India has a young and rapidly growing population—a potential demographic dividend. But India needs thriving cities if that dividend is to pay out. New research estimates that cities could generate 70 percent of net new jobs created to 2030, produce around 70 percent of Indian GDP, and drive a near fourfold increase in per capita incomes across the nation.
Handled well, India can reap significant benefits from urbanization. MGI offers a range of recommendations, the vast majority of which India could implement within five to ten years. If India were to follow the recommendations, it could add 1 to 1.5 percent to annual GDP growth, bringing the economy near to the double-digit growth to which the government aspires.
Surging growth and employment in cities will be a powerful magnet. MGI projections show India’s urban population soaring from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million in 2030. And this urban expansion will happen at a speed quite unlike anything India has seen before. It took India nearly 40 years (between 1971 and 2008) for the urban population to rise by nearly 230 million. It will take only half the time to add the next 250 million.
India has the potential to unlock many new growth markets in its cities, many of them not traditionally associated with India, including infrastructure, transportation, healthcare, education, and recreation. MGI projects that, to meet urban demand, the economy will have to build between 700 million and 900 million square meters of residential and commercial space a year. In transportation, India needs to build 350 to 400 kilometers of metros and subways every year, more than 20 times the capacity-building of this type that India has achieved in the past decade. In addition, between 19,000 and 25,000 kilometers of road lanes would need to be built every year (including lanes for bus-based rapid transit systems), nearly equal to the road lanes constructed over the past decade.
Cities can also deliver a higher quality of life. Urban scale benefits mean the cost of delivering basic services is 30 to 40 percent cheaper in concentrated population centers than in sparsely populated areas. But to reap such benefits, India needs to meet an unprecedented policy challenge. If it fails to do so, this could seriously jeopardize its growth and risk high unemployment.
Although urban India has attracted investment on the back of strong growth, its cities are still failing to deliver even a basic standard of living for their residents after years of chronic underinvestment. Unless it steps up investment in its cities, India could well lose the productivity dividend of urban living. Today, in per capita terms, India's annual capital spending of $17 is only 14 percent of China’s $116 and less than 6 percent of New York's $292.
MGI estimates that India needs to invest $1.2 trillion just in capital expenditure in its cities over the next 20 years, equivalent to $134 per capita per year, almost eight times the level of spending today. If India taps into five sources of funding used in cities around the world—monetized land assets, higher property taxes, user charges that reflect costs, debt and public-private partnerships, and formula-based government funding—its largest cities could generate as much as 80 percent of the funding they require from internal sources.
When a foreign director makes a movie with Indian backdrop, the Indian’s chest usually puffs up with pride. But, what is this pride, all about? The slums, our poverty, our helplessness that the world encashes upon. Isn’t this a time when our people must opt for a better lifestyle, an efficient infrastructure and smart city planning that will meet the demands of a growing population.
Providing access to health care , drinking water, a reliable power supply, public transportation and hygienic sanitation facility. When this will transpire into reality , sustainable urban development will come into existence. According to a United Nations report, India’s population currently encompasses about 1.2 billion people and is expected to grow by another 300 million within the next couple of decades.
With cities generating two-thirds of the country’s economic output, an increasing number of Indians are leaving rural areas to seek employment in cities, relying on an efficient urban infrastructure. By 2030 it is predicted that 68 Indian cities will each have more than one million inhabitants, and six megacities, more than ten million each.
The rapid growth of cities causes a large number of challenges, including insufficient power supply, unreliable public transportation systems and limited access to adequate medical treatment. According to estimates, the Urban Development sector in India requires an investment of US$ 175 billion. A major part of it is for Urban Transport, Water & Sanitation.
While the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), launched by the Government of India, has considerably enhanced the accessibility of finance for urban infrastructure, there is a need for long-term urban governance reforms and a strong public-private-partnership to bring about widespread changes in the way our cities are governed and managed today.
We, at INNLive have brought forth the list of our concerns regarding a call for an urban awakening . We want to see a change this time, no excuse shall be entertained at any cost. Let’s come to1gether for a cause that needs us and our voice. After all, Its My India, My vote, it must count and It will count.
We are presenting our list while we are open to any suggestions from our readers, policy makers and experts:
CONSTRUCTING A COMPACT CITY: This necessarily means a high density, mixed land use and efficient public transport planning, which encourages pedestrian oriented habitation. It may be high-rise like Hong Kong or low rise as suggested by National Commission on Urbanization (NCU) of India. The main benefits of compact city are reduced dependency on private cars and preservation of greenery, optimum utilization of resources and enhanced management of the city, better waste disposable, sanitation, roads, connectivity, opportunity and so on.
