The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. The government announced its list of the first 20 cities that will get central funding under the Smart Cities, with Bhubaneshwar topping the challenge.
2. A court has ordered the registration of a police case against Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy after allegations that he was paid a bribe as part of the solar scam.
3. The Central Bureau of Investigation is set to investigate a disproportionate assets case against two serving Major Generals of the Army who were allegedly paying for promotions.
The Big Story: Smart or what?
Here's the thing about some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most well-publicised schemes and projects: They've gone a little quiet. We don't hear all that much about the Swachh Bharat scheme any more, at least in the public imagination, other than having to spend money on a cess. The Jan Dhan Yojana has brought thousands of people into the financial network, but ensuring those bank accounts don't remain dormant is a struggle. Exports and manufacturing remains woeful, which means Make in India, for the moment, is all sound and fury.
Then there's Smart Cities. The project might sound grander than what it actually is, which is a pilot effort to grant a small amount of money to worthy urban areas in the hope that this will spur on additional innovation everywhere. Effectively it means putting together smart neighbourhoods, not smart cities, that can act as an example for the rest of the state and the region. On Thursday, the government announced its list of the first 20 cities that will set up Special Purpose Vehicles to begin their smart projects.
Some of the proposals include what Americans call "shovel-ready" projects, which are important because they can quickly show results. While actual efforts to make neighbourhoods "smart" will take up to a decade, there should be some development – such as Bhubaneshwar's plan to improve mobility – in the next few years.
How this turns out could be crucial for Modi. By 2019, with more and more of India's massive population cramming into crowded urban spaces, the sight of a few "smart" enclaves that have begun to take shape could either be seen as aspirational visions of what our cities could look like.
But they could reinforce notions of Modi's government working for businessmen and the suited-booted elite, only exacerbating the inequalities of urban areas. All of this presumes that the Smart City projects will actually work, rather than getting stuck in the quagmire that has engulfed most grand urban infrastructure projects for decades now.
This is why developed New Delhi has made it to the list of 20 Smart Cities. Rishi Aggarwal explains why India doesn't need smart cities, it needs smart citizens. Ikuno Naka tells us how the growth that comes with these cities will also create social divisions. And Mathew Idiculla asks whether Smart Cities will stifle local democracy.
Politicking & Policying
1. President Pranab Mukherjee has returned to Gujarat a controversial anti-terror bill that was passed by the state assembly a third time after being rejected by the previous government twice.
2. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said bankers and economists need to be careful how they talk about growth, because of "problems" with the way the Gross Domestic Product is measured.
3. Muslim women are now demanding entry into Mumbai's Haji Ali dargah, a day after women activists were detained before they could storm a temple in Mahrashtra where women are prohibited.
4. The Human Resource Development ministry last year asked the Pondicherry University to investigate a complaint regarding the "Islamisation" of the university.
5. Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has been named the Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Assam polls.
Punditry
1. Will those involved in the daily grooming of the caste monster wake up and introspect, asks Suryakant Waghmore in the Indian Express.
2. Bahar Dutt in Mint writes an open letter calling on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to stop flats from being built over the habitat of the sarus crane.
3. Which way will the Budget go-a revival of investment growth, or adherence to fiscal discipline, asks Nitin Desai in the Business Standard.
4. Mihir Sharma also in the Business Standard explains why the Jaipur Literature Festival matters.
5. The Sikh protester who was kicked out of a Donald Trump rally tells Truth Out why he went: "It was intense, but it was also in a school gym, so it was a little bit strange. It was like a fascist rally in a school gym."
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