India in the urban revolution

In the past decade, India’s development has featured rapid economic growth and unprecedented urbanization. Using preliminary results from the 2011 Census and recent macro-economic data, this paper analyses the relationship between urbanization and economic development in India. While urbanization is very substantial in absolute terms, the rate of growth is low. Labor-intensive
industrialization, too, is slow and urbanization seems to derive primarily from natural increase and poverty-driven migration from rural areas. India’s major economic advances seem relatively isolated from the rest of the economy and this is reflected in the persistent dual and hybrid nature of India’s cities, the sustainability of which remains in question.