Urbanization is a major challenge facing most developing countries today.
This is especially true in India, where the urban population share is only about 33 percent, much lower than for other emerging market countries, for instance China (48 percent), Mexico (78 percent), South Korea (83 percent) and Brazil (87 percent).
Even so, when India’s economic growth accelerated to close to 8 percent per annum in the 2001-2011 decade, compared with 5.5 percent in the previous two decades, it led to a faster pace of urbanization and deficiencies in urban infrastructure and service delivery became very obvious.
Read more from OECD Development Center Dev Week:
● 5 takeaways from the OECD Global Forum on Development
● Economic growth and 'something else' to address inequality
● OECD welcomes UAE into group of top donors
● Education and skills: A road to development
● OECD-DAC donors mulling more aid to LICs
About the author
Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Isher Judge Ahluwalia is chair of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, where she also leads the Research and Capacity Building Program on Urbanization in India. Previously, she chaired the High-Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure and Services, and is currently a board member of the Urban Institute of India.
