Indian cities are at high risk India is one of the more vulnerable and high-risk countries in the world. Disaster loss is rising every year with grave consequences for the survival, dignity and livelihood of individuals, particularly the poor, and poses a severe setback to hard-won development gains. Growing concentrations of people, built and economic assets in cities is exponentially increasing their propensity to disaster risk. While disasters are known to compound vulnerabilities, with increasing densities in cities and access to services and resources becoming more contested, people's vulnerability to disasters is growing, making it a vicious cycle. Despite proven correlation between changing climate and increasing frequencies and intensities of hazards, the level of preparedness for such events, particularly in developing countries like India, is still very low. With limited resources available to direct towards planning and resilience building, developing economies like India end up prioritising rehabilitation and rescue in the face of an event. Lack of data, access to technology and lack of technical and institutional capacities exacerbates this situation further. By 2011, 468 cities in India had population higher than 1 lakh. 76% of the Indian population is exposed to high-tomedium hazard risk, of which nearly 30% live in these onelakh-plus cities. Many of these urban centres are exposed to multiple hazards, especially earthquake, cyclone, storm surge, drought, floods and fires. The impact is often exacerbated due to multiple hazards occurring together and further aggravated by the growing socioeconomic and climatic vulnerabilities. Additionally, the low perception of risk leads to even greater destruction due to a lack of riskreduction practices. Public expenditure for relief on account of natural disasters can be taxing on the budgeted social sector expenses in successive years, which makes preparedness and mitigation even more pertinent.