Sponsoring Body

In 2008, a set of eminent Indians came together to establish IIHS as a national knowledge institution to prepare the ground for the country’s urban transformation over the 21st century. They came from all walks of life, different regions and with diverse experiences, to build a world-class interdisciplinary institution in the spirit of India’s great early-20th-century universities of national scale, stature and ambition.

They sought to create an institution for the common good and to address sustainable urbanisation, which is a critical long-term national development challenge, using a diverse pool of citizen and institutional contributions, just as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Visva-Bharati had done a century ago.

The vision of IIHS is closely aligned with the Government of India’s commitment to making India a knowledge leader in and from the Global South; and creating distinct interdisciplinary universities that are rooted in India-centric knowledge and realities, while having the necessary expertise to tackle difficult problems and find solutions to intractable issues that defy easy categorisation.

For over 15 years, IIHS has been committed to the task and has built a strong knowledge base with an interdisciplinary understanding around urbanisation and its challenges. It has achieved global recognition as a leading Indian urban knowledge institution and has global thought leaders in multiple fields, from sustainability and climate change to housing, poverty, and infrastructure.

IIHS has also delivered significant social and development impact by assisting the Government of India and various state governments with key policy and knowledge advisory, as well as on-the-ground knowledge and applied research, and technical support to national and state development programmes in land systems reform, housing, water and sanitation, and health infrastructure, among others.