Urban Development Through Smart Cities in India

India is on the path of developing its smart cities at a faster pace in near future. But what constitutes a smart city and what is purpose of this focus remains to be explored. Through in depth literature review and grounded approach this paper, appraises the genesis of smart city to develop a better understanding of urban problems. It explores how smart cities intend to relate the infrastructure, operational functioning, planning through management, control and optimization to ensure equity, fairness for realizing better quality of city life. The paper also attempts to review how informed participation creates shared knowledge for democratic governance. Anticipated paradigm shifts that will occur in this area of research and the expected impacts in developing and planning smart cities in general and in particular the steps being taken in India in development of smart cities is delved into.