Urbanization is globally rampant; in developing countries such as India, it is driven in a phenomenal pace by an aspiring, young society and ambitious state policies to achieve a competitive space in global economy. “Smart cities” is a new-age term coined specifically to control, monitor, measure, and evaluate our urban growth, in a way to understand how conducive are our cities for running businesses. Global borders are diminishing, and world-wide economies compete on multiple dimensions in a level playing field to participate and prosper in global markets. Cities are centers of economic activities, and the economic growth of a country largely depends on safe and supportive cities. Therefore, the need for smart cities is not difficult to establish. The more difficult questions are, “do we really know what a smart city is?” or “what are the elements that go into making an existing city smart?” Such questions are pertinent and timely. This paper attempts to answer these questions in a descriptive manner based on theoretical and empirical observations. We adopt an integrative approach of design conceptualization, policy building, and framework development, substantiated using an Indian city, namely, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh State as an illustrative case.
