The holy city of Varanasi, which also serves as Prime Minister Modi's constituency, has made a six-pillar plan, called the 'Smart-Kashi' plan, which has been submitted to the centre. The plan has been made so that it can ensure that it gets into the list of 40 smart cities which would be announced next month. 

The six pillars of the plan are: Suramya (Picturesque), Nirmal (Pure), Surakshit (Safe), Smmunat (Improved), Ekatrit (Integrated) and Sanyojit (Planned). 

To make the plan viable, the city government has made strategic partnerships with several companies like Uber, Philips, Schneider Electric, IBM and Ericsson. The aim is to deliver the vision of a "confluence of ancient tradition and modern innovation". 

When the first list of 20 smart cities was announced in May, Varanasi could not get itself placed in the list, which is why it wants to ensure its name in the list this time around. 

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