The Government of India (GoI), under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), had organised a national competition for the establishment of National Institutes for Urban Development/Management across the country. After consideration of proposals from various States, the GoI approved the establishment of National Institute for Urban Management (NIUM) in Hyderabad, and committed support under national programmes.
Consequent the above development, the State Government established the National Institute of Urban Management (NIUM) at Hyderabad in 2013. The institution is registered under the Societies Registration Act 2001 (Act 35 of 2001) of the then State Government on 29.07.2013 vide Reg. No. 567 of 2013. The process of institutionalizing and operationalizing NIUM was further strengthened vide G.O. Ms. No. 508 of MA&UD, dated 27.12.2013.
NIUM aspires to evolve into an autonomous institution of excellence specialising in the broad domains of urban development, management, governance, finance, poverty and policy. It aims to be an apex think-tank and action research institute in the urban sector, with the overriding objectives of extending technical assistance and capacity building support to Government Departments and other stakeholders at the National, State and Urban Local Body levels. The key objectives of NIUM include: conducting quality research, undertaking demand driven stakeholders’ training, providing context-specific consultancy services, and advocating policy reforms on urban sector issues. NIUM does not depend on grants from the State Government; its business model is based on earning own revenues as a think tank and capacity building catalyst, working in partnership with other institutions of excellence. NIUM has established partnerships with the Centre for Good Governance and University of Hyderabad (Land, Housing, Transport and Urban Economics Programme).
The following are the six Centres of Excellence (CoE) in NIUM:
1. Centre for Urban Governance
2. Centre for Urban Infrastructure and Finance
3. Centre for Regional & Transportation Planning
4. Centre for Housing & Urban Poverty
5. Centre for Municipal e-Governance and
6. Centre for Urban Disaster Management