Navigating the rapid pace of Urbanization in India.

India is the biggest democracy in the world, which has taken giant strides in the last few
decades. Urbanization is one of the factors that has rapidly increased in the last few decades.
What is Urbanization? Urbanization refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas,
the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in
which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly the process by
which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and
working in central areas.
Urbanization in India mainly accelerated post-Independence. Population residing in urban
areas in India, 11.4% as per 1901 census which later increased to 28.53% by the 2001 census,
and is now currently 34% in 2017 according to The World Bank. According to a survey by
the United Nations in 2030 40.76% of the country's population is expected to reside in urban
areas.
One of the most complex challenges India faces today is the pace and pattern of urbanization.
For the first time since 1947, we added more people to our cities than to rural areas in the
decade ending 2011. More than nine million were added to urban India every year, between
2001 and 2011. This pace of urbanization is likely to continue, and it is estimated that 590
million people will start living in our cities by 2030, going up to 820 million by 2050. What
is, however, mind-boggling is that while it took about 100 years for the country's urban
population to increase from 10% to 28%, the move to 50% will take less than 40 years.
Urbanization is an integral part of the process of economic growth. It is important to
recognize that cities are the centers of economic growth, contributing as much as 60% of the
GDP. This is likely to go up to 70% by 2030. Hence, cities will be fundamental in realizing
India’s ambitions of becoming a $10 trillion economy by 2030.
India's rapid economic growth will be a fundamental shift in terms of a massive urban
transformation, possibly the largest national urban transformation of the 21st century. This
would pose unprecedented challenges to India's growing cities and towns in providing
housing and infrastructure (water, sewerage, transportation, etc.), and addressing slums. This
city-centric urbanization has led to serious problems of overstressed infrastructure. The
emerging urban transformation is a conundrum faced by planners, policymakers, and
administrators today. Promoting an efficient urbanization process in India will require a set of
policies that will deal with land policies and basic needs, connective infrastructure, and
specific interventions. India also needs well-managed cities with high-quality services. Water
supply and sanitation, urban transport, and urban drainage are key local services to ensure the
quality of living and sustained growth. Sustained energy supply and affordable serviced land
are services that are essential for the development of the economy.
For the effective and efficient urbanization, planning and development of smart cities,
preferably in a Public Private Partnership model in which basic infrastructure is provided by
government agencies, and development work is undertaken by private players: corridor
development agencies to be mandated for a tie-up with city planning and development
agencies, and, incentivization of manufacturing activity, not by fiscal incentives but by
specially empowered governance structures, which could give sovereign clearances for
undertaking the work of city planning and development at the local level.