Introduction: Urban transformations, youth aspirations, and education in India 1. The ‘wall’: reflections on youth aspiration, education and social mobility in India 2. The limits of recovery: coming of age, aspirations and (im)mobility among displaced Pandit youth in Jammu 3. ‘Upgrading’ in precarious times: social mobility, skills and entrepreneurship among pastoralist youth in urbanising Gujarat 4. Shifting ruralities: a case study of higher education, tourism and youth in Banjar sub-district, Kullu, Himachal Pradesh 5. Land dispossession, aspirational asymmetries and dilemmas of the rural youth 6. Bounded aspirations and youth capacity: interrogating public higher education in North India 7. Caste, gig-economy, and youth: the resurgence of a new age caste politics in urban Gujarat 8. Fragmentation, diversity, and inequality: the city and everyday youth culture 9. “If not work, then what?”: work, ambition, and satisfaction among young women in urban India