A hundred million more city dwellers by 2036, on present trends

At the National Urban Conclave in Bhubaneswar the ministry put the arithmetic on the record: 377 million urban Indians in 2011, about 500 million now, 600 million by 2036, and one in two by 2047.

What happened

• The second National Urban Conclave was inaugurated at Bhubaneswar on 24-25 October 2026, organised by MoHUA with the Government of Odisha, NIUA as knowledge partner and HUDCO and NBCC as principal sponsors, under the theme "Urban Rising - Rethinking Urban Systems, Solutions and Delivery".
• More than 1,200 participants attended, including urban development ministers, mayors and representatives of urban local bodies, development authorities, academia, industry and civil society.
• The Minister of State said urban population had grown from about 377 million in 2011 to around 500 million, is expected to reach 600 million by 2036, and that nearly one in two Indians would live in a city by the centenary of independence.
• He cited PMAY, AMRUT, the Swachh Bharat Mission, PM SVANidhi, DAY-NULM and the Smart Cities Mission as the foundation for the next phase.
• Odisha's Chief Minister cited a 500 billion dollar economy by 2036, Ama Bus expansion, electric buses and the Bhubaneswar-Kataka-Puri-Paradip Economic Region; the Chief Secretary cited Drink from Tap in 11 cities and piped water across 114 urban areas.

For Prelims

• The 74th Constitutional Amendment (1992) created municipalities as the third tier, with the Twelfth Schedule listing 18 functions that may be devolved - urban planning, water supply, roads, public health, slum improvement and more. Devolution of funds, functions and functionaries remains partial, which is the institutional gap behind every "delivery" conclave.
• Census definition of urban: statutory towns (notified municipalities) plus census towns, which qualify on three tests - population above 5,000, density above 400 per sq km, and at least 75 per cent of the male working population in non-agricultural work. Much of India's urban growth is in census towns that are governed as villages.
• The mission architecture: AMRUT (water and sewerage), PMAY-Urban (housing), Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (sanitation and solid waste), PM SVANidhi (street vendor credit under the Street Vendors Act 2014), DAY-NULM (urban livelihoods) and the Smart Cities Mission, which closed its project period with area-based development and Integrated Command and Control Centres.
• Municipal finance is the binding constraint: own revenue - property tax, user charges - funds a small share of municipal budgets, and municipal bonds remain rare. The Finance Commission grants to urban local bodies are tied to publishing audited accounts and notifying property tax floors.
• Metropolitan Planning Committees under Article 243ZE and District Planning Committees under 243ZD are constitutionally required for integrated planning but are not constituted or are inactive in most States - the reason transport, land use and water are planned by separate parastatals.
• Urban mobility instruments: the National Urban Transport Policy 2006, PM-eBus Sewa for electric bus procurement on a gross cost contract model, the National Common Mobility Card, and metro rail policy requiring transit-oriented development and alternative analysis before sanction.
• Why 600 million by 2036 matters for policy: the increment is roughly the population of a mid-sized country added to Indian cities in a decade, and almost all of it will arrive in small and medium towns rather than the metros - which is where municipal capacity is weakest.
• Drink from Tap is Odisha's 24x7 pressurised potable supply programme, first at Puri; it is the standard Indian example of a city moving from intermittent to continuous water supply, which changes both service quality and non-revenue water management.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS2.2 · GS2.10 · Linkage L2