 "Urbanisation in India different, remains a challenge: experts")
With growing urbanisation, businesses are supposed to become formal and organised, but India is bucking this trend, experts said at the launch of a book on urbanisation.
"With very rapid urbanisation, degree of informality is not falling as fast as expected. The nature of urbanisation is linked to falling nature of informality (of business). Why is that this is not coming true?" said Ravi Kanbur, Professor of Economics at Cornell University and one of the editors of 'Urbanisation in India -- Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward' brought out by Sage Publications.
Isher Judge Ahluwalia, chairperson of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations or ICRIER, who co-edited the book, said ICRIER plans to hold regular conversations on urbanisation.
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"If we do not plan for it, we will have haphazard urbanisation, which does not take into account issues such as safety of women," Ahluwalia said to an audience which consisted of her husband and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, economist Subir Gokarn, Aadhaar project chief Nandan Nilekani and Chairman of DLF Limited, K P Singh.
Kanbur said formal businesses in India are moving out of cities whereas informal ones are staying put.
Kamal Nath, minister for urban development, said the number of laws governing a city pose one of the major hurdles in any kind of planned urbanisation. "Enforcement becomes difficult. Delhi has 1,600 unauthorised colonies. And only in Delhi I have heard of 'regularised, unauthorised colony'. The question becomes - how much do we regulate", said Nath.
The minister said focus of governance has to move from creating assets to delivery of services.