World Habitat Day: Mahatma Gandhi, whose Jayanti we just celebrated, once said that India lives in its villages. However, decades of shifting migration patterns and changing landscape shows a different reality. Increasingly, India lives in its towns and cities and this trend will only accelerate in the years ahead. By 2040, nearly half of all Indians are expected to be urban residents.
This makes our cities central to India’s development story. Their liveability will determine the quality of life for the majority of our citizens. On October 6, as the world marks World Habitat Day, can our cities offer not just roofs and roads, but also the socio-economic infrastructure, inclusivity and ecological security needed to make urban life truly habitable and sustainable?
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Complex problems but solutions exist
The recent flooding in Gurugram, India’s “Millennium City,” captured headlines, but the story is hardly unique. Chennai, Mumbai and Ahmedabad face recurrent flooding and shrinking natural buffers. Even tier-2 cities like Patna and Guwahati struggle with solid waste and pollution.
These challenges are not only about infrastructure but about participation and governance. Where cities lack empowered local governments and active citizen ownership, problems inevitably multiply. Conversely, there are cities that have cracked parts of the puzzle. Indore, widely praised for its waste management system, leveraged community participation, technology, and strict enforcement to become India’s cleanest city. Elsewhere in the Global South, Bogotá’s bus rapid transit made affordable mobility possible for millions, while Cape Town’s community-led housing projects improved access for low-income families. These examples show how governance innovations and civic participation can deliver inclusive, resilient cities even with limited resources.
Gurugram as a Mirror of India’s Urban Future
Gurugram captures both the dynamism and the dilemmas of India’s urban journey. In just three decades, it has grown from a cluster of villages on Delhi’s edge into a hub for more than 250 Fortune 500 companies. Corporate campuses, glass towers, gated housing and India’s first privately funded metro line project an image of global ambition. The city has become a magnet for investment and talent, a place where India’s economic story is being rewritten.
The September 2025 floods reminded Gurugram that resilience must grow alongside economic success. Waste systems and stormwater drains remain under pressure, and electricity is still uneven. In upscale enclaves, reliable services provide comfort, while older and informal areas face flooded streets and irregular waste collection.
Gurugram’s story is not of failure but unfinished work. Its contrasts mirror cities across India, where prosperity rises on one side of the street while vulnerability persists on the other. True resilience will come when every resident can count on clean water, safe housing, and reliable services. As Chennai’s water crises showed, without inclusive planning even dynamic cities can be brought to a halt. India’s urban future must be built on both growth and inclusion.
The Governance Gap
At the heart of the solution lies governance. The 74th Constitutional Amendment of 1992 sought to empower Urban Local Bodies with responsibilities for planning, sanitation, waste management, housing and health. More than three decades later, these bodies remain politically and financially constrained.
India’s municipal expenditure is still less than one per cent of GDP, far below countries such as Brazil and South Africa. As a result, municipalities depend heavily on state and central transfers, with limited power to raise their own revenue. In Gurugram, fragmentation magnifies these weaknesses. The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram works alongside the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran, the Department of Town and Country Planning and other state agencies, often with overlapping mandates. Gaps in coordination blur accountability, delay responses, and have left ecological buffers like Basai Wetland and Bandhwari landfill degraded, leaving the city exposed to greater risks during heavy rains.
Yet, other cities show both pitfalls and promise. Mumbai continues to grapple with drainage stress during the monsoon, while Surat has demonstrated how flood forecasting and disaster preparedness can save lives. These examples underscore the fact that while the challenges are real, solutions are within reach.
World Habitat Day must inspire action
Gurugram’s experience offers lessons for India’s wider urban future. If cities are to drive growth, governance reform must be at the centre of the agenda. The introduction of direct mayoral elections in Gurugram earlier this year is a step in the right direction. Yet such reforms will only matter if they are matched by real budgetary authority and greater fiscal devolution. Experiences in states such as Odisha and Kerala, where urban local bodies have been given greater room to plan and deliver services, suggest that when governance is empowered, outcomes for citizens improve.
But strengthening formal powers is only part of the solution. Collaboration across stakeholders is equally vital. Urban problems do not fall neatly into departmental silos, and cities that build genuine partnerships among governments, businesses, builders, civil society and residents are better placed to respond. Surat’s resilience planning, which brings agencies together for flood forecasting and disaster preparedness, is one example of how coordination saves lives and livelihoods.
Technology, too, has a role to play when it is tied to service delivery rather than merely to high-tech dashboards. Gurugram’s Integrated Command and Control Centre already monitors traffic and pollution in real time. Expanding this platform to cover waste, water and public health could make city systems far more transparent and responsive. Bhopal has gone further, developing an integrated control centre that not only manages traffic but also tracks water supply, waste collection and citizen complaints. Smart governance, not just smart gadgets, is the real game changer.
Ecology must also be seen as core infrastructure. Wetlands, forests and hills are the most effective flood defences cities can build. Protecting the Aravalli hills, reviving the Basai Wetland and remaking the Bandhwari landfill into a modern recycling and waste-to-energy facility would strengthen Gurugram’s environmental foundations. Nature-based solutions such as stormwater gardens, permeable pavements and urban forests provide high-impact, low-cost resilience at a time when climate extremes are intensifying.
Finally, inclusivity must guide every aspect of urban planning. Cities cannot thrive if prosperity is confined to enclaves while large sections remain underserved. Affordable housing, reliable transport and sanitation for vulnerable communities are not just questions of fairness but of sustainability itself. Indore’s rise as India’s cleanest city shows that when services reach every household, the result is not only a healthier population but a more confident and resilient city.
A Call for Civic Imagination
In about a decade, over 600 million Indians will live in cities. Climate extremes will intensify, but so will opportunities to design cities that are equitable, resilient, and sustainable. The choice is clear. We must leave fragmented governance and ecological neglect to build inclusive cities that can lead the world in sustainable urbanisation. India’s urban transition is both a challenge and an opportunity. If municipalities are empowered, collaboration deepened, technology harnessed and ecology restored, our cities will not only withstand shocks but will also set benchmarks for the Global South.
On this World Habitat Day, the question before us is urgent: what kind of habitats will we build for the next generation? As India turns more urban, climate resilient, well-governed and equitable habitats are needed for this burgeoning population to thrive.
Pragya Raj Singh is a next-generation social entrepreneur dedicated to innovation and grassroots impact and Venkatesh Raghavendra is a global philanthropy advisor and a regular contributor to the media on topics of social impact.