Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu yesterday announced a list of 98 cities and towns selected for development as smart cities. These cities and towns were nominated by respective States and Union Territories at the end of first stage of ‘City Challenge’ competition in which all the urban local bodies in each State and UT were evaluated based on their financial and institutional capacities and past track record. After releasing the list of selected cities at a media conference, Shri Naidu complimented States/UTs for conducting objective evaluation in the first stage of competition.