Revival of Focus on Urbanisation in India

Introduction and Significance of Urban Areas

Urban
areas are often referred to as engines of inclusive economic growth. Currently, almost 30% of the population in
India is living in urban areas. Further, it is expected that India will add 300 million new urban
residents by 2050 and
hence needs to build climate-friendly and resilient cities to address the challenge of accommodating the needs of the
growing population. As per the first World Cities Report 2016- Urbanisation and Development: Emerging Futures
report by UN Habitat, urban areas in India are already contributing more than 60 per cent of the GDP. Hence, India
needs to ensure continued focus on terms of policy
on addressing the needs of rising urbanisation.

Challenges to Urbanisation
Even
though there has been universal acceptance and acknowledgment on the importance of urbanisation for economic
growth, still India has lagged behind in terms of urbanisation due to the following reasons:

Indecisiveness on the matters related to urbanisation in the post independence years.

Inadequate relevance given to urbanisation for achieving our socio-economic goals and development.
A weak policy approach towards urbanisation has also led to faulty implementation and ignorance.
Centralised approach in policies and initiatives related to urbanisation did not give states or cities much autonomy
and choice.
Delayed approval of projects caused implementation delays.

Such
an approach led to failure of one of the first dedicated policy towards
urbanisation Jawaharlal Nehru Urban
Renewal Mission (JNNURM). JNNURM was launched in 2005 but by the end of its existence in 2014, only 710

projects out of the 1630 sanctioned under JNNURM could be completed.

Change in Approach

The
government has now come up with many policies focussed on addressing challenges of rising urbanisation. For the
effective functioning of these policies and programmes, the government is bringing in following changes in its style of
working:

Objectivity
and transparency in selection of cities and allocation of central resources under new urban missions.
This is being done on the basis of urban population and the number of statutory urban local bodies in each State.
Bottom
up planning is being promoted to encourage more sense of sense of involvement in and ownership of new
schemes by city and State governments.
Timely
project and investment approvals are being accorded to ensure giving the states and cities sufficient time
for their implementation.
Citizen participation in urban planning and project prioritisation are now made mandatory.
Cities
are also being empowered by making them a part of the development. They
are being given a higher say in
the entire process.
Under
the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart Cities Mission, there
shall be a comprehensive assessment of infrastructure deficit before drawing up city-level action plans.
States
will not be allocated funds and projects in an arbitrary manner or on the basis of poor quality reports and
project analysis.
Online integrated single-window clearance for construction permits is being put in place to improve ease of doing
business.
Public-private partnerships are being encouraged in cities to address the financing needs.

Addressing Financing Problems

Earlier,
there was a major problem where project approvals were given in the last two quarters of the financial year.
This led to a hurried and unorganised manner of implementation. This not only led to delay in implementation of
projects but also let to cities and stated receiving inadequate funds.

Now
the government is making efforts to anticipate fund entitlements of each State and city-wise infrastructure deficits
in advance. The Ministry of Urban Development has also started approving investments for
the next three financial
years under AMRUT during this year. Such steps
enable city and State governments to realise mission targets by the

stipulated time through advance planning.

In
a latest shift of methodology, cities are now vying for credit rating to attract investment which proves useful for
urbanisation. Pune and Ahmedabad are ready to issue municipal bonds to raise funds. Post approval, release of funds is
also linked to progress of mandated governance reforms under the urban development missions.

Impact

As
a result of the above reform measures undertaken by the government in the area of policy related to urbanisation a lot
of positive changes have taken place.

Under
the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), construction of about 15 lakh affordable houses is being
financed as against only about 12.50 lakh during 10 years of UPA rule. Under AMRUT, 86 per cent of mission

investments stand approved.
Over
500 cities and towns have already become open defecation-free and Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Sikkim
have declared all cities and towns as
open defecation-free.
Financial
allocations are being made in a timely manner. Government has committed
Rs.50,000 crore under
AMRUT, Rs.48,000 crore for smart cities. Funds are also being allocated to individual households under the
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
Higher allocation for cities and more empowerment to states to spend more is aldo being experienced.

Connecting the dots

Discuss
why India has been lagging behind in tackling the preparing for urbanisation. Suggest what changes in
governance and policy implementation will help India in preparing for Urbanisation?