Urban Development Schemes and Governance: Missions, Components and Funding Logic
This domain asks you to place a scheme correctly: which mission funds which asset, which vertical a beneficiary falls under, and who implements it. Questions are usually scenario-based, so memorising scheme names without their sectoral scope earns nothing.
Missions and their scope
- JNNURM (2005) - BSUP for housing and UIDSSMT for small-town infrastructure; closed, but still examined as the template for later missions.
- AMRUT (2015) and AMRUT 2.0 (2021) - water supply, sewerage, drainage, parks and public spaces; 2.0 adds water security and circular-economy objectives and extends to all statutory towns.
- Smart Cities Mission (2015) - 100 cities, each with an area-based development component and a pan-city ICT component, delivered through a special purpose vehicle.
- Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) - 1.0 focused on open defecation free status; 2.0 on garbage-free cities, legacy dumpsite remediation and wastewater reuse.
- PMAY-U (2015) - four verticals: In-situ Slum Rehabilitation, Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme, Affordable Housing in Partnership, and Beneficiary-Led Construction; PMAY-U 2.0 from 2024.
- DAY-NULM - urban livelihoods, skill training, shelters for the urban homeless.
Governance and finance
- Article 243Y requires a State Finance Commission to review municipal finances; property tax is the principal own source.
- Madhya Pradesh has seven smart cities: Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Sagar and Satna.
Worked example
A city of six lakh people wants to close its open dumping ground and simultaneously meter household water connections. Reasoning: solid-waste remediation and garbage-free certification sit under SBM-U 2.0, while water supply metering and distribution improvement sit under AMRUT 2.0. Smart City funds cannot be stretched to a city-wide utility unless the work is inside the approved pan-city proposal. The correct answer names two schemes, not one.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating CLSS as an ongoing option - the interest subsidy window has closed; BLC is now the dominant vertical.
- Assuming AMRUT funds urban transport or housing.
- Confusing SBM 1.0 (ODF) deliverables with 2.0 (garbage-free) deliverables.
- Naming a mission without its implementing vehicle - ULBs versus SPVs versus development authorities.