Traditional ideas of smart cities suggest lots of data collection, using sensors – electricity, gas, water, traffic and other government analytics – that can be carefully compiled and integrated into a smart grid and then fed into computers that can focus on making the city as efficient as possible. "Smart Cities are those that are able to attract investments and experts & professionals. Good quality infrastructure, simple and transparent online business and public services processes that make it easy to practice one’s profession or to establish an enterprise and run it efficiently without any bureaucratic hassles are essential features of a citizen centric and investor-friendly smart city," .

India’s is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate, so much that estimates suggest nearly 600 million of Indians will be living in cities by 2030, up from 290 million as reported in the 2001 census. Alongside the hordes of Indians go the jobs and the money as well: a McKinsey Global Institute study estimated that cities would generate 70% of the new jobs created by 2030, produce more than 70% of the Indian gross domestic product and drive a fourfold increase in per capita income across the country. “The cost of not paying attention to India’s cities is enormous,” the McKinsey report said. “The speed of urbanization poses an unprecedented managerial and policy challenge – yet India has barely engaged in a national discussion about how to handle the seismic shift in the makeup of the nation.”

Not necessarily. One of the components of smart city i.e., Area based Developments focuses on small townships if developed on greenfield areas like Ranchi Smart City where 656.30 Acres will be built up brand new to develop a knowledge based hub.. Mostly, the money will mostly be spent on upgrading existing facilities, since the very selection process requires current cities to prove that they are eligible. All participating States potentially suggest areas that are going to be built up as options for the smart city mission .