A new report titled Urban India 2011: Evidence seeks to contribute to building a strong and inclusive knowledge foundation for India’s urban transition.
It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of India’s urban areas and settlements and the underlying trends, pulling together available evidence from national surveys, the Census of India remote sensing data on urban spatial dynamics, published and grey literature.
The report features analyses of the following areas: urban dynamics, economic geography, migration, urban poverty and livelihoods, social safety nets, urban infrastructure and services, and urban finance.
The picture created is far removed from the lived reality of urban India, and the aggregate summaries may be at odds with the varied circumstances that policymakers, entrepreneurs and civil society face as they seek to intervene in the urban transition.
However, the report places these experiences in their broader context and provides some basis for a shared understanding of the underlying trends behind the everyday and individual observations of how India, and its urban areas, are evolving.
Urban India 2011: Evidence was created as a briefing document for panelists participating at the India Urban Conference policy dialogue in Delhi 22 November 2011.
About the India Urban Conference
The India Urban Conference (IUC) is a series of events designed to raise the salience of urban challenges and opportunities in the ongoing debate on India’s development. It seeks to create a platform for research and dialogue among practitioners, academics, and citizens to identify priorities for policy, research, and action by all stakeholders in India’s urban transition.
The series is convened by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD), and the South Asian Studies Council at Yale University, in collaboration with Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of Urban Development of the Government of India.
IUC events in 2011 included an academic conference in New Haven, Connecticut, USA; an ideas forum and discussion of emerging evidence and research in Mysore; a policy conference in Delhi; and a national student challenge seeking innovative proposals for urban solutions.
