The paper discusses the demand and supply aspects of urban infrastructure in India. While the demand for urban infrastructure is growing at a much faster rate, supply is more or less stagnant and lacks quality. The former is mostly due to the growing urban population along with rural-urban migration, whilst the latter is typically caused by the paucity of financial resources of the government. The author discusses the various methods to finance urban infrastructure in India, which are categorically grouped under budgetary and non-budgetary provisions. But at the end, the paper strongly suggests that public-private partnerships are the best method to finance urban infrastructure in India.

Infrastructure is often defined as `a basic system and services without which no economic activity can be undertaken in the society'. It is an asset to the economy that helps direct productive activities (Hrischman, 1958; Owen, 1964) and plays a key role in both economic growth and poverty alleviation (Suresh, 2006; Mathur, 2006; Sengupta, 1998; WDR, 2003; 1994). Iinstallation of infrastructure do not produce goods and services directly but provides essential ingredients for all other socioeconomic activities (Sanchez- Robles, 1998; Canning et al., 1994). It is a kind of investment, which promotes innovation in the subsequent stages of the economy (Youngson, 1967). Its development offers the foundation on which a country could seize and capitalize the opportunities ushered in by the liberalization, privatization and globalization era. It can be classified as rural as well as urban. While rural infrastructure plays a key role in rural development (Pradhan, 2006), urban infrastructure is a kingpin for urban development (Rao, 2006; Roy, 2006; Prakash, 2005). By urban infrastructure, we mean all the aspects which are necessary for the development of a city and generally useful for the manufacturing and service sectors. The components covered under urban infrastructure are roads, railways, ports, civil aviation, bridges, flyovers, bus terminus, communication, telecommunication, power, drainage, water supply and sewage, sanitation, housing, health, education, process of urbanization, shopping complexes, community centers, recreational centers and other public services

Public-Private Partnerships, Finance Urban Infrastructure ,financial resources,urban infrastructure, budgetary and non-budgetary, public-private partnerships, urban infrastructure, economic activity, economic growth,poverty alleviation.