Mission LiFE: Going beyond energy efficiency of smart cities

India plays a key role in the global arena of climate change due to its fast-growing urban footprint and climate responsive strategies. Such strategies work best if the top-down approach complements the bottom-up one along with indigenous local knowledge (ILK). Smart Cities Mission and Climate-smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) fall in the first group. Later the bottom-up approach of Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) was launched with Vedic origin and ILK enrichment. It pledges long-term behavioral changes of individuals but requires infrastructure support from the local authorities. Taking the one of the common themes of energy efficiency, this paper explores the commentary role of CSCAF and LiFE with a case study of Rajarhat Newtown to find that the result can go beyond the energy efficiency to quality of life. The elicited knowledge is helpful for the decision makers to focus their efforts further and can also be helpful for other smart cities or planned townships.