Urbanisation had begun decades ago in other countries. India had a long way to go to catch up with them, said B. Anand, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Urban Development, on the second day of the three-day BRICS Urbanisation Forum here on Thursday.

He said that urbanisation in Brazil was over 80 per cent. In Russia, it was 73 per cent and in China 56 per cent.

Compared to these countries, it was just 31 per cent in India, he added.

The idea of the forum was to understand how these countries handled the challenge of urbanisation and what were the best practices that India needed to adopt.

“We are in a transition phase and looking for a solution that would be inclusive and collective,” said Jagan Shah, Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs.

Summing up the day-two proceedings, Mr. Anand said that the focus was on Smart Cities. In India, there were 98 smart cities in the making. They include Amaravati, Kakinada, Tirupati, and Visakhapatnam.