India’s urban future is at a crossroads

As summer intensifies, Indian cities are struggling with water shortages and rising electricity demand and temperatures. Reports from Bengaluru and Hyderabad show a spike in water tanker bookings while power cuts loom due to increased air-conditioner usage. These annual struggles raise a pressing question — are our cities, where more than 30% of Indians live, prepared for climate extremes and rapid urbanisation?

Urbanisation, while bringing about growth and opportunities, also paves the way for increased pollution, congestion, and environmental impacts, which often hit the underprivileged the hardest. Sustainable Futures Collective, in their report, ‘Is India Ready for a Warming World?’ (2025), find that there is much more to be done regarding long-term planning for climate change in cities. Concerns about how our cities are handling the urban heat island effect have also been raised often in Parliament. Such stark ground realities underscore the pressing challenges our cities face in pursuing Sustainable Development Goal-11 (SDG-11): to create inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable urban environments by 2030.

Do indices capture reality?

While global SDG-11 indicators exist, India lacks city-level tools for effective tracking. NITI Aayog’s SDG Urban Index ranks 56 cities on 77 indicators, but its SDG-11 component is limited to four: Swachh Survekshan, road deaths, PMAY-U housing, and waste treatment. The Ease of Living Index covers 111 cities but lacks a comprehensive SDG-11 assessment.

International indices such as Mercer’s and the Economist’s Resilient Cities Index offer insights but miss Indian ground realities. The absence of a focused SDG-11 index hinders policymakers from identifying genuinely safe, sustainable, and inclusive cities, creating a policy-research gap.

To bridge this gap and supplement the indices used by NITI Aayog with a more comprehensive set of indices, our latest research constructs four distinct indices — one for each pillar of SDG-11 wherein we ranked 10 major cities (Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Surat) based on performance across select indicators for each index. Nine indicators were used for safety, 19 for inclusivity, and 15 for resilience and sustainability indexes. The parameters used for defining the indicators were borrowed from the United Nations’ definitions of the same in the urban context. Data was sourced from a wide range of datasets such as Census 2011, Road Transport Yearbook, Indian Forest Survey, National Crime Research Bureau, Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Family Health Survey-5, Reserve Bank of India, India Meteorological Department’s Climatological Tables, and Ola Mobility Institute’s Ease of Moving Index 2022. We employed a novel method known as the Shannon Entropy Weighting technique (borrowed from Multi-Criteria Decision-Making modelling) to generate weights for the indices as it provides a more objective approach to weighting.

The results provide key insights into SDG-11 implementation across cities. Among the 10 major cities analysed, Ahmedabad ranked first in inclusivity, while Jaipur ranked the lowest. Bengaluru appeared to be the safest city, whereas Kolkata ranked lowest in safety. Surat led in sustainability, while Kolkata lagged behind. In terms of climate resilience, Chennai ranked first, while Jaipur was the least resilient. A comparison with NITI Aayog’s SDG-11 rankings showed that cities tagged as front-runners and performers fared poorly in our indices.

Variations in the inclusivity index reflect disparities in social and economic participation, emphasising the need for equitable access to opportunities in urban planning and broadening the idea of inclusivity. Differences in safety rankings suggest that while some cities benefit from vigorous law enforcement, others require better crime prevention and urban safety strategies. Sustainability rankings reveal uneven progress in environmental planning, waste management, and pollution control, stressing the need for comprehensive sustainability policies. Disparities in resilience highlight gaps in disaster preparedness and recovery. Notably, the Annual Survey of Indian City Systems 2023 by Janaagraha reported that only 16 cities had a ‘city sustainability plan’, while 17 had ‘city resilience strategies’. This indicates significant gaps in the groundwork needed for SDG-11 to make substantial progress in India.

The road ahead

India’s urban future is at a crossroads. Cities must establish better mechanisms for tracking SDG-11 at the urban local body (ULB) level. While some States and Union Territories have adopted district-level monitoring frameworks, urban local bodies must follow suit. Integrated Command and Control Centres, developed under the Smart Cities Mission, should be leveraged to collect real-time data and enhance urban planning and development processes. Additionally, as almost a third of urban residents are poor, addressing their needs is critical. India still relies on Census 2011 data, leading to severe underestimation of urban poverty. A periodic Urban Poor Quality of Living Survey at the State level is necessary to bridge this gap.

Each city (small and large) faces unique challenges, requiring localised governance, better planning, and city-specific strategies. Addressing these differences through data-backed, city-specific policies is crucial for a more equitable urban future.

Alok Kumar Mishra, Professor, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad; Pavan Kumar Thimmavajjala, Research Associate, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad