The chaotic and haphazard way India is moving raises several questions about our ability to manage the complexities involved in urban chang
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has recently formed a committee to draft India’s National Urban Policy. The move is in accordance with the requirements of the New Urban Agenda of UN Habitat, signed by 193 countries in Quito in October 2016.
This policy initiative is coming up a quarter of a century after two landmark events: the economic liberalisation of 1991; and political decentralisation of 1992, defining new institutional arrangements of urban governance through the 74th Constitution Amendment Act. Framing of the National Urban Policy thus offers a unique opportunity to reflect on how urbanisation had been unfolding in the post-liberalisation era, recalibrate the bearings and steer our urban transformation in a more efficient direction.
Time is running out.
Over the next 12 years, 18 Bangalores or 180 Bhubaneswars need to be built, to accommodate 145 million additional city dwellers between 2018 and 2030. And by 2050, the urban population would increase by 416 million – 50 million more than the population of the US and Canada combined.
With 14 Indian cities being ranked amongst the world’s 20 most polluted by a WHO report, ‘a business as usual approach’ towards urban management could be catastrophic.
That need not be. Urbanisation could potentially generate millions of jobs for the growing youth population. There are strong correlations between urbanisation and economic growth. Productivity increases when rural farmers become urban factory workers, ...
....