About Us

The development of Smart Cities is a step in the attempt to create an urban ecosystem, which includes the comprehensive development of institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure to improve ease of living and attracting people and investments to the city. Toward this end, the India Smart Cities Fellowship is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the Smart Cities Mission to cultivate youth leadership and usher vibrancy in the design of India’s urban future.

A pioneer batch of thirty-nine young professionals were inducted as Fellows in January 2019, who formed teams to engage in the designing and piloting of projects in Smart Cities. The Fellows possess diverse backgrounds in educational qualifications and work experience, with representation from the fields of architecture, urban planning, urban design, engineering, law, renewable energy, public policy, water policy, gender studies, development studies, finance and management. The teams have been mentored by subject matter experts who are stalwarts in their respective fields.

Established through systematic and democratic processes, the India Smart Cities Fellows spent the duration of the programme working on 12 different projects. Focus areas included open innovation, water security, digital urban finance, public spaces, citizen engagement, travel demand, traffic monitoring, informal urban markets, affordable housing, waste management and emission reduction. The Compendium of Pilot Projects is the result of their year-long attempt at innovation, documenting their efforts and its results.

Leadership