Smart Cities Mission: Amidst the Noise, a Clear Win—India’s Data Awakening

When the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) was launched in 2015, it signaled an ambitious reimagining of urban development in India—with cities asked not just to build new infrastructure, but to embed technology and data at the core of governance.

By March 2025, as the mission formally concluded with limited fanfare, a complex legacy had emerged. While cities did create new physical assets—roads, command centres, public spaces—the broader vision of smarter, more livable cities remains only partially realized. Independent assessments suggest that urban liveability indicators either plateaued or, in some cases, declined, even as budgets exceeded ₹1 lakh crore.

And yet, amidst the mixed results, the mission leaves behind an important institutional shift: the idea that data, when used meaningfully, can shape better cities. The task now is to build on that foundation—not by scaling tech for its own sake, but by focusing on insight, integration, and on-ground action.

Source: Smart Cities Open Data Portal

Rethinking the Urban Data Ecosystem: Platforms, Protocols, and Frameworks

India’s Smart Cities Mission introduced several pioneering digital tools to promote data-driven governance. Here’s a clearer picture of what each initiative does, and how they complement rather than replace one another.

1. Open Data Platforms and Data Sharing Framework

Key infrastructure were developed under SCM to enable data transparency and inter-agency collaboration:

📊 Smart Cities Open Data Portal

This portal serves as a public-facing repository of urban datasets from across the 100 Smart Cities. It has made a wide range of information accessible to citizens, researchers, and administrators.

However, feedback from urban researchers and domain experts indicates areas for strengthening:

• Some datasets are dated or irregularly updated.

• Data formats and structures vary across cities.

• Geospatial tagging is often missing, making spatial planning difficult.

These are not uncommon issues in early-stage digital systems, and cities are gradually building the internal capacities needed to address them.

🔄 India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)

IUDX, built in collaboration with IISc Bangalore, focuses on secure, interoperable data exchange between urban service providers. Several cities have already begun to adopt it, and early pilots have demonstrated strong technical potential.

The next step lies in mainstreaming its use across municipal departments, ensuring that real-time data can support decision-making beyond technical silos.

“Technical platforms are in place—the focus now must shift to operational integration,” notes a summary report from the Data for Public Good consortium.

2. Sustainability & Liveability Frameworks: Creating a Benchmarking Culture

India has also developed a number of forward-thinking frameworks to assess city performance. Here are a few of them:

• AMPLIFI 2.0 (Assessment and Monitoring Platform for Liveable, Inclusive and Future-ready Urban India)

• NITI Aayog’s SDG Urban Index

• NIUA’s City Livability Standards

These frameworks are highly valuable for tracking progress across thematic domains—ranging from environment and water to education, health, and housing. They have helped establish a culture of performance benchmarking and comparative analysis.

However, some practical challenges remain:

• The AMPLIFI 2.0 portal is currently offline, and according to NIUA, its work is being carried forward under the ABLE India framework.

• The SDG Urban Index, while informative at the city level, does not currently offer open access to ward-level data or real-time dashboards.

These frameworks provide important strategic insights, but for administrators, the need often lies in localized, operational data—to guide decisions in transport routing, encroachment management, or cleanliness audits.

“Macro-level assessments must be complemented by micro-level tools to support local decision-making,” observed a recent CEEW urban governance note.

3. Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs): Real-Time Systems with Scope to Expand

The creation of ICCCs across over 80 cities has been one of the major achievements of the Smart Cities Mission. These centres have already improved coordination in:

✅ Emergency response ✅ Surveillance and safety ✅ Waste collection tracking ✅ Intelligent traffic management

However, urban practitioners have noted that many ICCCs are still evolving in their functional roles:

• Several cities use ICCCs predominantly for surveillance and mobility.

• There is less coverage of pedestrian infrastructure, street vendor management, walkability, or urban design indicators.

• ICCCs are often equipped with dashboards, but the analytic and interpretive layers—necessary for long-term urban planning—are still being developed.

  
  

Financial sustainability is also a point under discussion, with researchers from IIT Kharagpur highlighting the need for integrated revenue models to ensure long-term viability. (Source: Times of India)

Tool / Initiative	Type	Purpose	Who Can Use It	Current Status	Challenges
Smart Cities Open Data Portal smartcities.data.gov.in	Public Data Portal	Open access to city datasets	Citizens, Researchers, Gov departments	Active	Datasets are often outdated, not standardized, and lack spatial tags.
India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) iudx.org.in	Data Sharing Protocol & Open-Source Software	Enable real-time, secure data exchange between municipal systems, IoT devices, and third-party services.	City departments, private tech vendors, mobility firms	Deployed in 10+ cities	Adoption and integration into daily governance workflows remains limited.
AMPLIFI 2.0 / ABLE India (NIUA, MoHUA)	Performance Monitoring & Assessment Framework	Track urban outcomes across key sectors	MoHUA, NIUA, ULBs, policymakers	AMPLIFI portal Offline, merged under ABLE India	Offers macro-level insights but lacks ward-level operational data for daily use.

🤝 Where Organizations Like NeuralCity.in Add Value

Platforms and frameworks at the national level have laid a strong foundation. What cities increasingly need is granular, hyperlocal, and interpretable data that supports day-to-day operations and targeted interventions.

This is where organizations like NeuralCity.in play a complementary role:

✅ Ground-Level Data Capture

NeuralCity.in collects on-the-ground micro data related to:

• Walkability and pedestrian safety

• Vendor zoning and public space usage

• Parking compliance and congestion

• Encroachments and road condition assessments

✅ Technology + Civic Engagement

Using geospatial tools, satellite imagery, and AI-based surveys, NeuralCity.in transforms raw observations into actionable city scorecards and spatial dashboards.

✅ Supporting Governance, Not Replacing It

Rather than acting as an external evaluator, NeuralCity.in works in partnership with city governments to:

• Fill data blind spots

• Build capacity among municipal teams

• Offer insights that are aligned with national frameworks but grounded in local realities

Conclusion: The Path from Platforms to Practice

The Smart Cities Mission has achieved something no previous urban initiative attempted at this scale: it changed how Indian cities think about data, planning, and service delivery.

The way forward involves building on this momentum by:

• Investing in continuous, structured, and standardized data pipelines

• Creating stronger linkages between national platforms and local operations

• Fostering collaborations between cities and domain-specific partners like NeuralCity.in

With these steps, the promise of data-informed, citizen-focused urban governance can become a daily reality—not just a long-term goal.