About the Mission

• Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting program launched by the Government of India in 2015 with the mission to develop 100 cities across the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable. 
• The Smart Cities Mission 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 strategic components of area-based development in the Smart Cities Mission are city improvement (retrofitting), city renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (greenfield development) plus a Pan-city initiative in which Smart Solutions are applied covering larger parts of the city.

Implementation

• The implementation of the Mission at the City level will be done by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) created for the purpose. 
• The SPV will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects. 
• Each smart city will have a SPV which will be headed by a full time CEO and have nominees of Central Government, State Government and ULB on its Board.

Key Objectives of the Mission

• To provide a fillip to the development of new and innovative smart solutions that directly impact the needs of cities; 
• To ensure availability of funding for practice research of direct relevance to the outcomes desired under the missions; 
• To make available a large body of pilot-tested and proven smart solutions that can be adopted by cities as per their specific needs; and 
• To promote a culture of innovation within the urban sector.

Why in News?

• The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has ranked Uttar Pradesh as top performer under the Smart Cities mission’s India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020 followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. 
• Among cities, Indore and Surat were adjudged joint winners. Among Union Territories, Chandigarh was ranked first.
• The awards were announced to commemorate 6 years of the three urban transformative missions of the Central government — Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U), which were launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25, 2015.
• These awards were given across the themes of social aspects, governance, culture, urban environment, sanitation, economy, built environment, water, urban mobility. Some new themes were also added this year for Sustainable Business model of Integrated Command and Control Centres, and Innovation award specially in Covid management.

Related Information

About AMRUT

• To recast the urban landscape of the country, to make urban areas more livable and inclusive besides driving economic growth, the Prime Minister launched a centrally sponsored scheme namely Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) in 2015.
• It is under the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. 
• AMRUT seeks to lay a foundation to enable cities and towns to eventually grow into smart cities.

• The purpose of AMRUT is to
  • Ensure that every household has access to a tap with the assured supply of water and a sewerage connection.
  • Increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained open spaces (e.g. parks) and
  • Reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorized transport (e.g. walking and cycling). All these outcomes are valued by citizens, particularly women, and indicators and standards have been prescribed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA ) in the form of Service Level Benchmarks (SLBs).
• The Priority zone of the Mission is water supply followed by sewerage.

Components

• The components of the AMRUT consist of capacity building, reform implementation, water supply, sewerage and septage management, storm water drainage, urban transport and development of green spaces and parks.

Coverage

• Five hundred cities have been selected under AMRUT. The category of cities that have been selected under AMRUT is given below:
• All Cities and Towns with a population of over one lakh with notified Municipalities as per Census 2011, including Cantonment Boards (Civilian areas),

• All Capital Cities/Towns of States/ UTs, not covered in above ,

• All  Cities/  Towns  classified  as  Heritage  Cities  by  MoHUA  under  the  HRIDAY Scheme,

• Thirteen Cities and Towns on the stem of the main rivers with a population above 75,000 and less than 1 lakh, and

• Ten Cities from hill states, islands and tourist destinations (not more than one from each State).

Approach

• Implementation of this Mission will be linked to promotion of urban reforms such as 
  • e-governance, 
  • constitution of professional municipal cadre, 
  • devolving funds and functions to urban local bodies, 
  • review of Building bye-laws, 
  • improvement in assessment and collection of municipal taxes, 
  • credit rating of urban local bodies, 
  • energy and water audit and 
  • citizen-centric urban planning.

Funding

• Central assistance will be to the extent of 50 percent of project cost for cities and towns with a population of up to 10 lakh and one-third of the project cost for those with a population of above 10 lakh. 
• Central assistance will be released in three instalments in the ratio of 20:40:40 based on achievement of milestones indicated in State Annual Action Plans. 

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban)

• The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme envisions Housing for All by 2022, when the Nation completes 75 years of its Independence. It is under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• It was launched in 2015 to provide central assistance to implementing agencies through States and UTs for providing houses to all eligible families/ beneficiaries.
• PMAY(U) adopts a demand driven approach wherein the Housing shortage is decided based on demand assessment by States/Union Territories.
• The Mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals:
  • Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource
  • Promotion of Affordable Housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy
  • Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors
  • Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction /enhancement

Beneficiaries

• Beneficiaries include economically weaker sections (EWS), low-income groups (LIGs) and Middle Income Groups (MIGs). 
• The EWS/LIG/MIG categories are defined as follows:
  • EWS households with an annual income upto Rs. 3.00 lakhs.
  • LIG households with an annual income between Rs. 3.00 lakhs to Rs. 6.00 lakhs.
  • MIG households with an annual income between Rs. 6.00 lakhs to Rs. 18.00 lakhs.
• EWS category of beneficiaries is eligible for assistance in all four verticals of the Missions whereas LIG and MIG categories are eligible under only Credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) component of the Mission.
• The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house and the beneficiary family should not have availed of central assistance under any housing scheme from Government of India.

Implementation

• Mission is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) except for the component of credit linked subsidy which will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme.
• All statutory towns as per Census 2011 and towns notified subsequently would be eligible for coverage under the Mission.
• The Mission also promotes women empowerment by providing the ownership of houses in the name of female member or in joint name. 
• Preference is also given to differently abled persons, senior citizens, SCs, STs, OBCs, Minority, single women, transgender and other weaker & vulnerable sections of the society. 
  

Reference:

1. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/up-top-performer-under-smart-cities-mission-followed-by-mp-and-tamil-nadu-101624621495040.html