India's Urban Governance Crisis

India's cities are growing fast, with shiny new buildings and metro lines.

But at street level, things like bad air, broken roads, and overflowing drains are common.

The problem isn't a lack of money or big ideas.

It's that cities don't have the power to make important decisions.

State governments control most things, and city leaders don't have the tools they need.

This makes it hard to fix problems like bad roads or flooding.

Also, cities don't have good data about how many people live there, which makes planning difficult.

People get upset when things go wrong, but they don't always push for big changes.

To make cities better, India needs to give more power to city leaders, make sure cities have enough money, and hold leaders responsible for fixing problems.