ABSTRACT
This chapter explores India’s Smart Cities Mission in order to reveal the limitations of its utopian vision. It shows that smart cities are a 21st-century mechanism of capitalist reproduction that valorizes technocratic solutions to social problems. The June 2015 “Smart Cities Mission Statement and Guidelines” from the Indian Ministry of Urban Development opens with the declaration, “cities are engines of growth for the economy of every nation, including India”. India is building its smart cities upon a troubled urban legacy. With the country’s population growing dramatically since the 1950s, the second half of the 20th century featured mass urban migration. The underlying context for India’s bifurcation point is the reform of urban policies that started in the early 1990s. Urban corridors constitute the bridge between Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and the Smart Cities Mission. Urban corridors leverage linkages between cities by enhancing transport infrastructure that serves industrialization, urban renewal, and employment growth.
