India's Urban Development

This manuscript offers a critical understanding of 'development' in general and urban development planning in particular in India. Colonial urban planning kept influencing and shaping the development and future of cities. Independent India made a new beginning through strong belief in socialistic urban development and policy planning but it neglected the complex urban realities. Comprehensive-rational planning approach could not work well for socio-culturaly diverse urban places. Development seems have been exclusionary in practices due to which urban majority live in poor localities with inadequate social infrastructure and lack of basic services. Major cities have been facing severe crisis in terms of civic amenities, infrastructure, public transport,and other facilities. Though neoliberalization reinforces inequalities and uneven development in Indian cities but it can play an important role in revitalizing urban planning and materializing governance practices for inclusive development and urban sustainability.