India’s Urban Future is At a Crossroads

Context

• As summer intensifies across India, cities are grappling with severe water shortages, surging electricity demand, and escalating temperatures.
• Reports from metropolitan areas like Bengaluru and Hyderabad reveal a sharp increase in water tanker bookings and frequent power cuts driven by heightened air-conditioner usage.
• These annual struggles highlight a pressing question: Are Indian cities prepared to withstand climate extremes and the pressures of rapid urbanisation?

The Complexities of Urban Growth and Limitations of Current Indices

• The Complexities of Urban Growth
  • Urbanisation in India has brought economic opportunities, innovation, and growth.
  • However, it has also exacerbated pollution, congestion, and environmental degradation, disproportionately affecting the underprivileged.
  • According to the Sustainable Futures Collective’s report “Is India Ready for a Warming World?” (2025), Indian cities still have a long way to go in terms of long-term climate planning.
  • Repeated concerns raised in Parliament about the worsening urban heat island effect reinforce the stark realities on the ground.
  • As India aims to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG-11), building inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities by 2030, these issues demand immediate and sustained attention.
• Limitations of Current Indices
  • While global frameworks for measuring SDG-11 progress exist, India lacks robust, city-level tools for effective tracking.
  • NITI Aayog’s SDG Urban Index evaluates 56 cities across 77 indicators, yet its assessment of SDG-11 is limited to just four parameters: Swachh Survekshan (sanitation survey), road accident deaths, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (housing scheme), and waste treatment coverage.
  • Meanwhile, the Ease of Living Index covers 111 cities but does not provide a comprehensive evaluation of SDG-11 dimensions.
  • International indices such as Mercer’s Quality of Living Index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Resilient Cities Index offer valuable insights but often fail to account for India’s unique urban realities.
  • This absence of a focused, context-sensitive SDG-11 index creates a significant policy-research gap, limiting policymakers' ability to identify which cities are truly safe, sustainable, and inclusive.

A New Approach to Measuring Urban Progress

• To bridge this gap, researchers have developed four distinct indices focusing on the core pillars of SDG-11: safety, inclusivity, resilience, and sustainability.
• Ten major cities, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Surat, were ranked using indicators drawn from United Nations urban frameworks.
• Data sources included the Census 2011, Road Transport Yearbook, Indian Forest Survey, National Crime Records Bureau, Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Family Health Survey-5, Reserve Bank of India, India Meteorological Department, and the Ola Mobility Institute’s Ease of Moving Index 2022.
• Employing the Shannon Entropy Weighting Technique from Multi-Criteria Decision-Making modelling, researchers assigned objective weights to the indicators, enhancing the reliability of the indices.
• The findings reveal striking disparities:
  • Inclusivity: Ahmedabad ranked highest, while Jaipur performed the worst.
  • Safety: Bengaluru was found to be the safest city; Kolkata ranked the lowest.
  • Sustainability: Surat led, whereas Kolkata lagged.
  • Resilience: Chennai topped the resilience index; Jaipur ranked last.
• Notably, cities that were deemed front-runners in NITI Aayog’s SDG-11 assessments performed poorly under this new, more rigorous evaluation.

Key Insights and Challenges

• These variations spotlight urgent urban challenges:
  • Inclusivity gaps show deep-rooted disparities in economic and social access, underscoring the need for equitable urban development.
  • Safety rankings highlight inconsistent urban security and law enforcement across cities.
  • Sustainability outcomes point to uneven progress in waste management, environmental planning, and pollution control.
  • Resilience disparities reveal significant deficiencies in disaster preparedness and recovery strategies.
• The Annual Survey of Indian City Systems 2023 by Janaagraha reinforces these concerns, reporting that only 16 cities have a dedicated “city sustainability plan” and only 17 have formal city resilience strategies.
• Such deficits reveal the groundwork still needed for India to achieve meaningful progress toward SDG-11.

The Road Ahead

• City-level Monitoring: Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) must adopt SDG-11 tracking frameworks, similar to the district-level mechanisms established by some states.
• Leveraging Technology: Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) under the Smart Cities Mission should be utilised for real-time urban data collection to enhance planning and decision-making.
• Addressing Urban Poverty: With one-third of urban residents living in poverty, the reliance on outdated Census 2011 data is inadequate. A Periodic Urban Poor Quality of Living Survey at the state level is urgently needed.
• Localized Governance: Each city’s unique challenges must be addressed through localised, data-driven strategies rather than blanket national policies.

Conclusion

• Building safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Indian cities demands urgent, coordinated action backed by robust data, inclusive governance, and strategic long-term planning.
• Without addressing the multifaceted challenges outlined here, India risks falling short of its 2030 SDG-11 goals, with dire consequences for millions living in its rapidly growing urban centres.

Q1. What is SDG-11?
Ans. SDG-11 aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by 2030.

Q2. Which Indian city ranked highest in inclusivity?
Ans. Ahmedabad ranked highest in inclusivity.

Q3. What method was used to weigh indicators in the new indices?
Ans. The Shannon Entropy Weighting technique was used.

Q4. Why is accurate urban data important for planning?
Ans. It helps design city-specific, equitable, and effective policies.

Q5. Which cities lack sustainability and resilience strategies?
Ans. Many, including Kolkata and Jaipur, have limited or no such plans. 

Source:The Hindu