The objective of the Smart Cities Mission, launched in 2015, is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions. The Smart City Mission represents an important shift in the Government of India’s (GoI) urban sector policy, which aims at promoting smart integrated urban projects to improve the economic attractiveness of cities; as well as strengthening Urban Local Bodies’ (ULBs) technical and financial management capacities. Financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Union (EU) and supported by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), the ‘Program to fund Smart City projects through a Challenge Process’ aims at putting in place complementary instruments to the Smart Cities Mission to provide a financial incentive and technical support to demonstrative projects. The program has three components namely – • CITIIS (City Investments To Innovate, Integrate and Sustain) at City Level; • Capacity Development activities at State Level; and • Promotion of Integrated Urban Management at National Level. City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) is the main component of the Program, it intends to bring financial and technical support to 12 selected smart city projects across India. A specific call for projects was launched in order to select smart city projects that would benefit from the additional Government of India grant financed through a EUR 100 million loan from AFD and EUR 6 million grant from the European Union. Along with the financial support, the selected projects’ SPVs will benefit from long-term international coaching to support the development and implementation of the project.