Urban Policies in Neo-Liberal India

India, like several other Asian countries, has in recent decades experienced much change in urban governance. Economic liberalisation and de-centralisation measures adopted by all tiers of government—a consequence of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992—have resulted in a gradual with-drawal of the state and increased private sector participation in capital investment and urban services. It was sought to fill the institutional vacuum left by a retracting state with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector through new forms of urban governance. The empowerment of urban local bodies (ULBs)—i.e. local government units—through funds, functions and functionaries, as envisaged in the 74th CAA still remains a distant dream. In the post-reform period, the national five-year plans adopted an inclusive agenda and launched several programmes with private sector participation as “missions”—with clearly defined objectives, scopes, timelines, milestones, as well as measurable outcomes and service levels. Most such programmes, however, demonstrated a “big-city bias” and the exclusion of the small urban centres and the poor. The much-acclaimed Smart Cities Mission, for instance, mainly focuses on retrofitting parts of cities by engaging special purpose vehicles (SPVs), which are likely to further disempower the already weak ULBs. In light of these transformations, this chapter evaluates India’s post-liberalization urbanization scenario; current urban development programmes and system of governance; as well as ULBs to suggest a way forward for inclusive urbanization.