Discuss how successful India's urban development plans have been.
Discuss how successful India's urban development plans have been.
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Success of India's urban development plans -
Urbanization in India has been slower than in other developing countries. The 2001 census showed that India had only 28 percent urbanization. But now there is a possibility of this pace accelerating further. Economic reforms have opened the door to investment and development.
India has not paid much attention to urbanization in the past. However, by 2025, India is going to have 13 cities, each with more than 10 million people. The speed and scale of urbanization are such that pouring money into it as usual will not solve all the problems. Building more roads may temporarily relieve the dense population, but it will not provide any relief from the increasing environmental pollution. Providing more electricity and drinking water will not reduce the inherent inefficiency of distribution, erosion, and increasing kidnapping.
India has the largest rural population - 857 million, followed by China - 635 million.
However, the current Indian government has announced a plan for 100 SMART cities which will be implemented in the next few years.
The current urban India looks like a 'sprawl' - a collection of big and small cities of various forms. Perhaps India will continue on this sprawling model as it is associated with its 'federal' organisation.
As the urban population and its income increase, the demand for every major service like water, transport, sanitation, housing for low-income people etc. will increase - by a factor of five to seven. At the current rate, India will fall behind the ideal of building sustainable and developed cities.
A report shows that India's current expenditure on civic 'infrastructure' is US$17 per person, while the ideal is US$100. According to one estimate, the investment requirement in the next 20 years will be approximately $1 trillion.
By 2030, the urban population in India will reach nearly 1.4 billion. Among the states, Tamil Nadu is the most urbanized.
About a quarter of the urban population lives in slums. But contrary to popular belief, the number of slum dwellers has increased much slower than the general population growth in big cities. The reasons are:
(a) Increased displacement with the rise in real estate prices.
(b) Lack of employment in manufacturing.
(c) Inadequate public transport and housing.
(d) The attraction of leaving the countryside for the cities is generally limited to the skilled and educated.
The picture of China can also be compared, because China is urbanizing so rapidly:
In the big cities (over 10 million people), Indians outnumber Chinese by almost twice. This is because,
(a) rural areas and small towns are more industrialized;
(b) there is a ban on people leaving the countryside to come to the cities.
For example, take the Chinese province of Zhejiang - one of whose cities, Datang, produces one-third of the world's socks; Shengzhou produces three-quarters of the world's neckties (although the locals don't wear them); and another city, Yiwu, is the world's largest button producer.
Smaller places in India (one is Tirupur in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, where clothes are made); but there are not many such pictures.
Civil Services:
The 74th Amendment to the Constitution of India has addressed some aspects of civil governance and some measures have been taken in the JNNURM programme; however, there is a lot of hesitation in implementing it by some states.
In most cases (exceptions being BEST in Mumbai and recently the Jal Paribas Company in Nagpur) the municipalities/corporations function through their own departments; however, they are not given the power to raise taxes or borrow money and are continuously dependent on the state government. Their own income is so small that they cannot borrow from the market.
(a) The amount charged for municipal services in metropolitan cities is usually less than one-fourth of the cost;
(b) Service charges are kept very low due to political pressure and even that is not properly collected;
(c) Two-thirds of India's GDP and 80% of total taxes are generated in cities, yet the revenue of urban local bodies is less than 1% of GDP;
(d) Property prices in most cities and metropolitan cities are determined by outdated and bribery-ridden systems, depriving cities of the benefits of real estate appreciation.
Many national and state-level institutions in India have unused land. Housing can be provided to the general public easily and quickly by using mortgaged land and interest subsidies by independent professional bodies, outside political power but accountable to the governing body.
Smart cities and the rapid use of connectivity in ICT-enabled services such as e-health, e-education, e-communication, etc. will help reduce environmental pollution.
The total population of India (2014) is 1.27 billion; as of September 30, 2014, the total number of landlines in the country was 957.6 million and the number of mobile subscribers was 971 million. It is seen that the spread of mobile phones in developing countries will easily bring the use of information and communication technology (ICT) into the hands of citizens. Services will be easy through the use of mobile phones, which are used by both the rich and the poor. Apart from this, the Indian government has made arrangements to learn how to use computers in every school in the country since 2000; the students of those schools are now citizens with the right to vote. Along with this, the spread of 'broadband' in computer networks is increasing. Therefore, the use of computers in the use of ICT will also continue.
Apart from this, research has been done for the last at least twenty years in various universities in India, where there is an information technology department, on the use of mobile in the service of the people. State governments and municipalities can benefit from these studies at low cost.
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