Guwahati, May 3 -- More than nine years ago, on 28 January 2016, Guwahati, with a rank of 17 and a score of 57.66%, made it to the first list of 20 cities in India selected by the Government of India (GOI) to be developed as "Smart Cities." On March 31, 2025, when the Smart City Mission ended, what is the future of all these "smart" cities? It was originally envisaged in 2016 that Rs 50,820 crores would be invested by the Ministry of Urban Development to develop these cities. The selected cities were to mobilize resources by forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for implementation and the deployment of technology and digital solutions for improving urban governance, with third-party impact evaluation by premier academic and professional...