By Soumyadip Chattopadhyay, Arjun Kumar* Twenty-first Century India is urbanizing at a massive scale. The country is expected to house half of its population in urban areas by the year 2040. Cities, especially the larger ones, have been placed at the centre of the economic growth strategies. However, the increasing pace of urbanisation in India has not been matched by adequate planning, governance and infrastructure development. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have further exposed the shortcomings of Indian cities in addressing urban densification and inadequate provision of urban basic services including drinking water and sanitation. This pandemic has affected the urban poor more than anyone else. The engines of our economic growth have been derailed due to massive disruption in economic and related activities inflicted by this pandemic. Given the predominance of informal production and labour relations in the Indian cities, a cessation of all economic activity is bound to have severe impacts on city dwellers’ livelihoods and earnings. Many survey reports highlighted the economic hardship and humiliations the migrants and the urban poor have faced.