Urbanisation in India – UPSC GS1

• Increasing ‘Shelter’ for the urban poor.
• Provision of basic urban services such as ‘Education’, ‘Primary Health care’, ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’.
• Improving women’s access to ‘Basic Services’ and government facilities.
• Upgrading ‘Energy’ use and alternative
• ‘Transport’ systems.
• Reducing ‘Air Pollution’

Why cities are important?

1. To make GDP growth of 8 to 10 per cent per annum, which is necessary to improve economic conditions in India and remove/ reduce poverty within a short period, this can only be driven by industry and services sectors, which can grow much faster than agriculture.
2. After having grown at close to 4 per cent per annum during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-08 to 2011-12), agricultural growth in India has slowed down to less than 2 per cent in more recent years. Undoubtedly, Indian agriculture can and should grow at 4 to 4.5 per cent per annum and, for this, we need to make large investments in research and development, soil and water management and agricultural extension. But rapid growth of GDP will have to be driven by non-agricultural sectors.
3. Structural transformation: Faster growth of industry and services leads to a decline in the share of agriculture in both GDP and employment.
4. By generating economies of agglomeration and by acting as centres of knowledge and innovation, they make investments in industry and services more productive.

1. Reduced vegetation in urban regions : Reduces the natural cooling effect from shade and evapotranspiration.
2. Properties of urban materials: Materials commonly used in urban areas for pavement and roofs, such as concrete and asphalt, have significantly different thermal bulk properties and surface radiative properties than the surrounding rural areas. This causes a change in the energy balance of the urban area, often leading to higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas.
3. Urban geometry: The height and spacing of buildings affects the amount of radiation received and emitted by urban infrastructure. The tall buildings within many urban areas provide multiple surfaces for the reflection and absorption of sunlight, increasing the efficiency with which urban areas are heated.
4. Weather: Certain conditions, such as clear skies and calm winds, can foster urban heat island formation.
5. Geographic location: Proximity to large water bodies and mountainous terrain can influence local wind patterns and urban heat island formation.
6. Human Activities : Air conditioning, manufacturing, transportation, fossil fuel combustion and other human activities discharge heat into urban environments.
7. Pollution : High levels of pollution in urban areas can also increase the UHI, as many forms of pollution change the radiative properties of the atmosphere.

1. Impaired air quality : Warmer air accelerates the formation of smog (ozone) from airborne pollutants like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. Elevated demand for cooling energy in the form of Air conditioning and Refrigerator use can also increase the emission of air pollutants and greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel power plants.
2. Impact on Health : Higher air temperatures and lower air quality can cause heat-related and respiratory illnesses,
3. Effect on Weather : It may also increase cloudiness and precipitation in the city, as a thermal circulation sets up between the city and surrounding region.
4. Impact on Plants and Forest : High temperatures may create disturbances on ornamental plants and urban forests.
5. Impact on water bodies : It may increase temperatures of urban water bodies which lead to a decrease in diversity in the water.

• Strategic importance for business: With growing concern of business and trade including raw materials; the places nearby sea became strategically important for urbanization. Bombay; madras; Calcutta are example.
• Development of railway: Arrival of railway fuelled to the urbanization process. Every railway station was formed as storehouse of raw materials and gradually it transformed into a urban area. Mirzapur; Zamalpur; Bareilly were examples of railway colonies.
• Administrative concern: New administrative buildings fortifying the status of British; quarters of officers called ” bungalow” were built spurring the urbanization process.
• Social disparity: The racial discrimination of British led to differentiate town planning with different building structures as they call the buildings of poor ” black pagoda”.
• Revenue concern: For revenue concern; British introduced municipal tax establishing municipal authority which initiated a new era of urbanisation.
• Cotton trade: Industrial revolution and American civil war helped increasing cotton production in India leading to many urban trade centres.
• Urban planning: For extension of trade and to collect data about social and economic status of people census was begun which was a new concern of urbanisation plan to distinguish people living in rural and urban areas.
• Emerging middle class: Growing demand was felt for clerks; peons and other officers which facilitated English educational institutions and communication was development for their daily arrival and departure from home to office or institutions.
• Entertainment: For entertainment purpose; theatre and clubs were established leading to growth of urbanisation with different towns.
• Sanity: For the concern of spreading diseases from rural to urban areas British took development initiatives in many backward areas.
• Climatic influence: Due to moderate and healthy climate British started building houses in hill stations like Himachal, Darjeeling etc.
• Defence: British built St George; fort William and choose hill areas for development process from defense purpose. Cantonments were established in several places.
• Civil lines: For development purposes British created civil lines clearing rural areas.
• Lifestyle: A new wealthy class emerged who built houses on British style in urban areas; organized different programs with drink and Western food for influencing the British officials that initiated another process of urbanization.

