Smart Cities Unbundled describes how the Smart Cities Mission has reconceptualized and extended the Smart City model in ways that makes it relevant and useful for most of India's major cities, as well as for many cities worldwide. The book prescribes a 'smart' Indian approach to urban development that veers away from a narrow technicist focus to a broader, more inclusive and flexible conceptualization of a Smart City. This fresh approach fully recognizes the fundamental need to make people part of policy formulation and partners in implementation, while still integrating the use of advanced technology and urban informatics to improve the technical efficiency of essential public services. As such, it describes an adaptive framework that recognizes differing local circumstances, and as such, will assist urban development professionals in India and elsewhere to adapt the application of smart city strategies to their unique contexts.
Clearly, this book will be useful for practitioners and students, both in India and abroad. As a text, Smart Cities Unbundled can assist urban development practitioners and students to understand the value of integrating human-scale planning with advanced sensor-based urban informatics using artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The work is grounded in western theories and concepts of smart cities, and provides insight to the application of sustainable and inclusive development, and how compact area development can create a replicable model that can serve as a 'lighthouse” to other aspiring areas and cities. In addition, the book is strongly focused on Indian urban development practices and ideas, as reflected in the discussion of the 'loose fit, light touch' framework, special purpose vehicles and the Bespoke method of capacity building. These will be of interest to Indians as well as non-Indians interested in Indian development approaches.