Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tamil Nadu took the initiative to develop sustainable solutions for urban governance and entered into a MoU with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship & Democracy (JCCD) as knowledge partner.

Janaagraha has undertaken pioneering work in evangelising urban governance solutions in the Indian context and has been an advocate of an inclusive platform of industry, government and civil society players to address issues in urban India.

A workshop of corporate leaders and thought leaders in strategic, business and urban issues was organized on January 5-6, 2007 in Bangalore to explore new ways for the corporate sector to engage with urban governance. Attended by about leading 40 CEOs in Bangalore and chaired by C.K. Prahalad, the outcome of these deliberations is captured in this document, as the Bangalore Urban Declaration. A consensus emerging out of the urban conclave was that the path to improving our cities would take sustained effort and patience to take us through the stages of transformation – initiation, mobilisation and collaborative action to eventually result in sustainable change.

In September 2007, Chennai City Connect platform was launched. At the event, the first branch of Janaagraha outside Bangalore was officially launched in Chennai.  A MoU was signed between CII and Janaagraha on Knowledge Partnership on urban governance.