Last week the Supreme Court ruled that the right to walk on a safe footpath is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. That it took a court order to establish something so basic tells us a lot about the state of India’s cities.
India has the largest number of urban settlements in the world. As of last count, we stand at close to 8,000 cities and towns. Yet our urban transition, despite its scale, is surprisingly slow—particularly when compared with other countries in Asia. India’s cities, which contribute 63% of our GDP, do not look, feel, or behave like they should—often lacking the infrastructure, capacity, and form expected of the drivers of India’s growth.
With 68% of the world’s population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, India is expected to see an additional 416 million urban dwellers. This expansion is happening in a dispersed manner, spilling beyond cities and urban agglomerations. More than a third of built-up and population growth is taking place in peri-urban areas—outside the 20 largest cities. A new study by the National Institute of Urban Affairs has now recommended creating a fresh classification called ‘Functional Urban Settlements’. This is an acknowledgement of the fact that many areas outside of our officially recognised towns and cities already display urban characteristics while continuing to be governed as rural areas.
Over the last 20 years, several national programmes have focused on urban service delivery. This includes the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT), Swachh Bharat Mission, and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY)-Urban. Expanding water supply, housing, transportation, waste, and sewerage management are massive undertakings, showcasing the level of India’s urban challenge.
A World Bank report estimates that India requires around USD 840 billion by 2036 to meet its urban infrastructure needs. While strengthening service delivery is essential, India must also account for its economic ambitions amidst growing climate realities. A central pillar of the Viksit Bharat Mission is achieving a GDP of USD 30 to 40 trillion by the year 2047.
This will need a focus on building cities that are productive and liveable. And this means prioritising and treating economic development and resilience as two sides of the same coin:
City-Region Economic Development Strategy: Cities and their surrounding areas need to be defined as city-regions with shared economic roadmaps to grow in a sustainable manner while attracting investments and creating jobs. In practice, this means leaning into each region’s strengths by creating strategic infrastructure projects. The focus needs to be on creating high-value industry clusters, driving integrated land and transport planning, and setting up business incubators.
Advanced land-use regulations are a prerequisite for infrastructure projects to get off the ground and deliver on their intended economic impact. Equally important is driving partnerships between local universities, industry associations, civil society, and research organisations, so they can work on shared goals. NITI Aayog’s Growth Hub (G-Hub) initiative, which is piloting dynamic economic master plans for the city-regions of Surat, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and Visakhapatnam, could become an excellent template for the rest of the country.
Because people and businesses go where life is good, these strategies need to expand beyond the economy. A clean air action plan, a greening agenda that creates spaces for citizens to live close to nature, and a programme that designs streets and public spaces to encourage walking, cycling, and social interaction make cities more attractive and are essential for sustained growth. As the country’s apex court recently observed, well-designed footpaths “can change the beauty of and equitable access to our cities and towns.” This is an opportunity to build cities that people want to live in.
Resilience Action Plan: Between January and November 2025, the country recorded extreme weather events on 331 out of 334 days. As a region particularly vulnerable to climate change, its impact could effectively make us lose up to 25% of our GDP by 2070. Cities need to build capabilities to absorb, adapt to, and rapidly recover from chronic stresses such as heat and air pollution and acute shocks such as floods and cyclones. This includes strengthening disaster preparedness, management, and recovery mechanisms and investments in grey or hard infrastructure like stormwater management systems and resilient electrical grids, coupled with conserving natural infrastructure such as ponds, wetlands, urban forests and parks.
It’s worth reiterating that the burden of climate risks is felt most by informal settlements, daily wage workers, and lower-income communities. Building climate resilience through equitable adaptation mechanisms such as cooling technologies, climate-safe housing, green cover, and social protection schemes is therefore essential to building a more just city.
With the majority of India’s urban infrastructure and services yet to develop as I write this, we have a unique and time-bound opportunity before us. The choices we make today, both short-term and long-term, will determine the quality of India’s growth as well as the quality of the lives of the billions who call it home.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
