Smart Cities and the Poor: Towards an Agenda for Inclusive Urbanization in India

Developing countries worldwide have been embarking on ‘smart cities’ programmes using new technology solutions to improve public services. Faced with severe problems of digital divide, poverty, unemployment, inequality, and financial and social exclusion, these cities have to negotiate hard in order to reach their goals. This book examines urban governance, digital divide, poverty, unemployment, and financial and social exclusion and presents a theoretical perspective on inclusive cities, urbanization, migration, slums,and affordable housing.

The book aims at formulating and implementing an agenda for inclusive, equitable, and sustainable urban development in tune with the UN-SDGs, the New Urban Agenda of Habitat III, and India’s new national urban missions. It probes into the scope of adopting inclusionary urban planning, zoning, and housing, financing inclusive city development, and poverty alleviation through municipal finance reforms using findings and lessons from detailed field studies of Indian cities. It also suggests an agenda for slum-free and poverty-free cities in an attempt to make these cities more people-focused, humane, and inclusionary.

This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of political science, policy studies, public administration, urban studies, urban planning and management, urban sociology, and geography, besides being of interest to policy researchers, community workers, grass roots researchers, policymakers, and sociologists.

Alok Kumar Mishra is Professor of economics at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad, an Institution of Eminence. He has been the director of the Land, Housing, Transport, and Urban Economics, HUDCO Chair, and several other programmes. He was awarded Baden-Württemberg Fellowship Award at South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg University, Germany, in 2014, and Chancellor’s Award in 2016 for contributing to teaching and research at the University of Hyderabad. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research papers in both International and National journals of repute and authored four books. He has guided 17 MPhil scholars, 7 PhD, and 20 Master’s dissertations to date. Dr. Mishra’s work experiences include the following: Research Officer, National Institute of Bank Management, Pune; Manager of Quant Finance, Financial Strategic Division, Shinsei Bank, Tokyo; Manager of Investment Research, Evalueserve.com Private Limited; and Assistant Vice President, Bank of New York, Mellon. He holds an MA degree in Economics, an MPhil in Monetary Economics, and a PhD in Financial Economics from the University of Hyderabad, India. His current research areas include developmental finance, financial stability, financial markets, financial inclusion, land, housing, urban and transport economics, macroeconomic policies, and applied econometrics.