India’s Urban Expansion by Yashraj Desai examines urban planning, infrastructure and the future growth of Indian cities, beginning with a stark image: the city is breathing, but it is not alive.
About India’s Urban Expansion
Desai describes a metropolitan dream turning into a suffocating reality of polluted skies, endless traffic, mounting waste and infrastructure that promises relief yet often adds to the chaos. What looks like growth from a distance can feel like decline from within. At the heart of the problem, he argues, is an urban expansion paradox in which each new flyover attracts more cars and each expansion multiplies the density it was meant to relieve.
Yet India’s Urban Expansion is not a book of despair. It sets out a roadmap for change and introduces the concept of the global readiness perimeter, a framework for understanding how Indian cities can move beyond reactive sprawl towards deliberate, future-ready planning.
Published under the India Penguin Enterprise imprint of Penguin Random House India, this 152-page book is scheduled for July 2026 with an India MRP of ₹599. It will interest urban planners, architects, policymakers, students and citizens concerned with how fast-growing cities across South Asia can remain liveable.
For readers who care about the future of cities, India’s Urban Expansion is a Coming Soon title worth following.