• economic institutions such as insurance and banking institutions.
• administrative institutions such as municipal bodies, various departments and their branches, adalats, police stations, various associations, civil society and NGOs headquarters and branches
• services such as education schools and societies, health care services in the form of hospitals and care centres, water and sanitation supply, proper transport mechanism and widespread communication and information technology penetration
• networking approach with all the above interlinking into a coordinated sphere.

• proper targeting of policies
• various programmes launched will be devoid of inclusivity
• wrong targeting results in inefficient results
• planning process gets hampered relating to urbanisation, industrialisation, setting up various institutions, various policies such as PURA
• building up of smart cities and digital India programmes can be affected

• Poverty: This section is extremely poor and doesn’t have even basic amenities like toilet facilities, as a result they use public places for their daily living
• Crime and Diseases: They are generally breeding ground for crime, delinquency and diseases
• Low human development index and illegal migrants: These areas have abysmally low human development levels as well as occupied by many illegal immigrants, which is often threat to safety and security of urban population.

• Unplanned Industrial development: The Urban areas are not planned in India, most of the industry have flourished in limited areas only. As a result, to many people have started living around limited habitable place.
• Migration: Due to very few urban places, there is a heavy migration happening in limited industrial places.
• Bad transport and Infrastructure: Due to slow and bad transport facilities, the clustered population can’t be spread in wider and open spaces
• Government policy and politics: Most of the Governments have turned a blind eye towards slum due to political gains, vote bank and unwillingness to put any effort rehabilitate the slum population.

• Economic centre: they are the hub of many small and micro urban industrial activities, e.g.. Dharavi leather market
• Labour force: These areas provide labour force for many manufacturing and other urban industries

1. Photo degradation of plastics : makes plastics small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms thereby entering the food chain.
2. floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT,
3. facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastic in one region and drift long distances to colonize other ecosystems.
4. On the macroscopic level, the physical size of the plastic kills fish, birds and turtles as the animals’ digestion cannot break down the plastic
5. toxic chemicals such as biphenyl A and polystyrene can leach into waters from some plastics.

1. Harmful for terrestrial animals as ingestion leads to chocking and death
2. Landfills pollutes the water sources and may clog drains leading to flooding by rain water
3. Acts as an adsorbent for various chemicals which further increase its toxicity

1. Using alternatives to plastics in packaging like tetra-packs etc.
2. Generating minimum plastic waste
3. Researching and clean up measures for Indian ocean and pacific ocean garbage paths like the 2012 5 gyres Asia pacific expedition
4. A global responsibility and initiative towards controlling the use and disposal of plastic wastes
5. Small steps in daily life to replace plastic items like carry bags etc. with other alternatives

1. Socially viable: It is very good step, because often a section of society think that bar, pubs, discos pollutes social environment. SEZ being localised geographically will solve this. It will also solve problems of noise pollution, traffics, crime, catching drugs racket, stopping rapes etc. because it will be easy to provide security to small area than dispersed over whole cities. It is to be allowed for all people not only for young people.
2. Culturally: India has always welcomed mixing of new culture and changed with time. But it also to be taken care that SEZ should not invite anti-national, pro-religion or violent videos/games activities in guise of fun.
3. Economically: It is much beneficial for providing new business opportunity, it will also bring creativity, world class theatres and facilities for which Indian’s go abroad.

1. Enough lighting on the roads.
2. Continuous patrol by security forces i.e. police
3. CCTV cameras spread throughout the cities.
4. Proper registration and regulation on city transport operators especially taxi and bus drivers, so that cases such as Delhi rape do not occur again.
5. Regularisation of slum areas and improvement in their condition.
6. Sensitization of youth towards women in general and towards good values in particular and special care for their education.
7. Community policing
8. Use of technology to connect public with security forces, such as distress signal app in smartphones.
9. Strict laws and severe punishment against crime perpetrators, so as to serve as effective deterrent against such crimes.
10. Economic uplifting of weaker sections of society, and reducing the gap between rich and poor i.e. inclusive development.