Smart Cities Check: Rs 1.5 Lakh Crore Later, Are We Still Dodging Potholes?

Dear reader,

The Smart Cities Mission began with dashboards and drones in its pitch deck. A decade and Rs 1.64 lakh crore later, for instance, Tajganj’s roads still rattle your bones and Shimla’s hillside escalators are staying idle mostly and gathering rust.

On paper, 93% of the sanctioned projects are “done” across the 100 cities. On the street, potholes, padlocked toilets and dangling wires tell a different story altogether.

Here's Prafulla Pathak breaking it down for us.

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When—not if—Pakistan's contradictions reach a breaking point, the global consensus for denuclearisation may finally override sovereignty concerns.

Pakistan's script is predictable: provoke India, escalate briefly, then hide behind nuclear threats. The Pahalgam massacre in April followed this playbook perfectly—until Operation Sindoor exposed the bluff.

But imagine a different ending to this story. What if Pakistan's next crisis finds it unable to brandish nuclear weapons?