Foreword The transportation sector is critical to economic development. It facilitates access to jobs, markets and social services such as healthcare or education. But, in countries like India, economic imperatives often override inclusive growth. Thus, advances in the urban transportation sector have addressed the challenges of first and last-mile connectivity, but not effectively, and not for all. Smart mobility, a digital revolution spin-off, has gained momentum in India. It has laudable objectives, it addresses economic, social and environmental issues, but in reality, the benefits accrue to a few, not to the needy, and its contribution to restricting emissions and urban congestion is not discernable. This is due to service providers restricting their objectives, over time, to mainly profits. The quality of public sector transportation has the drawbacks of inadequate access to finance and insensitivity to changing commuter needs, in the face of rapid urbanisation and the increase in numbers of peri-urban settlements. India has been able to at least, conceptually integrate technology-based solutions for increasing efficiency and efficacy of the mobility system. It aims to create a robust transportation system which reduces the need for private ownership of vehicles, a well-integrated multi-modal transportation system which has ease-of-use, with well-laid out infrastructure. And, all this supported by data analytics, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and so on, to evaluate and evolve the existing system. How much of that is functional and will be impactful, is yet to be seen. Accessibility, affordability and availability of mobility services, let alone smart mobility services, still remain a challenge across India. This is mainly due the present socio-cultural paradigm, restrictive, and discriminatory practices against certain sections of society, rising income disparity, and poor infrastructure. Combine this with pressure on resources and ecological damage that the transportation sector is contributing towards—use of fossil fuels, air pollution, noise pollution, and destruction of forest cover for construction of rail and road networks. Under its Social-ecological Transformation work line, FES India Office is developing knowledge and networks of sustainable urban development with environmental sustainability, economic stability and equity as its core. With this Position Paper, the FES India Office would like to introduce a fresh approach to smart mobility, one which is embedded in the values of equity and justice. This paper should create greater awareness amongst different stakeholders and consumers of mobility on social justice aspects of the sector, and inspire readers to question the present prejudiced system, and encourage them to adopt practice and policy recommendations within their areas of influence. FES India Office would also like to support dialogues and alliance building of these stakeholders jointly to address this challenge and work collectively towards creation of an inclusive, just and equal smart mobility system. FES would like to thank Dr. Yamini Jain, for her in-depth research, expertise, and value-based assessment of the sector that contributed to the development of this position paper. We hope it will contribute towards the narrative of change in the smart mobility sector. Richard Kaniewski and Mandvi Kulshreshtha August 2023 Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, New Delhi Smart mobility in India from an equity perspective v