India, March 3 -- Two years after the union cabinet approved the CITIIS (city investments to innovate, integrate & sustain) 2.0 programme supported by multilateral institutions under the Smart Cities Mission, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Centre and the states was signed on Monday during the inaugural session of the 12th Regional 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) and Circular Economy Forum in Asia and the Pacific in Jaipur.

The programme focussed on integrated waste management and covering 18 smart cities, 21 state governments will be funded by loans of equal amounts given by the AFD (French Development Agency) and KfW German Development Bank amounting to Rs.1,496 crore and a grant of Rs.264 crore from the European Union...