On 14 September, while inaugurating the three-day conference on ‘Urban Transition in BRICS’ at Visakhapatnam, Minister of Urban Development and Housing And Urban Poverty Alleviation Venkaiah Naidu stated that the Indian political class is now more informed about the challenges faced by the urban sector.
In the same speech he also mentioned that India is the least urbanised BRICS member. While 86.5 percent of the population in Brazil live in urban areas; it is 72.6 percent in Russia, 61.7 percent in South Africa, 44.9 percent in China, and 30.1 percent in Indian.
He credited the new found public awareness to the projects taken by the central government to enable urban revival during the last two years. The Minister added that following comprehensive discussions with urban local bodies, State Governments and others, the central government is aiming for a 10-point strategy to bring in urban renaissance. These initiatives will ensure that, by 2050, India will be largely urban and will discard the ‘rural’ tag.1
New urban renaissance is the way forward for developing liveable places for people and achieving sustainable development goals, as India’s urban population is growing at a rapid pace and will double the present 377 million in next 15 years.
Naidu urged the other BRICS members to step up co-operation in addressing the challenges associated with urban transition— based on sharing of experiences and knowledge. He believes that the BRICS countries, given the size of the economies, need to jointly address urban challenges in order to drive global economic recovery.
- 1. Ref: India will shed its rural tag by 2050: Venkaiah Naidu, http://m.newindianexpress.com/news/709758