Uneven smartness: assessing infrastructure capabilities and size-class disparities in India’s Smart Cities Mission

Abstract A smart city agenda is commonplace across countries of the Global South and is very often regarded as imperative to enhance urban quality of life by popular urban discourse. The present research initiated an intensive examination of cities selected under the ‘Smart Cities Mission’ (SCM) in India, at a time when the mission is yet to reach completion. This study evaluated the infrastructure capabilities and performance variations across 96 cities selected under India's SCM to address two critical questions: In what way does the urban size-class hierarchy reproduce performance inequalities among cities selected under the SCM? And to what extent do regional disparities shape uneven patterns of smart infrastructure development and practices across Indian cities? We employed a multi-criterial analysis framework encompassing 7 domains and 56 indicators drawn from the AMPLIFI 2.0 platform and official government reports. The Dimension Index Method was used for data normalization, followed by Pearson’s correlation and ANOVA tests to examine size-class paradoxes. The results revealed striking inter-city variations in composite smartness scores, ranging from 1.351 (Shillong) to 4.283 (Pune). Statistical analysis further confirmed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.425, p < 0.01) between city size and performance, with larger metropolitan cities substantially outperforming smaller urban centers. In addition, cities from North-Eastern States and Union Territories demonstrated notably lower composite scores. The findings expose a persistent size-class paradox where resource-scarce smaller cities, despite policy intentions of inclusive development, remain disadvantaged in accessing and implementing smart technology-driven governance alternatives. These findings add robust empirical grounding to broader critiques of territorial justice in India’s urban policy framework.