To Fix India's Urban Crisis, DK Shivakumar Proposes Focus On Urban Planning Education

Karnataka Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar advocated for a new urban planning undergraduate course at VTU to combat India's growing urban crisis.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar (PHOTO: IANS)

At a time when cities across India are grappling with haphazard growth, strained infrastructure, and recurring civic failures, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has proposed a long-term institutional fix: build better planners.

In a letter to the Vice Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Shivakumar has recommended the introduction of an undergraduate course in urban town planning at the Government Sri Krishnarajendra Silver Jubilee Technological Institute, Bengaluru. The move, he says, is aimed at producing a generation of professionals equipped to design and manage India’s fast-growing urban spaces.

In view of Karnataka’s growing need for sustainable urban development, I have written to the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of VTU requesting the Introduction of an Undergraduate Course in Urban Town Planning at the Government Sri Krishnarajendra Silver Jubilee Technological Institute,… pic.twitter.com/i7iy8zgsS8

— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) July 23, 2025

“This step will help build a new generation of professionals who will play a vital role in planning, shaping, and building the cities of tomorrow,” he wrote in a post sharing the letter on social media.

The proposal signals a shift in how policymakers are beginning to think about urban crises, not just as infrastructure deficits, but as a consequence of poor institutional capacity and lack of specialised training. Shivakumar’s push for formal planning education links India’s urban future to the need for long-term human capital investment.

Urban planning remains one of the most underdeveloped fields in India’s education system, even as cities face mounting challenges from density, climate change, and housing demand. Shivakumar’s initiative suggests that cities cannot be made more livable through quick fixes alone but through professional planners who understand how to align design, policy, and people.

By rooting the solution in education, not just engineering, Shivakumar has opened up a critical conversation: that fixing India’s urban future may depend less on pouring more concrete and more on producing minds that know where and how to build.