**1. Introduction**

The United Nations World Urbanization Prospects shows that in 2017, 4.1 billion people were living in urban areas. This indicates that more than half the world population (55%) lived in urban areas. In this context, India's urbanization is much slower than many developing countries and even its peers such as China, Brazil, and Russia. The latest Census data shows that the percentage of India's urbanization was 31.15% in 2011. On the other hand, China (or Brazil or Russia) has experienced about 49.2% (or 84.3% or 73.7%) urbanization rate in 2010. The reluctant urbanization in India can be because of a lack of governmental supportive policies or challenges in managing the urban dynamics [1]. On the other hand, China's urban policies are focused on integrated urban and rural development, the creation of city clusters to spread the benefits of urbanization, and the promotion of sustainable urban development. Though China's urbanization is more policy-induced, India's urbanization is more market-determined. Therefore, appropriate urban policies in India are required for proper design and implementation.

No country has ever reached middle-income status without a significant increase in urbanization [2]. Urbanization has contributed not only to higher income but also it has improved people's lives [3, 4]. Therefore, the promotion of urbanization is very important for many developing countries such as India. Currently, India is facing numerous challenges as a result of enormous urban dwellers. India has now two challenges; first, it has to speed up the urbanization rate, and secondly, it has to make proper or planned urbanization so that the maximum benefits of urbanization are achievable. Urbanization use resources such as excess labor and land more productively and becomes the engine of economic growth.

To achieve planned urbanization for higher and sustainable economic growth Government of India (GoI) has taken Smart Cities Mission initiatives. In June 2015, the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) released a mission statement and guidelines for the Smart Cities Mission. This program replaced the previous major central government's flagship program Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and wanted to move India's cities forward under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. Under the guidelines, several strategies are sketched by which an applicant entity can apply to achieve smart city designation [5].

Though there is no universally accepted definition of 'smart city', India's smart city development mission is meant to invest more on the core infrastructure elements such as water, electricity, sanitation, solid waste management, public transport, e-governance, etc. GoI also has proposed eight features of comprehensive development for smart cities. This includes promotion of mixed land use, housing and inclusiveness, creation of walkable localities, preservation and development of open spaces, promotion a variety of transport options, making governance citizenfriendly and cost effective, giving an identity to the city, applying Smart Solutions to infrastructure and services in area-based development to make them better.

In this context, the present chapter assesses the impact of higher infrastructure availability on the population size of the smart cities in India. For the analysis, we consider only 85 smart cities in India that have populations more than 1 lakh (class I cities). The relevance for consideration of these cities that the class I cities accommodate about 70.2% of the total urban population in 2011. This indicates that India's urbanization is concentrated in and around the class I cities. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether a further increase in the infrastructure of class I cities escalate population or not. It is very important to increase urbanization in India as it is having a slower rate of urbanization.

### **2. Review of literature**

There are very few following studies which explore the impact, structure, and implementation strategies of smart cities program in India. Russell et al. [6] argued that the Smart Cities Mission marks a continued shift for urban development policy in India away from direct government intervention. They argued that the cities nominated for the Smart Cities Mission have adequate levels of public services, a lower percentage of slums, and are bigger. Therefore, providing basic infrastructure to these cities is against the smart city ideas and concepts.

Praharaj et al. [7] indicated that Indian cities need synergy across urban policies for better results. They also stated that smart city plans lack integration and have a conflict with statutory master plans. Praharaj et al. [8] explored the relationship between active civic engagement and the availability of basic digital infrastructure and socio-economic standards in Indian cities. They provide important lessons for

#### *Does Smart City Development Promote Urbanization in India? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94568*

building future smart and connected cities as well as promoting healthy urban relationships and welfare, in the emerging economies of the world. Aijaz and Hoelscher [9] argued that to make the 'smart city mission' more equitable and sustainable the fair engagement of citizens and all stakeholders need to involve. Praharaj and Han [10] stated that the Indian smarty city discourse predominantly corporate-driven and technology-focused. Therefore, smart cities should engage with sustainability and community issues. Randhawa and Kumar [11] argued that smart city development policies lack concerns towards the natural environment which is an important dimension of sustainable development of a city.

Rana et al. [1] found that that 'Governance' is the most significant category of barriers for smart city development followed by 'Economic; 'Technology'; 'Social'; 'Environmental' and 'Legal and Ethical' in India. Hoelscher [12] stated that the smart cities agenda in India appears to be characterized by a failure to conceptualize and develop an integrated set of policies, and while a clearer (yet contested) concept is emerging, the prospects for success are uncertain. Praharaj and Han [13] found that the vast disparities remain across India's urban centers, located in different geographical regions, in terms of access to social capital and physical infrastructure. Their analysis suggests that education, health, and social services are important drivers in the urban typology building process. The small to medium sized cities in India are missing basic community infrastructure. This implies that smart city development strategy which considers one-size-fits-all by assuming importance of foundational infrastructure has the shortcomings. Tripathi [14] argued that smart cities in India should ensure smart distribution of benefits of urban economic growth to the poorer section of urban dwellers for future development of urban India.

Adapa [15] presents a comprehensive review of the existing smart city frameworks and cleaner production initiatives in the Indian context. Aijaz [16] argued that the negative effect of India's urbanization includes informal-growth of periurban areas, escalating water crises, social exclusions, an extension of slums, and mismanagement of solid waste. The author argued that the success of smart city development only possible if civic institutions correctly understand the city's social, economic, and physical requirements and its diversity. At the same time, citizens should show a greater sense of civic responsibility.

The brief review of the literature mainly suggests that how smart city development initiatives can be more effective if properly implemented. In other words, what are the important dimensions of India's urbanization that have to be considered for the successful implementation of smart city development strategies which will lead to successful urban development in India? However, these studies have missed important dimensions of India's urban development policy which is how to increase the urbanization rate which is essential for economic development. Therefore, the present study attempts to fulfill this gape for better urban development in the future.
