This project takes up four cities on one hand, five sectors on the other hand, as case studies of the ongoing reconfiguration of decision making processes, which, when linked together, should allow for a vision that will be both wider in scope and more exact vis-à-vis urban governance. The diversity of the chosen sectors offers a number of cases which should help build as integrated an approach as possible. While the articulation of sectorial studies within a city should enable the assessment of the interconnection of sectorial policies (notably in areas such as public health), the comparison between cities ultimately aims at characterizing urban governance in Indian metropolises, its variants and its determining variables.

The cities that have been earmarked represent different types. New Delhi is one of its kind, both because it is the capital-city of India, and because it is a City-State (the Capital Region of Delhi has its own Assembly and government), marked by a unique political density. Mumbai and Kolkata, cradles of British colonization and therefore old municipal corporations, are today witnessing a considerable process of restructuration of their economic activities. Their Corporations respectively embody the two "municipal regimes" in force in Indian cities, i.e. the "Commissioner system", characterized by the preeminence of the administration over elected representatives, in Mumbai (this is the most prevalent system in India), and that of the "Mayor in Council", which reproduces, at the municipal level, the system of parliamentary cabinet, in Kolkata. Hyderabad is a new metropolis whose economic growth, administrative reforms (and political visibility) are closely linked with liberalization. Lastly all four cities are currently facing an important process of "satellitazation".