This dissertation is about a new regime of governance in Chennai, India. It is my assertion that this regime emerges out of three interrelated processes: first, there is a changing relationship between the Indian state and private capital. Second, there has been a dramatic rethinking of the role of civil society for processes of governance. Third, despite the significance of new processes and new actors on the urban development stage, locally embedded social networks continue to be important for mediating access to political power in both the formal and informal spheres. The ways these processes overlap and interact are important for understanding people's differential access to the material and political spaces of the city in contemporary South Asia.