Fifteen urban hubs can propel India's growth. We must unlock this potential

Indian Express

3 days ago

Cities are the engines of India's future growth, innovation and job creation. Just 15 urban hubs contribute 30 per cent of India's GDP. These 15 cities — Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Coimbatore, Noida/Greater Noida, Kochi, Gurugram, Vishakhapatnam, and Nagpur — will drive India's ability to become a $30+ trillion economy by 2047, facilitating an extra 1.5 per cent growth. Yet they do not get their due. These cities face numerous issues like extreme air pollution, urban flooding, water scarcity, lack of reliable internet connectivity, garbage, and slums. These are a direct reflection of how these cities expanded without proper planning or strong urban governance. Additionally, they also remain unprepared for the climate crisis.
While cities like Bangkok, London, Dubai, and Singapore attract millions worldwide, Indian cities rarely feature as global destinations. How can we unlock their full potential?
We must clean our cities' air. Approximately 42 of the 50 most polluted cities are in India. Vehicular emissions, construction dust and biomass burning are primary culprits. Public transport must be electrified at the earliest opportunity. Construction dust norms need to be implemented strictly. Budget 2025-26 announced the creation of a Rs 1 lakh crore Urban Challenge Fund — this can include a city-level grand challenge. Cities should be ranked and financial incentives disbursed based on performance.
Solid waste management must be transformed. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), our cities produce upwards of 1,50,000 tonnes of solid waste daily, yet only a quarter is processed scientifically and sustainably. At the national level, India is estimated to generate about 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste yearly, of which about 70 per cent is collected but only 30 per cent is processed. This is a failure of municipal governance. To fix it, state governments must build strong infrastructure — including purchasing vehicles for waste collection and transport — and train staff to handle these tasks effectively. Clear policies and regulations that promote performance-based accountability are key. Ultimately, better regulation, community involvement, and capacity-building is the only way to transform waste management into a sustainable, circular system — one that experts say could unlock as much as $73.5 trillion annually by 2030.
Indore's model has shown immense promise. Door-to-door segregated waste is transported in specialised vehicles to world-class waste processing plants. Wet waste is processed into bio-CNG.
Water stress is an urgent challenge. Nearly half of our rivers are polluted. In 2018, NITI Aayog predicted that 40 per cent of India's population would face water scarcity by 2030. Cities lose 40-50 per cent of piped water in transmission, and poor water quality worsens health issues. In Indore, sewage leakages into water bodies were plugged, leveraging GIS technology. Rainwater harvesting and reuse of treated water have turned Indore into India's first water-plus city.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Knight Frank estimate a shortfall of 10 million affordable homes, expected to triple to 31 million by 2030. Informal settlements have proliferated, resulting in illegal colonies with inadequate infrastructure support, including water and sanitation. Increasing floor space index (FSI) and floor area ratio (FAR) growth will promote vertical growth. Density-related incentives are a potential solution too, as highlighted by the G20 India and OECD report on 'Financing Cities of Tomorrow'.
India's urban potential remains trapped behind congested and overburdened city environments. According to the Boston Consulting Group, the average Indian city dweller spends 1.5-2 hours daily stuck in traffic. Congestion also boosts emissions and pollution. To address this, we must prioritise investing in public transport. Implementing congestion-based pricing and harnessing AI and IoT for smart traffic management can also optimise flows. And roads will only be free of traffic if citizens follow rules and drive responsibly.
While cities like Seoul, Singapore and Hong Kong offer internet speeds exceeding 1 Gbps, India's average mobile internet speed is just around 100 Mbps. To attract top global companies, multinational corporations setting up innovation centres, global capability centres (GCCs), and R&D hubs, India needs to dramatically upgrade its
digital infrastructure.
To do this, we need to expand high-speed broadband, 4G, and 5G across cities and rural areas. This requires cutting spectrum prices to attract investment, building extensive fibre-optic networks, and deploying 5G nationally.
Effective urban reform depends on decentralised planning, governance, and financing. NITI Aayog reports that India has just one planner for every 1,00,000 people, while developed nations have one for every 5,000-10,000. Most Indian cities lack proper master plans. Full implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment must happen — along with increasing property tax collection, which is less than 0.2 per cent of GDP. Digitising land records, using tech for surveillance and tax collection, and exploring land value capture (LVC) can help cities generate revenue. Once cities can raise their own revenues, they can tap into municipal bond markets — though only after completing planning and governance reforms.
Our cities carry centuries of history and should be world-class economic and cultural magnets. The steps outlined will make our cities cleaner, safer, more productive, and accessible. This must be paired with investments in walkable heritage zones and seamless urban experiences — which the government enables, and the private sector creates.
The next decade is beyond a doubt an 'urban decade', and these 15 cities must drive India's urban renaissance.
The writer was India's G20 sherpa and CEO of NITI Aayog