Abstract

This policy brief examines India’s “hidden urbanisation”, where rapidly growing, economically urban settlements continue to be governed as rural, leading to fragmented planning, infrastructure challenges, and fiscal gaps. It identifies three systemic challenges: lack of real-time identification, absence of structured transition pathways, and weak multi-level coordination. The brief proposes a continuum-based framework that treats urbanisation as a managed process, supported by real-time data systems, tiered institutional architecture, and robust planning, finance, and capacity-building mechanisms. It outlines a 3–5 year implementation roadmap for national and state governments to enable smoother, equitable, and efficient transitions.