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Urbanisation

Mobility and congestion in urban India

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Special purpose vehicles for smart cities: A question on governance

All 100 cities selected to become ‘smart cities’ under the Smart Cities Mission in India have Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) incorporated in them. In this note, Meenakshi Sinha posits that the SP...

  • Notes from the Field

Does it matter how we assess living standards in slums?

According to the 2011 Census, 17.4% of all urban households in India reside in slums. Analysing data from a household survey of slums in Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai, this column assesses living standa...

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How India’s internal borders inhibit migration

Indians, particularly men seeking education and jobs, display a puzzling reluctance to cross state borders. This article explores the reasons for this migration pattern. A major culprit is India’s s...

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One step forward, one step back? Ahmedabad's evolving urban policy

India’s urbanisation process has come to be characterised by haphazard growth of cities, the costs of which are borne disproportionately by the poor. This column analyses Ahmedabad’s urban policy...

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India on the move: The commuting worker

About 25 million workers in India commute daily for work, from rural to urban areas or vice versa, or have no fixed place of work. This column finds that rural households with at least one rural-to-u...

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Growing through cities in India

Do cities grow through specialisation or diversity? This column measures specialisation and diversity for the manufacturing and services sectors in India. It finds that Indian districts with a broade...

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A unique, informal banking system of rickshaw drivers in cities

Seasonal, rural migrants that drive rickshaws in cities have little or no access to formal financial institutions. Based on a survey of over 100 rickshaw drivers in Delhi, this article highlights a un...

  • Notes from the Field

What makes cities more competitive in India?

Policymakers in both developed and developing countries want to make cities more competitive, attract new entrepreneurs, boost economic growth, and promote job creation. This column shows that the two...

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India's spatial disparities: Have big cities become too congested?

A key driver of the Indian economy is its rapidly growing service sector. This column compares the spatial growth pattern of the sector in India and other countries. It is found that while in US and ...

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JNNURM and environmental sustainability

Can entrepreneurship be a vehicle for social mobility in India? This column analyses data from micro, small and medium enterprises, and finds clear and persistent caste and gender disparities in virtu...

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Electricity demand in urban Indian households: Influencing consumer behaviour

The huge and fast growing urban middle class of India uses a significant amount of electricity at their homes. This column argues that there is a need to focus on managing demand of electricity, and d...

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Is India's manufacturing sector moving out of cities?

While urbanisation is moving ahead at a rapid pace in India, industrialisation has slowed down. What explains this disconnect between urbanisation and infrastructure? This column presents results of a...

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JNNURM: An Opportunity for Environmentally Sustainable Urbanisation

This project undertakes an analysis of the sustainability of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the largest chunk of public sector funding channeled into urban India till da...

  • IGC Research on India

Public goods, location choice and the voting decisions of the urban poor

India is currently under-urbanised relative to its income level, leading to widespread expectations of large-scale rural-to-urban migration in coming years.

  • IGC Research on India

Recent Contributors

Pronab

Pronab Sen

IGC India

Rajeswari

Rajeswari Sengupta

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

Harsh

Harsh Vardhan

Bain and Company

Rishabh

Rishabh Mahendra

Copy Editor, I4I

Shweta

Shweta Gupta

University of Hyderabad

Ashok

Ashok Kotwal

Editor-in-Chief, Ideas for India; University of Br

E.

E. Somanathan

Indian Statistical Institute

Gurbachan

Gurbachan Singh

ISI, Delhi Centre

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Most Popular Urbanisation Posts

Seasonal migration and health in India: Constraints for research and practice

Seasonal migrants in India engage in temporary informal work in work environments that actively flout labour laws on wages, work hours, and living conditions. The most significant impact of this is on...

  • Notes from the Field

How India’s internal borders inhibit migration

Indians, particularly men seeking education and jobs, display a puzzling reluctance to cross state borders. This article explores the reasons for this migration pattern. A major culprit is India’s s...

  • Articles

Moving towards better definitions of 'urban' in India

According to the 2011 Census, 31% of the country is ‘urban’. Using definitions of urbanisation that are different from those used by the government, this column demonstrates that this figure may ...

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