Janaagraha's mission is to transform the quality of life in India's cities and towns.  Janaagraha works with citizens to catalyse active citizenship in city neighbourhoods and with governments to institute reforms to city governance. Civic learning, participation and reforms are Janaagraha's three major strands of work to accomplish its mission.

Janaagraha will use a multi-pronged approach to achieve this:
i) It will seek to inform policy and create incentives for revenue enhancement and improved accounting practices in cities
ii) It will engage with state governments and provide capacity support to cities to increase their revenues
iii) It will create public goods, data and platforms that drive better transparency and improved expenditure outcomes.