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URBANISATION IS THE KEY TO INDIA’S FUTURE

  • Unique Paper ID: 166721
  • Volume: 11
  • Issue: 2
  • PageNo: 1992-1996
  • Abstract:
  • Our cities occupy just 3% of the nation’s land, but their contribution to the GDP is a whopping 60%. India is swiftly moving forward for becoming half urban in a couple of decades. This would bring enormous opportunities of economic growth and global competitiveness. Efforts must be channelised to ensure preparedness of the nation to manage such a massive urban transition and save our cities from the clutches of unplanned urbanization and unregulated construction activities. Our urban planning machinery has not grown at the pace of the demands posed by urbanisation and global technological advancements. Urbanisation is one of the most critical domains of research and knowledge production in the 21st century. India’s urban transition alone will see 600 million people living in urban areas by 2031. There is no doubt that urbanisation is transforming India socially, politically, economically and ecologically—as is the case in much of the Global South. It is not only its empirical importance that makes urbanisation the foundation of a new knowledge paradigm; it is equally its inherently interdisciplinary nature. The urban crosses disciplinary boundaries and practice domains repeatedly and at all scales. Urban local bodies face a massive shortage of skilled and trained human resources as well as financial challenges. Furthermore, poor quality of planning is a huge limiting factor to realize the true economic potentials of urbanization. Over the years, the country has witnessed the expansion of cities based on car-centric planning. However, the future of urban mobility and urban living needs to evolve on the back of public transportation. The cities need to be very compact and adopt a circular economy system to minimize their negative impacts on the environment. A global city like Singapore was raised through firm political leadership, a professional approach, and intelligently created capacities. Therefore, it is not just important to enhance the number of urban planners in India but to also ensure a simultaneous improvement in the quality of planning. Of the 7933 towns that are accounted as urban, almost half have a status of census towns and they continue to be governed as rural entities. With business as usual, the country may become a haven for unplanned urbanization. This needs planning interventions at a massive scale, which could be fostered by private sector companies through their problemsolving capacities and efficiencies. However, currently the ecosystem for the development of private sector companies and start-ups in this domain is not robust enough to meet the needs. If the country has to witness a quantum leap in its planning capacities, the private sector companies need to be nourished and developed-to provide innovative solutions to the public sector and good quality jobs to the future urban professionals. On the front of the education system of urban planning, a lot needs to be done to ensure that future planners are equipped with all the technological prowess and multi-disciplinary expertise to pave the socio-economic progress of the cities as well as the upcoming rural settlements. India is the second largest urban system in the world with almost 11% of the total global urban population living in Indian cities. In absolute numbers, the urban population in India is more than highly urbanised countries/regions across the globe. The country has reached a turning point in its journey of its economic transformation wherein half of the country would be ‘urban’ in a few decades. Urban growth is expected to contribute to 73% of the total population increase by 2036 (MoHFW, 2019). Over the years, cities have expanded and become burdened by the stresses and strains of unplanned urbanization, the brunt of which is faced by the poor and the marginalised, the biodiversity and the economy. In fact, Covid-19 revealed the dire need for planning and management of our cities, with an emphasis on the health of citizens. Issues like lack of availability of serviced land, traffic congestion, pressure on basic infrastructure, extreme air pollution, urban flooding, water scarcity and droughts are not merely a reflection of infrastructural shortcomings in the cities. These issues indicate a deep and substantial lack of adequate urban planning and governance frameworks.
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Cite This Article

  • ISSN: 2349-6002
  • Volume: 11
  • Issue: 2
  • PageNo: 1992-1996

URBANISATION IS THE KEY TO INDIA’S FUTURE

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