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India’s New Strategy for Urban Development: Enabling the Formation of Core
Competitiveness
Han Cheng1
1
Mater, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Univ. of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia,
5000. E-mail: chenghan1003@126.com

ABSTRACT
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India is the world’s largest democracy, which shows an important area power in the world.
Thus, India’s development has the potential to create a vast influence to the world. In 2006, the
Indian government declared the opening of its building industry in order to revive its economy
and to develop city construction in the competitive global economic situation. Foreign investors
are allowed to directly invest in real estate industry unconditionally. The Gujarat International
Finance Tec-City (GIFT) Project is invested and designed by cooperators from China.

INTRODUCTION
Since 2014, Prime Minister Modi (2016a) launches the Make in India policy for India’s
economy and urban development. The new strategy is a forward-looking policy, despite being
argued by different opinions, due to the new strategy having the ability to boom India’s
architecture industry and play an active promotional role to improve Indian cities’ core
competitiveness. Shenzhen is a well-developed and unique economic zone of China. According
to the successful developing experience of Shenzhen, some suggestions can help build the urban
transformation and core competitiveness of India.
In the research, I seek to come up with the innovation initiatives of the Indian urban
development. In addition, I aim to provide relevant policy suggestions in terms of the theory and
practice for the development of the Indian urban development.
One outcome of the research is to form an understanding of the development of Indian urban
development and policy, as well as to develop a theoretical basis for the Indian urban
development innovation guidance (see Figure 1).

METHODOLOGY
The research developed the theory and hypothesis for India’s urban development innovation
through theoretical paradigm and by deductive method. An analysis and study of the India’s
urban planning and Indian world-class innovation urban projects are conducted in order to
interpret the development of Indian urban transformation.

RESEARCH BACKGROUND
With the new strategy of Make in India, the government sets twenty-five sectors to outline
the strong development agenda, which was launched by Prime Minister Modi (2016b). Five out
of six industrial corridor projects run by the Indian government and are already under
construction. They are the Delhi-Mumbai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Vizag-Chennai, and Amritsar-
Kolkata industrial corridor projects, and the Bengaluru-Mumbai economic corridor project.
These projects commenced during the 2014-2015 Union Budget. The goal is to provide an
impetus to industrialization and planned urbanization.

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India’s New India’s Urban

Influence Strategy Benefit Development
mote
Lead to Pr o
East China
Gujarat
Influence Design Architectural
Core International
Design &
Competitiveness Finance Tec-
Research Institute
City (GIFT)
(ECADI)
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Learn

Build Sh e n Z h e n’ s
Successful
Experience
Figure 1. Conceptual framework by author.
In addition, the development of 100 Smart Cities has also been envisaged in the Union
Budget. These cities are being developed to integrate the new workforce that will power
manufacturing along the industrial corridors and to decongest India’s Urban Housing Scenario.
The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) is currently under construction and is located
between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in the Indian state of Gujarat. The GIFT is designed as a
hub for the global financial services sector. High quality physical infrastructure (electricity,
water, gas, district cooling, roads, telecoms and broadband) can be provided in Gujarat, so that
finance and tech firms have the ability to relocate their operations from Mumbai, Bangalore and
Gurgaon, where infrastructure is either inadequate or expensive. Therefore, a first trade global
smart city will be formed in the near future.

INNOVATION INITIATIVES OF THE NEW POLICY

Innovation of city planning concept: (1) Domestic Economy Condition in India. India is
the second most populous country all over the world. It contains the fourth largest army, the
eighth largest manufacturing industry and follows the United States in high-tech talent resources
(Gupta and Gupta 2008). This creates the impression of a rising India. However, India suffers
from a heavy population burden, an imbalanced industry structure, huge fiscal deficits, large gap
between rich and poor population, backwards infrastructure, government bank non-performing
assets, long-term existence of domestic caste system and religious contradictions, which make it
difficult to achieve the objective of economic development.
(2) Indian Urban Development Goals. The urban population of India will be increased from
400 million to 814 million by 2050. Many larger cities cannot withstand such a heavy burden
(Chakravarty 2014). The Indian Prime Minister, Modi (2016c), promised the following before
the election: 100 Smart Cities will be built before 2022, which will help alleviate the issue of
increasing urban population. Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan began with the first Smart City in
the country, namely the GIFT, which is developing gradually. The Indian government hopes that
the Smart City can provide a model for future development of other cities throughout India.
(3) Promotion of City Reputation. Economic activities within the city’s urban development
have a positive impact on the city’s reputation. India’s unique architectural forms and standards

