India urban expansion

Businessworld
Gurbir Singh
In 2008, for the first time the world’s urban population outstripped that of rural areas. In India, more than half the population will be concentrated in urban areas by 2041, estimates the World Bank. Says Junaid Ahmed, World Bank’s sector manager-urban for South Asia: "Urbanisation also boosts rural economies. As people migrate to cities, fewer people depend on land for a living."

The cities in the developed world have grown to a plan over centuries; but those in the emerging economies have exploded in the past two decades, proving to be a nightmare for city planners. Mumbai’s inner city boasts a population of 34,000 people per sq. km. Compare this to London’s 7,800 or New York’s 15,000 per sq. km. It is a pressure cooker existence in most Indian cities.

A 75-city index, developed by the ‘Mastercard Centers of Commerce’ last year, included only three Indian cities, and that too fairly low on the index. Mumbai was at 48th position, New Delhi at 61 and Bangalore at 66. London topped the chart. Within India, Mumbai, despite all its slums and traffic snarls, is still No.1 for its efficient work ethic, good power supply, and supportive industrial backup.

Another optimistic indicator is the strong performance of some of the tier-II ‘emerging’ cities. “Ahmedabad, Baroda and Visakhapatnam show a consistent performance on all indices,” says Amit Kapoor, chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness India. With cheaper real estate and affordable living standards, these will be the magnets of the future, even as migration to big cities has begun to plateau.