About the book

Between 2022 and 2047, India will transit from a lower-middle to an upper-middle urban economy. What strategic policy shifts will be necessary to ensure that this transition plays out productively is a major question that the author addresses in the opening paper.

This book—a collection of 20 papers authored by Om Prakash Mathur, a leading urban scholar, serves as a repository of insights into global and Indian urbanisation. It explores how it unfolds and establishes linkages with macroeconomic parameters. The author deliberates on questions such as: are these linkages in line with the tenets of the growing economy that India is? Has the 74th Constitutional amendment, aimed at restructuring urban governance and finance, yielded the expected results? Furthermore, the author explores the challenges of uneven spatial development in major Asian economies. He advocates market-driven approaches to counter inequities, in place of the conventional methods of developing counter-magnets, growth centres, and small cities. Simultaneously, he delves into the paradox of poverty and informality in the world’s mega economic hubs.

Supported by rigorous research and analytical frameworks, the book is an indispensable resource for academics, policy-makers and researchers.

Contents:

I. Urbanisation and Urban Sustainability 

1. India’s Urban Transition: Om Prakash Mathur and Ashley Jose

2. City-Size Distributions in a Quasi-Open Economy: The India Evidence

3. Impact of Globalisation on Cities and City-Related Policies in India

4. Regional and Urban Impacts of Foreign Direct Investment in India

5. Sustaining India’s Megacities

6. Whither India’s Urbanisation?

II. Regional Planning in National Development

7. Regional Development Planning and Management in Asia: A Retrospective and Prospective Review

8. A Third World View of Regional Planning

III. Governance and Local Government Finance

9. Governing Cities in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka: Facing up to the Challenges of Poverty and Globalisation

10. The Capital City of Delhi in India’s Federal Structure: Insights into its Governance and Financial Frameworks

11. Intergovernmental Transfers in Local Government Finance: A Survey of Concepts and Practices

12. India: Decentralisation and Municipal Finance

13. Innovations in Local Government Finance: Asian Perspectives

14. India: A Macro View of the Property Tax System and Insights into Delhi’s System

IV. Issues in Urban Research

15. Agriculture, Rural-Urban Balance, and Social Viability

16. The Role of Small Cities in National Development Re-examined

17. The Dual Challenge of Poverty and Mega-cities: An Assessment of Issues and Strategies

18. Managing the Urban Informal Sector: A New Challenge for Developing Countries

19. Who is in Charge of the City?: In Memory of K.C. Sivaramakrishnan

20. Responding to India’s Urban Challenge: A Research Agenda for the 1990s