MAKE SHORT TERM PLANS: The rationale behind it being that when long-term planning was done for urban areas, development didn't take place as per the plans. Even the population growth projected was very high compared to what was seen in reality, it was observed. Participants opined that the plans should be made more realistic in nature and hence should be of short term duration, of up to 10 years rather than the usual of 30-40 years. This will make the planning more effective and also the estimation of the situation a lot easier.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT LIES IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT: Apparently paradoxical but spot on. About 70 percent, or 700 million Indians, live in villages. Clearly, there is no possibility of urbanizing them by migrating them to the existing cities which are already bursting at the seams. All of the major cities are little more than mega-slums. Just about all Indian towns and cities are unplanned and unproductively use land and other resources.
They are debatably inadequate for the current residents, leave alone adding hundreds of millions more people to them. The existing urban centers would do with a massive makeover but we cannot afford that. So there is clearly a need to have new urban centers to accommodate the hundreds of millions of people who need to be in cities for economic growth and development. And that is the greatest opportunity that India provides to everyone–people rural and urban, firms domestic and foreign, governments, NGOs, multinational entities . . . the list goes on.
DEVELOP EMPLOYMENT AVENUES IN RURAL AREAS: Cities are pulsating hubs of economic and cultural commotion. Yet, urban enclaves in India are today virtually unlivable due to large-scale environmental abuse, high population density, poor infrastructure, and rampant corruption. At the time of Independence, barely 15% Indians lived in cities.
Now, urban centres hold 31% of India's people (roughly 377 million) of which around a quarter reside in the eight urban agglomerations of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. According to the 2011 census, there are 53 cities in India with a population of a million or more; by 2031, that number will rise to 87. With major cities bursting at the seams, long-term attention must be paid to developing employment avenues in rural areas and providing basic amenities to rural residents so that they aren't forced to seek shelter in urban centres for survival or advancement.
MAKE MASTERPLANS FOR ALL CITIES, TOWNS: With people's contribution, develop master plans with zoning laws for all cities and towns, taking into account future expansion. Ensure that these plans are meticulously implemented under close monitoring by designated committees of experts and local residents. The plans should include housing for economically weaker sections and employment centers along with green spaces, natural features and heritage sites.
RAIN WATER HARVESTING: Water cannot be created by humankind and hence every possible measure to preserve water is of utmost importance. There should be a law enforced with immediate effect for rain water harvesting. We must plan construction with techniques of rain water harvesting and preserving water. This would ensure environmental balance.
WASTE DISPOSABLE/ RECYCLING SYSTEM: There is a need to develop a waste disposable system. In fact, it could also be a business model. The government must encourage the companies to develop a waste management system. In this mechanism all the household waste and industrial waste can be segregated based upon their properties and recycling of the waste can be encouraged. This would ensure a cleaner habitat and also aid in improving the health and hygiene of the citizens.
HYGENIC SANITATION: Sanitation is one of the prevalent issues of our country today. There are so many households in our country today, devoid of the basic sanitation facility. Even the public places are devoid of hygienic sanitation. This is a very vital issue which affects the health and well being of our citizen. Even the women in our country are forced to go outdoors for the nature’s call, which is completely unhealthy. Hence, the sanitation must be a prime concern while we step towards urbanization.
CHECK CORRUPTION IN LOCAL BODIES:
Strengthen local bodies, give them more powers and financial thump but put in place comprehensive monitoring mechanisms to check embryonic corruption.
MAKE THE COMMUTE SHORTER, EASIER: Establish a modern public transport system in all cities and towns. Also develop transport linkages with suburbs. Decentralize workplaces to reduce commutes. Various alternatives like creating more flyovers, roads, even shuffling the office timings of different departments will ease up the traffic congestion and save lots of fuel and time. These are some of the concerns which we could think of and we are sure we must have missed out few alternatives which we want our readers to contribute in.
Urbanization Awakening is the need of the hour. If we want to march with the pace of the developed nation, we must not waste a single moment of time and work towards providing better facilities, infrastructure, opportunity and a better India. Only, then can we actually feel the pride when we see our Indian backdrop in any of the Hollywood movies! Let’s vote only for a better India, not for any party or person.
No comments:
Post a Comment