To my mind, beyond the glitz of skyscrapers, flashy malls and hype of smart cities, the stark truth is that India’s urban infrastructure is on the verge of collapse, and nobody seems to care.
Even at roughly 36 per cent urbanisation, this translates into hundreds of millions of people living in towns and cities.
We often speak of the ‘Smart Cities Mission’, digital governance, artificial intelligence and technology-driven administration.
But there is something faintly absurd about calling a city smart when its most elementary civic systems do not work.
A smart city is not one with the largest number of sensors or the most impressive command centre.