The Smart City Innovation Award
Smart city work is judged by whether a resident’s day got better. This category recognises urban mobility, utilities, safety, waste and civic technology deployed with a municipality or utility and measured on service delivery.
- Independent jury
- 250
- Innovations evaluated
- 4,500+
- Star rating
- 1–5
- Running since
- 2010
Academics, scientists, officials, investors
Across seventeen editions
Every nominee earns an AGBA Innovation Star
India’s longest-running innovation award
Three categories sit close to data. This is the one about method and evidence.
Most nominations that fail here fail because they were in the wrong category. Read across before you write anything.
Innovation in Smart City
Urban mobility, utilities, safety and civic services, measured on what residents actually receive.
This category
Innovation in IoT
The sensing and connected devices city systems are built on.
Innovation in EV & Automobile
Vehicles, charging networks and fleets — the moving half of an urban system.
Who should enter
- Urban mobility, traffic and public transport systems in live operation
- Water, power and waste management for municipal networks
- Civic technology, grievance and service-delivery platforms
- Public safety, surveillance and emergency response systems
- Urban data platforms that changed how a city plans
What this award recognises is a service that improved for residents — a shorter wait, a fixed leak, a bus that came. A dashboard in a command centre is not the outcome.
If the innovation is in the sensing layer itself, enter Innovation in IoT. If it is vehicles, fleets or charging, enter Innovation in EV & Automobile.
What the jury looks for
- Problem definition & market opportunityWhether the innovation solves a real problem, backed by evidence and a measurable impact on its target audience.
- InnovativenessNovelty and uniqueness — new technology, functionality or business model — measured against what already exists, including IP.
- Market potential & impactSize and growth of the addressable market, competitive landscape, and scalability across geographies.
- Social impact & sustainabilityContribution to society and the environment, including social responsibility and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
These are the same four criteria — problem definition, innovativeness, market impact and social/sustainability impact — used to assess every category. In this category the jury also weighs methodological rigour — including what you did to avoid fooling yourselves — the decision that changed as a result and what it was worth, the reproducibility and honesty of the evaluation, and the engineering quality of the data foundation underneath. Read the full evaluation criteria.
Who judges this category
Nominations are assessed by an independent jury, not by the organisers. Jurors are matched to the categories where their expertise lies. These are among those who read smart city, mobility and civic technology entries.
Mr. Amitabh SatyamAuthor and Chairman, Smart Transformations
Dr. Neeta VermaFormer Director General, National Informatics Centre
Ms. Kavita BhatiaSenior Director, Emerging Technology, MeitY, Government of India
Mr Paresh Kumar GoelDirector, Transport and Road Safety, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Mr. Amit BhattManaging Director for India, International Council on Clean Transportation
Mr. Nanda Kishore Reddy, IISGroup CEO, APEITA, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Mr. Tilak Raj DuaDirector General, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association
Prof. Rangan BanerjeeForbes Marshall Chair Professor, Energy Science and Engineering, IIT BombayEight of roughly 250. The full panel spans the IITs, the IIMs, the IIITs, the Indian School of Business, NITI Aayog and central ministries, the Department of Science & Technology, MeitY and CERT-In. See the full jury panel.
Cities on the podium
Urban and civic work has been recognised under smart city and govtech labels across the editions. These are the most recent, photographed at the ceremony.
Previous winners
Urban work has moved between smart city, govtech and infrastructure labels as the field matured; the rows below are the closest equivalents in the published record. The complete history sits in the winners archive.
Category names have changed across editions as the field has moved; the rows above are the closest equivalents in the published record. See the winners archive for the full 1st–16th edition history.
What happens after you submit
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Stage one · nowNomination registration
Register your company and category through the nomination process, then complete the detailed nomination form and processing fee.
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Stage twoJury presentation
Present the innovation to the jury and take questions. Jurors score each entry against the four evaluation criteria and rank it within its category.
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Stage threeStar Certification
Nominees are also assessed for AGBA Innovation Star Certification, an independent maturity rating alongside the category judging.
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Stage fourFinalists announced
Once every category has been evaluated, finalists are announced on the website ahead of the ceremony.
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Stage fiveAward ceremony
Winners are honoured on 18 February 2027 at Hotel Ashoka, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
Before you write your nomination
Do we need a municipality as a partner?
In practice, yes. This category is about deployed civic systems, so the panel looks for the city, utility or agency the work runs with and what it changed for residents.
Is a pilot eligible?
A pilot can be entered, but it competes against live deployments. Operating data — uptime, coverage, complaint resolution, service levels — is what carries weight.
How are privacy and surveillance questions handled?
Directly. Nominations involving cameras, biometrics or citizen data should describe the legal basis, retention and oversight arrangements.
How do I submit a nomination?
Nominations are submitted through the nomination process, which sets out the stages, the supporting material required and the current edition’s dates.
Put your city work in front of the panel
Nominations for the Smart City Innovation Award are read by an independent jury of administrators, engineers and urban practitioners. Bring the service outcome for residents, not the command-centre screenshot.