. Not only would this save time and raise efficiency but coupled with that, it would boost the standard of living and the quality of life for the people. 

While this analysis does deal with economic development and infrastructure, the smart city project also has an indispensable role to play in real estate development. The unfolding of smart cities in India will hike the demand for commercial and residential projects which will give birth to several high-tech office chains, arcades and extravagant hotels such great investment into the country would definitely anchorage our strength to revivify the economy since the real estate sector contributes to a whopping 6 percent of the GDP. The whole project seemed as if it was a gargantuan task but the support and the nurture of the government were constant throughout the project. This project was rapidly carried out because of the immense labour force which was employed and it brought out a fresh lease of life into the economy since the employment rates rose massively thus, it helped decrease the poverty levels significantly – a major problem that India has faced throughout the years. 

Smart city mission acts as a catalyst for the Indian economy since it has not only invigorated the economy but also has positively impacted the social lives of the people by giving them a blooming and purified environment to live in. The underlying message seems to be crystal clear – people do believe that such massive investment has affected the environment in the short run by causing a great volume of pollution and tainting the air. I slightly differ from this perspective as it is always good to look at the long term and in the long term, it will overwhelmingly defeat the social concerns of poverty or standard of living and environmental concerns because this project will aid in the development of more systematically aligned city management systems and thus there would be a reduction in any sort of wastages and inefficiency. This project has the potential to generate entrepreneurship and job growth, thus paving the path for economic growth.