A Study Exploring the Status of Governance of Varanasi Smart City

The fast-evolving pace of urbanisation across the world has effectively enveloped the concept of smart cities. The emergence of smart cities has introduced a more efficient way of living in urban areas, facilitating the most necessary requirements with utmost ease. One such smart city in India is Varanasi, which has been investigated in this study to understand the institutional component of liveability standards. Governance is the backbone of smart city development, which needs to be examined to understand the gap between the top-rated and least-rated smart cities. Nine selected indicators have been incorporated to evaluate the Governance Index using the Ministry of Urban Development’s Methodological Framework. For this, a total of 400 primary respondents were surveyed proportionally across the eight municipal zones and four social strata, using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. Citizen perception has been assessed using one-way ANOVA with post-hoc analysis providing a spatial and social evaluation of governance effectiveness. Substantial zone-based and strata-based correlations highlight political stability as the best-performing indicator, with Sarnath emerging as the most well-governed zone. In addition, the upper strata exhibit better performance compared to the others. The tax collection shows a positive trend, with almost half of the capital expenditure based on spending. The city also needs to increase awareness of online citizen services; the grievance redressal process requires improvement, with a significantly shorter turnaround time. Additionally, the effectiveness level needs to be increased, along with higher accountability levels and lower corruption levels. The study provides key insights into governance efficiency in Varanasi, offering a comprehensive perspective for policymakers to enhance urban liveability.