Twelve civil society organisations, research institutions and urban practitioners launched the Urban Reforms Collective (URC) on Monday in Mumbai to mark the 33rd anniversary of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, which granted constitutional status to urban local bodies.The collective is anchored by the Urban Collective Action Network (U-CAN). (LinkedIn/urban-collective-action-network-u-can)URC will act as a platform aimed at pushing policy reforms in Indian cities through coordinated advocacy and engagement.The organisations said the initiative was driven by a belief that many urban challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, overstretched service delivery systems and weak institutional capacity, stem from underlying policy and governance gaps that require systemic reforms.The founding members include Janaagraha, Praja Foundation, Shelter Associates, eGov Foundation, WRI India, Artha Global, Civis, INHAF Habitat Forum India, Oorvani Foundation, Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), Safetipin and SAATH Charitable Trust.The URC will focus on developing an actionable reform agenda, strengthening the ecosystem for long-term urban transformation and amplifying the importance of urban reforms in public and policy discourse. Specific reform priorities will be identified collectively by member organisations in the coming months.“Twenty-five years of working across Indian cities has taught us, at Janaagraha, that the challenges we each focus on, whether climate, inequality, or unplanned growth, are not separate problems but symptoms of the same broken city-systems,” said Srikanth Viswanathan, chief executive officer of Janaagraha.The collective is anchored by the Urban Collective Action Network (U-CAN), a network established in 2022 to strengthen urban problem-solving in emerging Indian cities.“The URC aims to solve for these barriers,” said Siddharth Pandit, chief executive officer of U-CAN, referring to challenges such as fragmented reform efforts, poor visibility of priorities, limited understanding of political constraints and a lack of coordinated learning across cities.The collective said it plans to engage with stakeholders at the Union, state and local levels to advance reforms aimed at improving urban governance, institutions and service delivery for city residents.