The edited book entitled “Rural and Urban Development in India: Issues and Challenges” is an attempt to bring together the views and opinions of a multidisciplinary group of experts from various disciplines. Using different methodologies, the first five chapters interrogate a wide range of issues including the impact of COVID 19 on the socio-economic life of the migrant workers and their response to the pandemic; evolution and growth of Jalpaiguri Town during the pre-independence period and determining factors controlling its growth; rural urban dynamics of the Public Distribution System in West Bengal; concept of Smart and Sustainable Cities (SSC) focusing on its objectives, dimensions and challenges; and present-day contradiction between human productivity and existence of life forms. The next four chapters deal with the economic, political and ideological processes that shape the urban spaces; concept of environment employed in the discourse of environmental thought; determinants of entrepreneurship aspirations among the members of SHGs in Bihar; and emerging agrarian structure in West Bengal in relation to the growth in non-farm sector and its implications on land. The final three chapters focuses on spatial pattern and gender disparity in literacy in West Bengal; plight of tea garden workers in North Bengal and comparative analysis of the nutritional status of children in West Bengal and India. About the Author: Dr. Neelee K. C. Lepcha is an Assistant Professor and Head in the Department of Geography, Kurseong College, Kurseong. She obtained her Honours Degree in Geography from Loreto College (presently Southfield College), Darjeeling and Master’s Degree from University of North Bengal. She completed her Ph.D. from the Department of Geography and Applied Geography, University of North Bengal in 2019. She is a life member of Geographical Society of the North-Eastern Hill Region, N.E.H.U., Shillong. Her first book entitled “Urbanisation and Level of Urban Development: Kurseong Municipality” published in 2021 focuses on the prospects and challenges on the development of her home town. Her second book entitled “Contemporary Issues in Rural and Urban Development: Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas,” published in 2022, unveils the diverse issues encompassing the developmental prospects and challenges in rural and urban areas of Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas. She has publications in numerous National and International Journals. Her areas of interest include Population and Urban Studies, Social and Environmental Geography.