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have developed in a diverse manner in the process of transformative urbanization. India is

developing rapidly following the election of a new government, which promised better economic
transformation. For example, the twenty-five departments on infrastructure manufacturing
industry announced the Make In India development strategy. The projects of industrial and
economic corridors are implemented to develop national power and further the economy. Also,
talents and advanced technology can be contributed to Indian industrialization development and
urbanization transformation through implementing the industry projects and 100 Smart Cities.
Cultivate world-class innovation projects: (1) Accuracy-Oriented Development Strategy.
Great city planning lies in innovation and pioneering. City planning should be an arrangement
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for regulating city development while facing new problems and contradiction within city
development.
In 2014, India placed new leaders in government and initiated a new development agenda.
India is now more willing to cooperate with eastern regions and countries, such as Japan and
Australia.
India is driven by the new policy of Make in India. $50 million is used for building 100
Smart Cities, with Japan investing $4.5 million at the initial stage. The Australian government
also wanted to join the plan. However, India is an elusive business partner and Australian
investors need to implement further in-depth understanding on local conditions due to its
political unpredictability.
Foreign investors hesitate due to elusive foreign protocol model, Indian internal culture and
political behavior, which cannot be easily understood. Total foreign investments in India were up
to $2.28 billion at October 2015, and are still increasing. Investment fields include the service
industry (18%), structure industry (10%), communications industry (7%), and IT and the
software market (6%).
(2) Drawing lessons from Foreign Experience. The East China Architectural Design &
Research Institute (ECADI) is one of the largest and most influential architectural and
engineering design firms in Shanghai, China (Simon et al. 2013). It is a progressive, award-
winning company that has completed more than 30,000 landmark design and consulting projects.
ECADI aims to align their company with a strategic partner that will strengthen their
international footprint. The intention is to share their passion for excellent design and desire, in
order to secure high-end market share. The projects of ECADI are located around the world in
places such as, Havelock City Complete in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Cairo Expo City in Egypt,
Viikki Synergy Building in Helsinki, and Pune Blue Ridge Complex in India.
It is evident, that ECADI have an influential reputation from their designs of five of the
world’s tallest buildings. These include: Wuhan Greenland Center (606m), Dalian Greenland
Center (518m), Shanghai World Financial Center (492m), Zifeng Mansion (450m), and Wuhan
Center (438m).
The Chinese company Cisco Systems invests up to 730 billion Rupees ($15.6 billion) in the
GIFT, which is presided over by chief minister of Gujarat. The construction of the GIFT’s two
29-storey economic towers is nearing completion.
(3) Developing World-Class Innovation Projects. World-class innovation projects indicate
long-term success and a high reputation among the globe. GIFT is a large-scale Shanghai-Dubai
style project driven by global economic development designed through India East Asia Alliance.
GIFT will become a financial center after completion, which can provide preference in tax and
other aspects, thus attracting banks, brokerages and other enterprises reside. The project has the
goal of competing with domestic financial center in India as well as foreign financial centers

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from Dubai, Singapore, etc. The concept can be better applied to other cities and regions through
the operation mode of the project GIFT. This will drive a long-term comprehensive development
of India in the future.

DISCUSSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

GIFT project is designed by ECADI. Although local Indian culture is integrated in the
design, the concepts of glass curtain walls and skyscrapers are similar to international standard
from the perspective of Indian architecture history development. If foreign design companies
such as ECADI can form cooperative relationships with local Indian building companies during
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the design process, traditional Indian architecture concepts can be maintained better in the future.
In 1978, China’s influential leader Xiaoping Deng initiated an open-door policy. Special
economic zones, like Shenzhen, were developed to boom the Chinese economy. At the time
Shenzhen was just a small town. Now, 33 years on, it is a booming trade hub and one of China’s
largest cities.
Shenzhen first became an SEZ in 1980 and was expected to attract investors from across the
globe. However, by the end of 1981, 91% of all foreign investment in the city came from
Shenzhen’s neighbor, Hong Kong. This was due to a lack of proper regulations concerning
wages, employment and the firing of employees. This was also due to foreign companies,
unfamiliar with Chinese business cultures, which were unwilling to take risks involved and
navigate the problems with red tape. Since 1982, the Chinese government sought to solve these
problems. As a result, Shenzhen attracted 14% ($4.3billion) of China’s total foreign investment
by 1992. It is now one of China’s most successful cities, and together these special economic
zones contributed over 8% GDP of China’s economy.
According to the successful experience of Shenzhen, three aspects could be achieved in the
city construction and development process in India from long-term perspective.
Firstly, the positive role of the government should be fully exerted in city development and
construction. A good investment environment can be created for foreign investors. Since
domestic capital cannot satisfy the needs of city development, a large number of foreign capitals
may be invested. Therefore, we must improve the government credibility and attract foreign
investors to invest. Meanwhile, a series of government support plans should be implemented,
examination and approval procedures should be simplified, working efficiency and service
quality should be improved and tax free zones should be set accordingly. This will improve
foreign capital to invest in India.
Secondly, diversified industrial economic structure should be developed, and solid economic
basis should be laid for urban development and construction. Currently, the development of
many domestic cities is dependent on local resources and the non-diversified economic
development industrial structure. This restricts construction and city development. Therefore, the
diversified industries of economic structure should be developed on the basis of strengthening its
own advantageous industry. Coordinated development of all industries can be promoted, and
domestic cities can co-operate to achieve rapid and sustainable development of a comprehensive
economy.
Thirdly, adjusted measures for advanced planning on the city according to local conditions
are implemented. Unique creative projects should be actively developed. Different plans should
be adopted according to the climate characteristics and natural geographical environments of
different cities. Natural elements should be protected and utilized. Bold innovation and advanced
ideas should be considered. Ideas determine solutions, although, ideas that cannot be realized

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seemingly at present can be acknowledged realistically in the future. This is on the basis of
correct concept and decision. In order to achieve these outcomes, traditional limitations should
be overlooked during construction and development.
To achieve and encourage innovation, it is advised that the government breakaway from
normality of traditional city planning, in order to implement new ideas. In turn, new innovation
mechanisms can create a positive social atmosphere for city development and construction.

CONCLUSIONS
Successful city development is dependent on the creation of unique city core
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competitiveness. City development should respect diversity and complexity characteristics of

cities. City construction should be promoted in stages, thus gradually reaching city ecological
integrity, service diversity, resource security, scientific management and sustainable
development.
The Indian Prime Minister proposes a new far-sighted and practical measure of changing
from utilization of natural resources to leveraging regional advantage, creating city core
competitiveness by first-class creative projects.

REFERENCES
Chakravarty, S.P.R. (2014). India in business preferred investment destination, New Delhi,
India.
Gupta, K.R. and Gupta, J.R. (2008). Indian Economy, Volume 1, Atlantic Publishers and
Distributors (P) LTD, Delhi, India.
Modi, N. (2014a). Make in India program: the investment strategy of India, Delhi, India.
Modi, N. (2014b). Make in India program: the investment strategy of India, Delhi, India.
Modi, N. (2014c). Make in India program: live projects, Delhi, India.
Simon, A., Lin, S. and Fabrizio, Z. (2013). “China special zones: China’s ‘Special Economic
Zones’ key to short-term growth.” Royal Economic Society’s Annual Conference, England,
1–8.

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