In June 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his bold Smart Cities Mission, an investment of Rs 980 billion to develop 100 cities across the country into intelligent, sustainable and resident-friendly communities.

Urbanisation is an inexorable process as far as India is concerned. The future of IndiaÆs growth lies in its cities and a large chunk of our gross domestic project (GDP) will come from urban centres. It goes without saying that our existing cities were never planned to deal with the exponential levels of population growth currently witnessed. What can be worse than witnessing civic resources being stretched beyond limits.

The $1billion US-based engineering and construction management company, Louis Berger, has been active in India for over 20 years. The New Jersey-based corporation is engaged in a slewof projects, including bridges, tunnels, roads, highways, railways, and transit, aviation and smart cities.

India's fragile and finite water resources are depleting, while the multi-sectoral needs of water from sustained economic growth (over 8 per cent) will further increase demand for water with supporting dynamics like increased energy and consumption.

Urbanisation is an inexorable process as far as India is concerned. The future of India's growth lies in its cities, and a large chunk of our GDP will come from urban centres.

Today, we live in a world of over 7 billion or 700 crore people. The world population is expected to reach the figure of 9 billion by 2042. Compare this with the world of 10,000 BC, or 12,000 years ago, just a wink of an eye in geological terms. The human race consisted of no more than 10 million or 1 crore souls then.

Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment capital of India. It is a city with high levels of accumulation and a concentration of economic activities and has complex spatial structures that are supported by transport systems. It is also seen as the financial capital of India and generates about 5 per cent of India´s GDP.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved new norms for issuance and listing of municipal bonds or Muni bonds on stock exchanges. The decision will help raise funds for infrastructure projects and the government´s smart cities initiative.

The industry estimates that falling crude oil prices, lower fuel subsidies along with recent diesel tax hikes could together add almost Rs 1.1 trillion to the Union Budget. And with the government planning to spend about $8 billion of that on infrastructure and manufacturing activities, the infrastructure sector is looking at a brighter year ahead.