Urbanization has been simultaneously appreciated and criticized, as it has accelerated the economic development on one hand and on the other has adversely affected the urban environment. The issues associated with urban regions like environmental degradation, traffic congestions, inadequate infrastructure services, unhygienic streetscapes etc., are making them unpleasant to live in. Indian cities have witnessed similar impacts due to this phenomenon and the most affected aspect is the quality

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... life. Indian cities rank almost at the bottom of livability ranking (EIU 1-2015) as Delhi is on 110 th and Mumbai on 115 th at world level. Therefore, it is evident that there is a need to build Indian cities more livable in nature. Recently, Smart City Mission has been adopted as an approach by the Government of India to tackle urban development issues caused by rapid urbanization. The aim of the mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of urban cities. Hence, it is important to understand by what degree the mission aims at improving the quality of life of Indian cities. The paper intends to interpret the concept of livability in urban context and analyze whether the Smart City Mission adopted is adequately equipped to promote livability in India urban cities. The approach adopted is; firstly, to explore the evolution of the livability concept from its initialization, and secondly, undergoing a comparative analysis of the indictors of the respective concepts at both local and international tiers.