Urmi has an interdisciplinary background and scholarship in architecture, planning and housing studies, combining qualitative, quantitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her research focuses on urban development, poverty and inequality, contestations over access to land and housing in cities of global south. In particular, she is interested in how citizens articulate their rights to the city and the prospects for its implementation. Her recent research includes design and politics of public space and related spatial and social consequences, user perceptions of built environments in post-disaster contexts, aesthetics, equity and social justice in cities and designing for walkable communities. Urmi is currently working on a manuscript ‘Decoding Kathmandu’, and has edited several books, including “Trends and issues in housing in Asia: Coming of an age, Routledge City Series (2018) with A Shaw, ‘Housing India: Programmes, Policies and Governance’, London: Routledge (2024) with A Shaw and D Kundu, ‘The Politics of Urban land in South Asia: Current Challenges and New Direction’, Routledge (2025) with Kenneth B Neilson. She has published in a wide range of journals and co-edited Special issues. She sits on the International Editorial Board of the International Journal of Housing Policy and Urban India (National Institute of Urban Affairs, Ministry of Urban Development, India). 

Urmi holds a PhD (Newcastle University), a MSc in Urban Planning (University of Hong Kong as an Asian Development Bank Fellow) and BArch (School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India). Urmi is a Reader and the Director of Education (Postgraduate Taught programmes) in the School of Natural and Built Environment (SNBE) since 2019. Previously, she also served as the Programme Director for MSc Urban and Rural Design.