Challenges of Urbanisation in India

In recent years there has been an increasing realisation that urbanisation is set to accelerate with India’s transition to faster economic growth, but there is still an inadequate understanding about the need to plan for urbanisation and for translating these plans into action. Only then can conditions be created on the ground which foster agglomeration economies, encourage employment and enterprise, and support the growth momentum in an inclusive and sustainable manner. There is also not enough appreciation of a fundamental reality of the Indian situation that the fortunes of the rural sector are also crucially linked to the way urbanisation proceeds, e.g., how agriculture can be an important part of a modern supply chain, how the quantity and quality of water available for agriculture are significantly affected by the process of urbanisation, etc.