This chapter, being the introduction of the volume, deals with a critical outlining of the term ‘built environment’ (in Sect. 1.1) and ‘public health’ (in Sect. 1.2). While the former is a term gaining relevance amongst the postcolonial urban scholars, the latter is an evolving concept for a long time and has had confusions and contradictions about the scope of this term itself. Merging with the two above, Section 1.3 technically addresses how the ‘public health’ matters become scholarly interventions and investigations for the ‘built environments’ in India. While Sects. 1.1 and 1.2 are highly theoretical, Section 1.3 reviews the policy aspects, particularly the evolution of the urban development policy, critically addressing public health since the independence of country. This section ends with a detailed provision of public health issues in the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) and the post-pandemic urban health plan framework—the Pandemic Preparedness and Emergency Response Framework (PPER), developed by the Niti Aayog. Section 1.4 gives chapter-wise highlights that offer the readers a glance at what the volume includes within its covers.