Urbanization beyond municipal boundaries: nurturing metropolitan economies and connecting peri-urban areas in India

The report is organized into three
chapters: chapter two looks at the pace and patterns of
India's urbanization, providing a 100-year perspective
on demographic shifts and a 20-year perspective on the
spatial distribution of jobs across India's portfolio
of settlements. The review is based on a careful, spatially
detailed analysis of data from economic and demographic
censuses, annual surveys of industry, national sample
surveys, and special surveys of freight transport. This
chapter provides diagnostics on whether Indian industry is
adequately exploiting agglomeration economies and whether
there are hints of specific barriers to the natural tendency
of standardized industry to reshuffle from large
metropolitan areas to smaller urban areas. Chapter three
examines specific policy issues and investment bottlenecks
that are curbing the pace and benefits of urbanization in
India. The policy issues relate to land markets and housing,
connectivity (within and between cities), and access to
basic services. The purpose of this analysis is to unravel
the specific distortions that may be preventing India from
reaping the entire range of benefits of urbanization.
Chapter four provides some options for policy reform,
distilling lessons from relevant international experience.
It provides options for establishing the 'rules of the
game' that can define the workings of land and property
markets as well as coordination of land use and
infrastructure in cities. This chapter also provides a
framework for policy makers to identify the role of
regulatory and price reform in expanding infrastructure
services and to make investments that enhance capacity.