India’s urban transition, a once-in-history phenomenon, has the potential to shift the country’s social, environmental, political, and economic trajectory. It could catalyze the end of calorie poverty if post-1989 China is an example. It could deepen democracy and human development, enabling more Indians to live better quality, healthier, and better-educated lives. It could enable the country’s transition to a less resource- Intensive development, with lower throughputs, footprints, and environmental impacts that could reshape global trends because of India’s demographic and economic size. But these are only aspirations. Hard evidence indicates that much work needs to be done to realize these opportunities over the next twenty to thirty years.

India’s urbanization will interact with the country’s ongoing demographic evolution to shape the extent of the “demographic dividend” as a young labor force moves into more or less productive employment with unknown opportunities for economic and social mobility. The process will help redefine India’s imagination as a country that lives primarily in its villages with limited movement across geographies. We will need to understand and deepen the linkages that enable small urban centers to become catalysts for rural non-farm employment, sites of opportunities, and a foundation for eliminating rural poverty and exclusion.